Little Speed Picking Lick for E9 or C6

[Kristen King]

Here is a lick on E9 in the key of E. I have been using this lick for a number of years. The tab includes the same lick twice: one is with pedals and the other is without. G lever lowers the G# string to F#. If you don't have that change, then you can do the last three notes the same as in the non-pedal version. In the non-pedal version, there is an F# that can be done either with a slide on the G# string or it can be played on the F# string without moving the bar. I prefer the former but the latter is also an option. The non-pedal version uses the F#, G#, and B strings which are a 2nd and a b3rd apart and so this lick will work on non-pedal E9 or E13 tunings with those string groups and it also work on any tuning with string groups with those intervals. Most notably, this works on the G, A, and C strings in C6 as well as the equivalent E, F#, and A strings on A6 and it also works on the C#, D#, and F# strings if you play a B11 that is tuned C#D#F#AC#E.

[Sam Conomo]

Mice to see girls put their ideas forward.good onya.
Sam.

[Phillip Hermans]

Thanks for this tab! cool lick

[Bill Ferguson]

Thanks. How about posting a little video of you playing this lick.

[Kristen King]

Yeah, I can try to get a video at some point including the different variations.

[Roger Miller]

I guess I have been out of the loop, I ask why or what do you do with the F# from the G# string (3rd). I guess I need to research that move. If you could post a clip of that speed picking part, it would be nice. Thanks.

[Kristen King]

I'll get a video when I have the chance but basically the reason for using the lever is because I thought that it easier to use that lever to get two notes on the same string because otherwise you could pick the F# string instead but then you would be playing four consecutive strings (B, G#, F#, E) and that's a little less intuitive to pick and mute at higher speeds. Plus I like the sound of the lever bending the note since that's really a characteristic sound of the steel guitar obviously.

There is the option of slideling down a whole tone on the G# string instead of using the lever but the issue is that doesn't work if playing the lick in F at the first fret where you can't slide down a whole tone or when playing the lick on the open strings.

As far as general use of the G# -> F# lower, there are a lot of uses. The G lever plus the E lever allows you to change from a major chord to its relative dominant (ie E to B at the 12th position) and just using the the G lever allows you to get a sus2 chord and then releasing the lever raises back to the major chord. This is essentially the same thing as holding down the B pedal to get a sus2 and then pressing down the A pedal to bend up to a major chord which is arguably the single most defining chord bend of the steel guitar. It just gives you an additional way to do that change.

There are also a lot of things you can do by lowering the G# to F# and then raising it only halfway to G which allows you to do some work with minor chords, ie the E9 chord becomes an Em9 when lowering the G# string halfway to G. Using the knee lever to lower the string to G allows you to create a very bluesy b3rd to 3rd bend that exemplifies the blending of major and minor that is highly characteristic of the blues and music influenced by the blues. There are many ways that you can use the half change such as playing the intro lick to Folsom Prison Blues.

The half bend to G also allows for another voicing of an augmented chord if you combine it with the E lever to get GBD#. The augmented triad allows for a number if augmented chord and whole tone scaled based licks. I should note that I have a half stop on the G lever so lowering G# to G is very easy.

There are other uses but those are a few.