<SMALL>I consider myself pretty musical, and in general, can play a couple of songs in public on a new instrument within a couple of days. That is, when the notes you are looking for are always in the same place.</SMALL>
I recently started learning marimba, and was struck by how much easier it is when you only have one place to find each note. I grew up playing guitar and bass, where you can find a note at one place on each string. Pedal steel adds a new dimension to that.
For example, to play a C note on the 4th string E, we typically go to the 8th fret. But if we use the 3rd pedal (confusingly called the "C" pedal), the C note is at the 6th fret. If we raise the string half a step with "F" lever, C is at the 7th fret (sort of - actually you have to aim a bit high of the fret because of intonation issues). Finally, if we use the lever that lowers the E strings, our C note migrates to the 9th fret.
This complexity is what makes it so hard for pedal steel players to read music. Remember, what I described above is just for
one string. That C note is also available at several frets on each of the other strings.
Pedal steel instructional material tends to avoid this issue. We learn to play by learning scale and chord positions by rote.
But all is not lost. We have a sneeky advantage in that we can easily modulate by by moving the positions we've learned up and down the neck. A piano (or marimba
) player has to learn the D scale separately from the C scale. But once a pedal steel player knows how to play in C, he can simply move the bar two frets higher and play exactly the same thing.
I've seen piano players fall off their chairs when the singer says "can we do this in B instead?". For the average steeler, this is no problem at all. No alternate fingering (or sticking
) or tricky accidentals are required.
90% of pedal steel playing is major key stuff. Most steelers rarely play anything beyond that traditional mode. The scales and chord positions are movable, so we really only need to learn them once.
Many steel players don't even know the names of the chords they're playing. I can figure out the name if asked, but it's not in my consciousness when I'm playing. If you could read my mind you'd get "one, four, five, flat the 7th, two minor, five, one sixth, four ninth, three minor, five augmented" etc. In other words, we tend to see everything as
relative to the current key or chord, not as discreet, named notes.
Yes, the notes move around a lot, but the overall system is stable. Things stay exactly the same from one key to the next. That's the big secret to playing pedal steel. The notes change, but you only really have to learn them in one key.
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<font size="1"><img align=right src="
http://b0b.com/Hotb0b.gif" width="96 height="96">
Bobby Lee (a.k.a. b0b) - email:
quasar@b0b.com -
gigs -
CDs,
Open Hearts
Williams D-12
E9, C6add9, Sierra Olympic S-12 (
F Diatonic)
Sierra Laptop S-8 (
E6add9), Fender Stringmaster D-8 (
E13, C6 or A6)</font><font size="1" color="#8e236b"><p align="center">[This message was edited by b0b on 27 June 2005 at 04:32 PM.]</p></FONT>
My bud, Danny Cormier, sent word that he had one that I might be interested in, and I should come get it for the weekend to try it out. I did! 
<font size="1" color="#8e236b"><p align="center">[This message was edited by Charles Dempsey on 26 June 2005 at 08:59 PM.]</p></FONT>
