Four String Group Training

[Gerd Kaindlstorfer]

Hello everybody. Im new in steel guitar playing an bought my first Steel string a week ago. I m practice the 4 string groups to find always the right strings. Sometimes it fits very well, but many times there is a "wrong" string . I tried the foru group strin practice in apreggios too. Is it "normal" that it takes more time to pcik always the right strings. How long was your experience that it worked well for you?

[Dom Franco]

Hello Gerd;
I use a thumb pick and 3 fingerpicks and I often use a 4 string grip.

However many times on my steel guitar and in my particular tuning it is not possible to find a 4 string grip for each song I am playing, so I have to settle for 2 or 3 strings on that particular chord...

As the music progresses no one seems to notice that there are not 4 notes being played on a few chords.

Dom Franco

[Justin Emmert]

It generally takes about a week to become comfortable with picking the 4 major string groups at a slow pace. Practice the 3 string groupings, but also mix it up with commonly used 2 string groupings- 3&5, 4&6, 5&8, 8&10. Don’t expect instant gratification. Improvement is a slow gradual process.

[J Fletcher]

It takes time . Go slow . Take some lessons .

[Tucker Jackson]

Yes, it will take a lot of practice for those grips to feel comfortable.

As a new player, I found that slightly adjusting the picks was very helpful in making my right hand feel more comfortable. Pay attention to how the strings feel under your fingerpicks as you hit the strings. Is one very smooth like sliding on ice, and another one 'stickier?' You may need to make very (very) small bends in one or both so that the fingers feel as similar to each other as you can make them. Or maybe one or all of your picks need to be pushed further onto your finger (or pulled a little off of your finger). Experiment to find the best position for each pick. This will take time and you may go around and round for a long time and come to a new conclusion every few months.

When I was starting out, I read some very helpful advice for new students that let them know much practice it would take to become a good overall player. It was something like, "The pedal steel is one of the hardest instruments to learn to play, so don't expect to learn it quickly. It will take you five years of practice to get up to the level of 'suck.'"

That's maybe an overstatement, but if you go into it understanding that it's difficult for everyone and you probably aren't going to be ready to gig in a month, you won't beat yourself up too much for struggling, especially in the early days. We all struggle. Just remember that it's also fun because you can make music right away, even if it's just bending one string in a slow, beautiful way. No other instrument has the tonal quality of a pedal steel.

[Andrew Goulet]

When I was recently getting used to a new copedent, I would put on a drone track (like a cello drone in G, you can find them on YouTube), and spend a solid pomdoro (25 minutes) simply going up through all the string group inversions on one fret, up and down over and over. I went slow. My goal was to never pick the wrong strings, in order to train my muscle memory. It's also good intonation training. It's not the most exciting exercise, but it can be very relaxing, and also worked very well to get me situated in the new tuning. I did this every day for about two weeks, and after that I felt that I was confident enough I didn't need the exercise anymore.

[Jon Voth]

I'm guessing the 1st post meant how to learn playing the same chord in four positions, and not using four fingers. (very slight language barrier perhaps).

Andrew Goulet reads it the right way?

Gerd am I right or wrong?

[Fred Treece]

I'm guessing the 1st post meant how to learn playing the same chord in four positions, and not using four fingers. (very slight language barrier perhaps).

Andrew Goulet reads it the right way?

Gerd am I right or wrong?

It could mean the four main 3-finger chord grips on E9 too - 10-8-6, 8-6-5, 6-5-4, and 5-4-3.

Whatever, it’s all hard at first. One week to get it down? I’m in my 230th week, and I still flub it here n there. Only another half year till I finally reach Suck.

[Dom Franco]

Yes I mis-read the post, partly because I am in the minority of steel guitarists who play with a thumb and 3 fingerpicks

[John Ely]

Gerd, there are lots of things you can do at the same time while you improve your accuracy at grabbing the 4 primary three-string groups. Just a few examples: Play through the 4 groups at 3rd fret, no pedals, which is G chord. Then press AB pedals and play through all 4 groups at the third fret, which is a C chord. Then practice this C chord by "squeezing into" the A pedal (with B pedal already down) into this C chord position, to start getting that important sound. All while diligently picking the 4 groups accurately... You could then practice hitting all 4 groups open (no pedals) accurately at 3rd fret accurately while simultaneously squeezing in just the A pedal (which is an Em or G6 chord at third fret). There are millions more things like this. When you feel comfortable with some of these things, add in a metronome (slowly at first) to work on your timing. Then find a drone track to play against to work on playing in tune while working on the string grabs. If this is too basic to have pointed out, I apologize, but there is SO much you can do along with the essential/fundamental string group practice. Good luck!