The Steel Guitar Forum

And with only the pedals. In other words with open E-9th I can play the first several measures of *San Antonio Rose* and I can play all of *Rock of Ages*.

Thanks in advance;

Sherman

I personally witnessed Julian Tharpe play the entire song, Danny Boy (Londonderry Aire) without a bar.


Phred

u need to lower the B for 1 chord, and lower the e s for the other one.
Try in the garder, There is a sweet sweet spirit in this place, amazing grace,many more.

ernie

I also heard Julian do Danny Boy in St. Louis years ago, so I went home and figured it out on my guitar. Thats the only song I've ever tried using just pedals and levers.

6.

On standard E9 you have a complete major scale from the 5th below the low root to the 9th above the high root, with minor 7ths. Depending on additional changes, some people have some accidentals. I raise my 1st string to G and G#, so I can go to the 3rd above the top root. You also have the relative minor scale from the 7th below the minor root to the 4th above the top root. For that matter, you have all the modes, but they are not centered between roots. There is a huge number of songs that could be played with all that.

I have to agree with David.When I have company and they see my PSG set up in my living room, they want to know what all the pedals and levers do.I show them by playing several songs with out moving the bar.If they play guitar, I let them try it out and show them how easy it is to play simple tunes. So far I've got two guys hooked.One already plays steel with his band, and the other one is still trying to convince his wife that he needs a steel.
But back to the original topic,I make every effort to play with as little bar movment as possible,and I've found many songs can be played with out moving the bar,but I use my levers as well as the pedals. PJ

but..

if you DO NOT use the bar..

is it still a STEEL Guitar ?

Bobbe Seymour recently spoke on the forum about a track that he recorded on his album Rhythmatic that was played entirely without using a bar. In this case he went even further.

One very interesting weird thing happend during the recording of, "Horns of a Delimma",,,,,,,, I had gotten up from the steel guitar to go to the restroom and when I came back the musicians had already started the intro to the song with the 24 track recorder on, I sat down to play and realized I had forgotten my bar in the rest room and I had no time to retreve it. The song was in the key of "A" so I just went to the C 6th neck and started playing the melody in harmonics, ( in the relative minor position,no picks either). When the song was completed, I yelled to the engineer, Hey, let me over dub this, I lost my bar!

The entire band and the engineer in harmony yelled "NO WAY", YOU"D NEVER DO IT THAT GOOD AGAIN"!! Well, that's the was it stands today, no bar, no picks and no knee levers or pedals, I pulled the strings in the keyhead for note changes, some say it was my best song on the project, ouch!

The end result is phenominal. Clever *********!

I play Cotten Eyed Joe in A without the bar first time around. I lower my 2nd string a half tone to get the note for the D part.

MIKE "MIGUEL" SMITH PLAYED "JESUS LOVES ME" ON AN ALBUM, JUST USING PEDALS & KNEE LEVERS. I BELIEVE THE ALBUM WAS "DREAMS OF INDIA."

Good thread! I play "Joy To The World" on E9th without the bar.

I play "Wreck of the Old 97" sometimes with no bar. And other tunes too. Something to do when you're bored and no one is around.

My favorite bra less song is Wildwood Flower!!

On my set up, any melody without too much range can be played without a bar. I have all 12 notes available in an octave and three quarters. Not much vibrato though.

Roger, I am pretty sure that Mike Smith used a bar on Jesus Loves Me. It's an incredible C6 version. Dreams Of India was re-released a short while back and it is awesome.

TC

On my E9th neck, I have every note except C on the open strings. It follows that I can play the melody to any song that doesn't have a C in it without using the bar.

Most C6th copedents are missing the middle D and F notes. I have them in mine, though, so I can play anything that doesn't dip below the low A string without using the bar.

Some of the harmonies are to be avoided.

I play How Great Thou Art without a bar.

b0b wrote:On my E9th neck, I have every note except C on the open strings. It follows that I can play the melody to any song that doesn't have a C in it without using the bar.

Well, that leaves out "You Belong To Me", doesn't it?

"C the pyramids along the Nile..."

People have commented that I often sound better when I don't use any of my strings either.

I play "Bewitched, Bothered & Bewildered" bar-less

bOb, if you're tuned basically to E9th, couldn't you get a C note on the 5th and 10th playing a half "A" pedal or using split tuning and playing the A pedal and Bb lever at the same time?
Or did I misunderstand?

Seems every note would be possible, of course with a limited range.

Bb......10th string Bb lever
B........10th string
C.........10th string half pedal
C#......10th string with A pedal
D.........9th string
D#.......8th string with Eb lever
E.........8th string
F.........8th string with F lever
F#.......7th string
G.........6th string with G lever or 7th string with G raise
G#.......6th string
A.........6th string with B pedal
A#/Bb....5th string with Bb lever
B.........5th string
C.........5th string half A pedal or split tuning with Bb lever
C#.......5th string with A pedal
D.........2nd string with D lever
D#.......2nd string
E.........4th string
F.........4th string with F lever
F#.......1st string
G.........1st string with half tone raise lever or 3rd string lower
G#.......3rd string
A.........3rd string with B pedal

Of course everyone's setup may not be exactly like this. This is one note shy of 2 octaves. It appears like a person could play of ton of single note melodies.

Ken

Jeff Newman had a great arrangement of the Johnny Paycheck number - Friend - which he arranged using a capo but no bar. It's a great number and fun to play. I don 't know if Fran still carries this item.

I can play a lot of songs without a bar.
It's when I go into a bar that I get in trouble.

Dan Haas wrote:I play How Great Thou Art without a bar.

I can play How Great Thou Art IN the bar.
In fact, keep setting them up and I'll continue to play How Great Thou Art until you can't recognise it any more.