The Steel Guitar Forum

Hello Folks... I'm looking for a PSG self study course and there is a lot of material to be had but I can really only spend the money in one place. I'd say I'm on the lower side of Intermediate but dedicating regular daily practice time to PSG and it is my new year's goal to change focus from Standard Guitar to Pedal Steel. It was The Byrds' Sweetheart of the Rodeo that sparked my interest in Steel and naturally Lloyd Greene and Jaydee Maness are favorites and I'd say "Americana" is the route I plan on taking (some traditional country and some country rock.)

I pretty much had my sights set on Paul Franklin's beginner's course for $99 but came across a video of Jim Loessberg playing "Wine Me Up" with Jake Hooker and was knocked out to the point that I sought out more performances and info. I found Jim's website and he has study material available (some of his study material is also available through the Forum Store.)

I just saw a shout out for Doug Jernigan's course on the New Products section of the forum and I'm a fan of Doug's great work too. It looks like his study course is brand new and is a work in progress.

There is SO much study material and only certain amounts of time & money and if you could only recommend ONE Pedal Steel study course whether one of the three I mentioned or otherwise what would it be? Thanks for taking the time to read this and for any replies.

I would highly suggest checking out Travis Toy Tutorials (https://travis-toy-tutorials.teachable.com/). It's very competitively priced and a HUGE amount of stuff there, everything from beginner, intermediate and advanced. Travis is a really terrific teacher.

https://travis-toy-tutorials.teachable.com/
(Link without parentheses)

Hi Ray, congrats on taking the learning path!

Lots of choices out there these days, here's what Paul's courses are all about.

Paul's beginner course Foundations: E9 Pedal Steel Basics covers the technique basics on both hands: Picking, Blocking (and the personal choices you can make), and Bar control. These are the physical skills you need, just like you learned with standard guitar.

Paul explains the tuning, how it relates to the standard guitar, and how to approach it using intervals, the basis of the Nashville Number System. Likely you already know this stuff on standard guitar, just not where to find it on the pedal steel. Paul maps it all out.

He teaches what the pedals and levers do musically, so you'll learn what pressing any pedal or lever does to whatever strings are under your bar at the time.

Major, Minor, Dominant chords and the Harmonized Major Scale are covered, with applications using basic chord progressions.

The Foundations course is $99 for 12-months access (less than $9/month).

If you already have the basics down, and are looking more for "things to play" Applications: E9 Pedal Steel Toolbox will you get expanded technique lessons and more applications in the form of dozens of Intros and Licks in several styles, and an in-depth section on Backing A Singer.

Applications is also $99 for a year's access. If you start with Foundations and graduate to Applications, you get an extra year of access to the Foundations material as a bonus.

Any stand-alone $99 course Paul offers can be applied at any time to enrollment in his flagship course, The Paul Franklin Method. The Method contains everything in the $99 courses, (and includes the entire E9 Pedal Steel Vocabulary course), and has over 400 video lessons, TABs, practice tracks, backing tracks, PDFs and an invitation to access Paul directly on his private Facebook Group.

Hi Ray,

As a new pedal steel player, last year I signed up for Paul Franklin's Foundations course, and am happy that I chose this course to study. Paul's tutorials are easy to follow, and you can access them 24/7. Although not perfect, I think you can't go wrong enrolling in Pauls courses, especially for a very reasonable cost.
Since then I've moved on to Paul's Toolbox course but haven't done much there yet. I like the fact that I still can access the Foundations course to refresh my memory when needed.

Also, I think that maybe after studying one man's tutorials it would be great to study other players like Jim L., Doug J or Travis T. just to get an all around knowlege of these Pro players techniques.
.
Mickey Adams has done a bunch of youtube tutorial videos that you can access from the Steel Guitar Forum, also.
His videos are very well done!

I have tried all of these during the pandemic and right now I would also put my vote in for Travis Toy Tutorials. It has been the most helpful to me.

Thank you, Guys, the replies are much appreciated.

Hi Ray,

My two cents worth...

Paul and Doug were two at the top of my list when I was learning to play steel. One of the first non-Buddy Emmons albums I bought was Paul's "Just Pickin'" and proceeded to learn every note of it. I'm not saying I could execute it all well but I learned all the notes. I even decided to lower the C6th 2nd string a whole tone to be able to play his version of "All the Things You Are". Not too soon after that I got Doug's "Uptown to Country" LP. When I got more interested in jazz, it was Doug's version of "All the Things You Are" that taught me how to take a "Real Book" lead sheet and put the chords under the lead note. (It's a curious observation that the same song affected my learning in different ways.)

I can tell you that both guys' playing (aside from the instructional courses) are worth intensive study. Beyond that, I would tend to favor those two guys as teachers over myself and heartily recommend their courses. (Sorry, B0B, I hope this doesn't cost you any sales of my stuff!) I haven't heard any of Travis Toy's material but I hope to and I'm sure it's wonderful. It certainly seems highly regarded here.

My best,

Jim