The Steel Guitar Forum

Just wanted to know what some of people's favorite C6 instruciton courses are. I've been playing the E9 neck for 6 months, and am gettting a D-10 this week. I like Western Swing a lot and would like a course geared to this style. Thanks, Ward

"Songs to Get C6th by", by Jeff Newman if he still offers this course. It has it all. And as BE once said, Jeff's playing on the course was awesome (paraphrasing).

If you are lucky enough to procure this course AND master it, you are on your way to mastering that mysterious "C neck".

carl<FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by C Dixon on 11 December 2003 at 08:37 AM.]</p></FONT>

i like BE's tabs cause they get me playin' Toot Sweet !

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Steel what?

With all respect to Carl, I'd like to suggest that song-based courses require you to put in the time applying the ideas, phrases, etc. to other keys and songs "on your own" without any real explanation of theory or the thought process behind the original musical choices. I really appreciate the courses that give more insight into developing your own ideas on any song- in that light, try Jeff Newman's great C6 beginner and C6 and Swinging courses, and Buddy Emmon's C6 basic. There's enough there to really get going on Swing and Blues and loads to work on. Herby Wallace's stuff is also great, with lots of scale work. The new Ken William's C6 course doesn't go into much theory, but is chock full of great ideas and phrases. My feeling is that if you went through some of those first, any of the many "song" courses would make much more sense and be more quickly integrated into your day-to-day playing.

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Stop by the Steel Store at: www.markvanallen.com

Doug Jernigan and Herbie Wallace both have excellent C6 material that explain:

1) What the chord is, construction-wise
2) Where to find the chords

This is invaluable for finding your way around the fingerboard.

I also am learning tons from Buddy Emmons lesson material; the Basic C6 is great, it also lays out the various pedal combinations and such; and when you move on to the transcription books from the Swingin' series, you'll be able to recognize what's going on.

I second the opinion on Ken's book, great stuff there as well.

A hard to find book that I like a lot is the C6 Scales and Modes book by Ken Albert and Jimmie Crawford.

I also just started on some Herb Steiner material, which is great for the traditional Western Swing stuff.

I should start a public steeler's library

Working with a computer-based slowdowner has been very helpful to me as well.

We are very lucky to live in a time where we can get direct access to the master musicians!

If you want to get a good grip on C6th chords, you need to get your hands on Neil Flanz's chord dictionary. He re-issued it a while back and it's invaluable to understanding the C6th neck.
Erv

Jeff Newmans C6 Workshop will have you playing C6 in a week. try it you will like it.

ernie

Buddy`s "Basic C6th" and Herby`s "Approach to C6th" are probably the best combination around.
Buddy`s will give you a very good view of the neck and pedal positions along with great songs.
Herby`s have some very good kick off`s and turns along with being a library of chords and how to get any chords.

What more can you ask for?

Dag<FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by Dag Wolf on 11 December 2003 at 11:56 PM.]</p></FONT>

I think I have most of the main ones, and the one that was most useful to me was Herby Wallace's. The introductory course is HWP-200, and I just got the second course HWP-201 through b0b.

Try some of Herb Steiners stuff. He has the CDs and the tab to go along with them. He'll throw in a C6th Chord chart for good measure.
Erv

(shameless self promotion but definitely applies!!):

click here

I have a copy of Jeff Newman's "Music To Get C6 By on ebay. Songs are:

The Shadow Of Your Smile
The Preacher
Girl From Ipanema
Hold It
B. Bowman Hop
Soft Winds
Maverick
Mercy, Mercy, Mercy
Anytime
And I Love Her

This auction also includes: "Jeff Newman C6th Seminar from the 10th annual St. Louis Pedal Steel Guitar Convention" (includes tab for Night Life intro).

Other items include:

Chord Construction for the Pedal Steel Guitarist. Twelve page book from Pedal Steel Guitar Products

STEEL GUITAR HERBY WALLACE APPROACH to C6th

PEDAL STEEL GUITAR - A MANUAL OF STYLE: 125 page pedal steel guitar course (book only) by Terry Bethel, Jimmie Crawford, John Hughey and Weldon Myrick compiled and edited by Winnie Winston. Has a photo, interview and tab section on each player. 14 exercises and 10 complete songs are written out in both standard musical notation and tablature. E9th and C6th tunings are used.

Tab to 3 great Buddy Emmon's tunes (28 pages): Bluemmons, Flinthill Special and Four Wheel Drive. These diagrammed arrangements match identically, the original recordings form Buddy Emmon's record album: "Steel Guitar Jazz" and "Four Wheel Drive".

Tab to Maurice Anderson's "Big 'D' Spree (19 pages with detailed text walk through).

"Video Book of Advanced C6th" by Tommy Roots (23 pages). Includes (tab only) jazz vamps, Nightlife, Bubbles In My Beer, Stardust, My Window Faces The South and more.

127 issues of "The Pedal Steel Newsletter" published by the PSGA. Well over a thousand pages of steel guitar interviews, advertisements, equipment reviews, tablature, pictures covering the who's who of steel guitar players and manufacturers. These range from Volume 6, Number 2 (1979) to Volume 20, No. 5 (1973) (Lot's of C6 stuff)

Greg

Herby Wallace has loads of material that will be very helpful. However, I do believe that it will take more than a week to learn the C6 tuning. I have struggled with it for over fifty years and every day I learn something new.

I like Joe Wright's spreadsheet program. I put a map up of a paricular scale and then practice along to the Jamey Abersold stuff.

The Doug Jernigan chord reference book has come in real handy also.

Bob

I should also mention Joe Wright's "My Approach" which is a very comprehensive book dealing with all aspects of pedal steel-all tunings-and great ways to think about the various elements, from pedal functions and intervals to blocking, bar and pedal technique, and tons of other stuff.

I set the book aside when I first got it, thinking it was "too mechanical". Now, I can see the real value in this approach.

I went ahead to Scotty's today and picked up Buddy Emmons' course. Really infomative, and has songs I like. I'm going to get through it and then pick up Herbie Wallace's book.

I am doing well with C6th Workshop--Jeff Newman. To me it's like flippin' on a light!!

I reviewed a bunch of instructional material both E9 and C6. You can find the complete review at www.pedalsteeler.com

For C6 I find that the most user friendly material is the Jeff Newman series. I guarantee that you will be swinging when you finish this series of courses.

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God Bless,
Steve Stallings

www.pedalsteeler.com