The Steel Guitar Forum

is there some kind of magical move to do this! Do you take your foot off the pedals and include the D chord in the move? That is the only thing to do....right?

I know it seems like a silly question...but...I have to HEAR it from you guys. Fire at will. "Dave....you silly *^%*^%"

Dave

Maybe slide back to eight fret and lower the E's,is this what you're talking about. YOU BETCHA,DYK?BC.

Dave, at the 10th fret play strings 7,6 and 5 with both pedals down to get a E minor chord. EZ!

There's a G at the tenth fret with pedals AB depressed, strings 3,5,6 and there is an Em at the tenth fret with pedals BC depressed, strings 3,4,5,6.

I know about the 8th position Em and AB at the 10th...didn't know about the strings 765 though....Thanks!

I want to go from G to Em....and I want to go from AB to BC....no other way. So, I guess I HAVE to include a quick D chord between the G and Em.

Dave

Well, you could block the strings while passing through the D chord, so you don't hear it.

if you have a half raise on strings 1 & 7 that brings your F# to a G you would also have a Em on the 12th fret strings 1,4,5 or strings 5,7,8 with your half raise. also its always best to think of you C pedal as a minor pedal because all it really does is bring your 4th string up to a f# the same as your 1st & 7th string so from a open chord it will give you a 2m the next step in a scale. or if you are already in a closed position it will give you the 6m of the root you are setting on. so on the tenth fret in the open root of D it will give you a Em or 2m, on the same fret in the closed position your root being G then it will give you the Em as well or the 6th. the reason you have a E minor at the 8th fret is the rule applys here and makes it easy to remember" if you want to know the minor to your closed position for instance E is at the 7th fret move up one fret release pedals and lower your Es for the E minor now these teo dont work together its just a way to remember where your minors are. now one more thing that might help is you know when you push your A pedal in the open position B it brings you a C# again the C# is the 6th of the scale so its a C#minor if you want to remember. so of of course the 3rd fret 5th string open is a D note and A pedal brings that to a E you are in a open G chord pocket so that makes the 6m or E minor, also remember strings 4& 8 in the open position names your root, and strings 3&6 in the closed AB pedals down position also names your root. so in open its a E chord strings 4 & 8 are telling you that, and when both ab pedals are down strings 3 and six tells you that you are in A.

You would get the same pitches that you get at 10th fret AB - BC on strings 6,5,4,3 (G-B-D-G to G-B-E-G) by playing strings 7,6,5,4 at the 15th fret and going from open to A pedal -- that gives you that smooth move raising d to e.

If you don't need the d-e slide, you have an e at the 10th fret with AB pedals on the first string. Fret 10 with B&C pedals strings 6,5,4,3 (GBEG) is the same voicing as fret 10 with AB pedals strings 6,5,3,1.

There is also an Em at fret 13 with E and B lowers engaged -- the Em is found on strings 10,8,7,5,4,2,1 (B-E-G-B-E-E-G). That could give you some smoother moves from G at 10th fret as long as you can get from pedals to knees easily. The A on the open 6 & 3rd strings at fret 13 with E & B lowers works as an inflection of the chord -- 11th or sus or pentatonic whatever -- in some contexts. If those contexts don't happen to be the one you're playing in then slide up to the 15th fast and hit that A pedal before anyone notices.

You don't need to through D to go from G to Em on the tenth fret. Leave A and B down and stop playing strings 4 & 8, substituting 1 & 7. You could go through G+, raising your Es, but it makes an odd transition (try it and you'll hear why it rarely gets used despite its obviousness)

Another thing you can do is just play 4 & 5 and slide up to the 12th fret while letting off the A & B pedals. You see the pros do this a lot, John Hughey is the first I saw do it where I could figure out what he did. If you practice it, you should be able to get it to sound like string 5 doesn't move but string 4 moves up a whole tone. You can also then slide back down to the 10th fret while activating the B & C pedals which will allow you to add strings 3 & 6 if you want. These moves aren't easy, but nothing about this instrument is.

Dave, at the 10th fret play strings 7,6 and 5 with both pedals down to get a E minor chord. EZ!<<

Dave, also at fret 10 with both pedals down play strings 10, 7 and 6..you get the B note on string 10, the E note on string 7 and the G note on string 6..your E minor chord

Or wide voicing: 10, 6, & 1
I like, where it fits, that every interval a sixth.

Or you could always do it the old-fashioned way and work on blocking and VP technique until you can move your foot from A+B to B+C and back smoothly without any passing chords...

I was only using examples of where a em would be not by any means using anything I say as a passing chord to get to it, in case someone read into what I wrote wrong. as far as it goes you stay on G chord and let the bass player move to em yep thats done a lot

I get the impression you want to "bend" from 10th fret G to Em on the same string grip, without having to re-pick.

One of the nice uses for having a knee lever that lowers 3 & 6 to G is sliding smoothly from 10th fret, A & B pedals, to 12th fret, G lowers, no pedals, which does what Richard Sinkler said but with the full three-note G and Em. The G lowers have to be on a knee lever for the smooth move; if they're on a pedal you have the same problem as you get in going from AB to BC.

Alternatively, if you can do without the 3rd string in this change, if you have a lever that lowers 6 to F# and can tune the "split" with the B pedal to get G, you can go from 10th fret, A & B pedals, to 12th fret, B pedal and F# lever to get the full G to Em chord change on grips from strings 10-8-6-5-4.

With practice, those moves can sound just like pressing the A pedal from the no-pedals position.

Of course, I don't know if you're up for adding a lever, or changing the function of one you have now. But the G lowers and/or 6th F# lower are very useful changes in a number of ways.

If you have the F# lower, and if the question wasn't "where do I find Em" but was "how do I transition to Em?", hit 4,5,&6 with the A and B pedals down, release B, pause, then drop 6 a whole tone. You can either mute 4 or let it ring. You'll have a thirdless Em7.

That's exactly why I have E to F# on my vertical knee lever.

I like that idea, Bob. I kinda like my A# lever there, though. Possibly a right foot use of P9. Or 8 on my Zum.

One question pops to mind: since that would pretty much make the C pedal redundant, do you still have it, or did you put a different change there?

If you don't want to go G, D, Em, but don't want to repick or change strings, what about this sequence, at the 10th fret, strings 345 or 456:

A+B Down = G Chord
A+B Up, F lever = B7
B+C down = Em

The F lever 7th chord gives you time to move your foot. If you do this on strings 456, the top note does a nice chromatic walk.

Still has a passing chord, but the B7 makes you "hear" Em before you even get there, as opposed to the ambiguity of the D.

If all you want to do is go from pedals down G to pedals down Em at the 10th, it just takes practicing the maneuver.

As Jim and Dave stated, you have to block the strings.
I just went to my guitar to see how I do it, and that's what I do. I can do it quickly or slowly.

There are other things you can do as passing stuff, but it's pretty simple to go 10AB to 10BC with clean blocking if you work at it.

This is a very easy lick that I like to use to get from G to Em. Or any relative minor, really. The last minor chord can be played wherever you prefer.

If you lower your 2nd string to C#, use that instead of the 5th string. Then you can squeeze the C pedal on the 4th string to go from G to Em.

Jerry Overstreet wrote:If all you want to do is go from pedals down G to pedals down Em at the 10th, it just takes practicing the maneuver.

As Jim and Dave stated, you have to block the strings.
I just went to my guitar to see how I do it, and that's what I do. I can do it quickly or slowly.

There are other things you can do as passing stuff, but it's pretty simple to go 10AB to 10BC with clean blocking if you work at it.

But if you're blocking, that doesn't give a continuous gliss from G into Em. And if you don't block, AB to BC will have a hiccup. Naturally, many players do just fine without a continuous gliss for this move in that position, but if you want it...

b0b wrote:If you lower your 2nd string to C#, use that instead of the 5th string. Then you can squeeze the C pedal on the 4th string to go from G to Em.

Good one, b0b.

if you want a slide sound just go to the 6th fret strings 4&5 raise your E's and have your A pedal down, now slide up to the 8th fret while sliding release both A&F and keep on going over to your E lower time it out so when you get to the 8th fret you will have a slide G to a Em could also be used on strings 5&8 as well. or strings 5&6 with only A pedal down on the 6th fret is a G chord when you slide that up to the 8th fret no pedals its also a Em if the bass player or the rest of the band is in Em. if you want to continue that just go from 8th fret on to the 10th press your a&b pedals again thats still a Em if the rest of the band is in Em

My preferred way of doing that would be sliding up two frets and lowering string 6 a whole tone while leaving the b pedal down (letting off pedal A).

Gmaj- strings 6,5,4- fret 10 - pedals A & B
Emin- strings 6,5,4 -fret 12- pedal B & lower 6 a whole tone

Of course you can play strings 10 & 8 also to get different inversions for the chords.