Basic Steel Question...

[Bradley Beckstead]

This is my first post on this forum...what a great resource!

I'm an absolute beginner who is looking to add subtle lap and/or pedal steel parts to some of my recordings (country and rock).

Does anyone know where I can find tablature or transcriptions of familiar songs that feature subtle backing steel parts?

"Heart of Gold" by Neil Young comes to mind as a perfect example - I love the subtle steel work on that by Ben Keith, but as a beginner, I have NO idea what he is playing, which (if any) pedals he is using, etc...!

Does anyone know - or does anyone have a suggestion as to where I could find out?

Thanks!

Bradley

[John Steele]

Bradley, welcome to the forum. A great resource it certainly is.
There is a plethora of learning material in tab form (and other) out there, and lots of different suppliers. I get mine from Al Brisco at Steel Guitars of Canada.
On the net, this place right here is an excellent place to ask questions and make requests.
Perhaps the neatest thing is a site cooperatively run by two forumites, Rebel and Ricky. It has alot (alot!) of famiiar
pedal steel work from records with sound clips, and a great deal of matching tab.
It's great, and they deserve alot of credit for doing it:
http://users.interlinks.net/rebel/steel/steel.html
Have fun
-John <FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by Ricky Davis on 18 August 2000 at 01:42 AM.]</p></FONT>

[Bradley Beckstead]

John - Thanks so much for that website address! That's *exactly* the type of thing I was looking for...

Now if I may be so bold, I have what is probably a *really* dumb question... Remember - I'm an absolute beginner!

What do "a" and "b" stand for beside the fret numbers?

At this point, I'm not familiar with pedal/lap steel tab notation at all (obviously!).

And is there a way to tell just by looking at some tab whether a part was played on a pedal steel or just a lap steel?

Thanks again!

Bradley

[John Steele]

Hi Bradley... no problem ! We're all learning here.
The A's and B's designate pedals which are to be depressed while the note/chord is played. To generalize a bit (dangerous to do in here!) on the E9th pedal steel tuning,
there are 3 floor pedals... designated a,b, and c. There are usually at least a few knee levers too. Oftentimes to notate the levers in the tablature, people will write it's function (i.e. L=lower R= raise). Others give them letters/names.
If you see alot of A,B,C, R, L, etc in tablature, you're probably looking at tab for a pedal steel.
Two other things I meant to mention: Ricky Davis, the moderator of this section of the forum, is the guy that wrote the majority of that great tab. (neat, huh?)
There might be some non-pedal tab in there too, but I'm not sure.
And .. although I can't swear to this, I believe Ben Keith played a 60's model Emmons push pull S-10... if that matters. It's in the pic on the back of the "Harvest" album.
-John

[Lee Baucum]

Bradley - Back in the 1970's a fine pedal steel guitar player, by the name of Winnie Winston, published a fantastic book about the pedal steel guitar. I believe some of the dealers still offer it. It is a great book for the beginner, kind of a "bible" if you will. I believe Tom Bradshaw, in Califorina, still sells that book. If you can find it, get it.

Lee, from South Texas

[J Sigerson]

the Winnie Winston book is still in print; I just got it from Amazon a few weeks ago. It comes with a CD to keep you from veering too far off course.

I'd had another beginner's psg book before, but things started making a lot more sense with the Winston book. I've been playing for a couple months and I can finally see a light at the end of the tunnel.

(then again, I've been playing standard guitar for 20 years - pro for 13 - and I'm still learning that!)

------------------
-Joel
(guitar too crummy to mention)

[Jim Smith]

<SMALL>I can finally see a light at the end of the tunnel.</SMALL>

Way to go Joel, just hope that light isn't a train!