The Steel Guitar Forum

hi there,,, im sure this has come up somewhere before,,,
while practising and trying to train my ear to do more then hold my glasses up i have become a one string master,, i can play almost any song and follow any track,,,but its always on one string ,,while flying up and down the neck and some times my other fingers will join in,,,but its basicly playing one string,,,now my question is this ,,,is this just a phase im going thru on my way to green ville or am i getting into a bad habit,,i can almost antisapate what note is to be played next ,,,,,i cant block at all,,,i hope this is just something every body goes thru,,,if not what do i
do to get back on th right track,,,theres more but thats for another time ,,thanks for the help,,,ken

Ken, I would suggest learning your harmonized scales first. These would give you the best grounding for not only learning the scales and fretboard but also the chords that are related to the key you are playing in.

I'm on the way to work right now but maybe Dick Sexton (sp?) will pop in and give you a link to his harmonized scales.

And you are going to have to learn to block (palm or pick), playing the pedal steel without blocking would make it impossible to properly phrase passages.

Take care,

Keith

Thank you for the confidence Keith, appreciate it.

Hi, Ken... Look under Harmonized Scales here in my skydrive. Also check out the other things there...
https://skydrive.live.com/?cid=594320d13092d8fb

thank you for all the help,,,i can see now how all of will work together when done right ,,,,so much to learn and so little time,,,the sites you gave me were a tremdous help,,,now its gonna take practice and more practice, thanks again,,,ken

Wow Mr. Sexton , You must inform the community of your awesome site! And your awesome for referring us all to such a good source!
Many thanks

I just looked Dick's harmony scales. They are all valuable, but I suggest you start with this one

1_____________________________________________
2_____________________________________________
3_____________________________________________
4_3_3C_5C_8_10_10C_13F_15_13F_10C_10_8_5C_3C_3
5_3_3C_5C_8_10_10C_13__15_13__10C_10_8_5C_3C_3_
6_3_3B_5B_8_10_10B_13__15_13__10B_10_8_5B_3B_3_
7_____________________________________________
8_____________________________________________
9_____________________________________________
10____________________________________________

It sounds better (IMO) if you just pick strings 4 and 6

And, as an alternative to the D chord on fret 13 with the pedal up and the F lever, you can also alter the harmony by playing fret 15 with the B pedal and the Eb lever. Learn to do it both ways.

Your "one string pedal steel" brought back some fun memories of when I taught the theory of strings in physics lab in college. We used one string sonometers with moveable bridges, tension measurements, etc.

I was always playing 'Steel Guitar Rag' and other tunes by moving a bar up and down (at lightning speed) the no fret marked base board.

Thanx,
Jim