The Steel Guitar Forum

Can anybody point me to a thread that explains the chords and runs that the pedals give you on C6 or Uni. I have played E9 a while now but don't play country and would like to study before buying another steel!

Sonny Jenkins will send you a E9/B6 chord chart w/ Buddy Emmons' single note "pockets". Look in the "tablature" section. I found it very helpful. I would post a link but haven't figured out how to do it.

From Jeff Newman you can get a series of videos that really lays it out well. I think the website is still up. This is the absolute best and most complete introduction I've found. I'd offer to lend it to you. But it's currently out on loan.

This is actually, ummm, kinda a big question? One that takes a lifetime.... I find it useful to isolate a single melody, and learn to play it on as many different strings as possible. I.E, learn a lick at the bottom of the neck on strings 2-3-4, then figure up how to get it on 3-4-5, 4-5-6, 5-6-7 etc. Other people can tell you what pedals do till they and you are all blue in the face, but at some point you're tho one who has to hear it anyway.

Can you harmonize every single note in thirds, fourths, fifths & sixths yet, anywhere on the neck? Hmmmm. Helps to know three ways to do each, though there's probably about six ways. It might also be a good idea to learn to play a song or two that you like.....?

Reading & trying stuff you see here on the forum helps, write out your copedant and store one copy by the computer, another in your car, bed & bath etc. If you do happen upon the Single Big Secret that "unlocks the neck" as those selling stuff like to say, please let us know! Though we'll be disappointed to have wasted all those decades of work when there was just a Single Big Secret that's all we needed....

(EDIT: Oops Wait, you're asking how to play it, without even having one? My mistake. That's a tough one, for sure.... air steel? Visualization has limits. There's maybe two or four or eight thousand threads on the forum about "the chords and runs that the pedals give you on C6 or Uni", but if they can help you now, without a C6th steel to play them on, you're a very, very smart fellow. )

This is what it's supposed to sound like:

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_q ... steel&aq=f

Mark, I have been doing C6th courses for many years and have quite a few in my line. My most basic C6th covers quite a bit, starting with chords with the open tuning, each pedal and pedal combinations. It also contains, scales, runs and licks, intros, and 5 songs. One song Misty, uses all 5 floor pedals and 1 knee lever to show some of the things that can actually be done with the various pedals. This course consists of a book and CD. There is also a rhythm track on the CD for the songs and intros. This is listed on my web site at: herbywallace.com The course is called HWP-200.

Herby Wallace

I have both Herbys and Buddys C6th courses and you can't go wrong with either one........

Thanks for the advice guys. David hit it on the head, I don't have a C6 neck. My E9 copedent is already leaning toward a Uni and I was looking for a short cut to see what the other pedals will do. Then do I try to add pedals to my Sho Bud, buy a D10, or a 12 string Uni? Finding one in Scotland is not easy, my music room is tiny too.

I am using the virtual route for now. Writing out the notes with each pedal down and seeing which chord I get. Its long winded but I might learn better for that!

herby wallace has the best c6th course thats the way I learn the basic

Les Green wrote:I have both Herbys and Buddys C6th courses and you can't go wrong with either one........

Me too. Les is telling it right.

Sorry, I didn't mean to be a such smarta$$ - but you're going to have take the plunge eventually, to be a steel guitarist you need a steel guitar.... I got the Emmons, Wallace, Jernigan & Newman books, and Herbie Wallace's HWP200 and HWP201 were the ones that connected best for me.

It sounds like your choice is whether to get a uni or a D10, and there's been fur flyin' over that one for a few decades now. The uni is lighter, cheaper, and you only have to boggle your mind once, but the majority of great/famous/available steel guitar music has been played on either C6 or E9. After listening to a pile of steel guitar CD's, I bought a S10 C6th guitar because that was closest to the noises in my head.

If I were to go anywhere from this, I would probably buy a D10 and keep the C6th neck as primary, and rewire the E9th neck to... something that sounded even more like the noises in my head.* Somewhere - sometime - Paul Franklin explained why he prefers a D10 for musical reasons, and somewhere - sometime - Buddy Emmons said that if he had to do it again, he would've gone to an S12. And that wasn't any help, either, huh?

*(the voices told me so....)