Spread sheet calculator for PSG workbook

Bo Legg · Posted 25 Aug 2010 8:47 am

Stuart and I have used this little aid for anything we want to know on the E9 neck.
It is a great teaching tools as well.
We use it for scales, chords, licks and etc..
Here is an example of how it works.
A student ask about a certain position to play an Am Pentatonic Scale on one fret using the pedals and levers.
I open up the spreadsheet calculator enter the scale in numbers under the letters of the scale, Copy (as indicated in the light blue) and paste further down the workbook (as indicated by the yellow and edit using the tools in the spreadsheet.
The idea here is speedy info. The idea is not for the spreadsheet to show you everything just to get you quickly into the ballpark and you should learn how to do the rest using your mind. This whole thing here took about 10 min. since the calculator is already at the top of the worksheet.

Bo Legg · Posted 25 Aug 2010 1:32 pm

Johnny Baker · From: Southport, Fla

Is that thing set up for Carter Starter, just curious?
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Bo Legg · Posted 28 Aug 2010 9:25 am

Johnny, learn how each of your pedals and levers affect your particular PSG.
I think the best way to do that is on your own with no help from any one. Just sit down at the Steel guitar and figure it out. If you already know then apply it to this little spreadsheet.

Let’s say you’re building a brick fence. This little thing just shows you where the bricks are. It doesn’t gather them up and build the fence for you.

The idea is for this Thing to display whatever you enter, chord, scale, licks or BRICKS. You get back a no pedal/lever view from which you visualize how you want to use your particular pedals and levers to gather up the notes or bricks to build Chords, Scales, Licks or things made of bricks.

If I just programed all this stuff into this thing it would become to complicated. Then even to those who would take the time to learn how to use it would just simply become another crutch.

By keeping it simple it forces you to learn
What your pedal and levers do.
Chord formula
Scale structure
And how to visualize all this on the PSG neck

The beauty of this little spreadsheet thing is what it don’t do for you.

Here is an example.
I enter a 1, 3, 5 under the appropriate part of the scale for the A chord and then those numbers appear on the neck view. I visually gather up the notes I need using the pedals and knee levers and build an A chord anywhere I can on the neck.

Stuart Legg · Posted 29 Aug 2010 6:25 pm

Or color in your Coped and make a Slide-rule out or it.

Sherman Willden · From: Colorado Springs, Colorado, USA

Ok, for us computer illiterate nincompoops. I put the entries on the first four lines of an eXcel spreadsheet then copied in my copedent. All it did was echo back the values I entered. How do you get it to translate to the bottom values you both show on your spreadsheets?
_________________
Sherman L. Willden
It is easy to play the steel guitar. Playing so that the audience finds it pleasing is the difficult act.

Mickey Adams · From: Bandera Texas

Way Cool!!!...WAY WAY COOL!
_________________
ARTIST RELATIONS: MSA GUITARS
2017 MSA LEGEND XL D10, S10, Studio Pro S12 EXE9
Mullen G2, Rittenberry S10, Infinity D10, Zumsteel 8+9
Anderson, Buscarino, Fender, Roman Guitars, Sarno Octal, Revelation Preamps, BJS BARS, Lots of Blackface Fenders!

Bo Legg · Posted 30 Aug 2010 1:21 pm

Stuart Legg · Posted 30 Aug 2010 1:40 pm

You can however copy the whole thing and then paste it in a new spreadsheet. You will have to redo the column widths and uncheck show "Zero Values" or you'll have 0's instead of blank spaces in your neck view.

Way why Cool coming from Mickey Adams is way beyond cool. Mickey I think all the many many great PSG things you've shared with all of us is beyond beyond cool. Thanks.

ed packard · From: Show Low AZ

Congrats on a nice presentation related to what can be done re Spreadsheets and the PSG.

It has been my experience that we may need to wait for the next generation (those that grow up with computers as a data manipulation device) for this approach to catch on. There are not many into it now.

I have had fun messing with it since VisiCalc was all that was available. Periodically, I offer (for free) the latest update on the program(s). Lots of folk ask for them, and then I don't hear much if any feedback.

My main reason for doing the work is for myself, and writing it out forces me to focus a bit on the info structure...

The real fun was to get the computer to name the chord types in a self consistent without using lookup lists.

Again, congrats on sharing some of your approach.

Edp

Bo Legg · Posted 31 Aug 2010 8:29 am

Stuart is the guy that does most of my computer stuff.
Stuart wanted to expand on this spreadsheet but found that others had already accomplished this. So He has told me several times that he planned on purchasing VisiCalc or something like it.
Since he drained the music money pool, it’s going to be after Christmas before he can purchase VisiCalc.

ed packard · From: Show Low AZ

Bo...VisiCalc was all there was before Lotus 123, followed by Excel. I doubt if VisiCalc even exists any more.

All my stuff is in Excel (now).

Edp

Bo Legg · Posted 31 Aug 2010 12:17 pm

Ed, boy did I take a wrong turn in Albuquerque. Stuart just corrected me about this a little while ago and he's still laughing. I thought Visicalc was the name of a program for PSG that he was interested in.
My Excel is Office 2002. So I try to share in Works which is at least a 2007 version. I love my computer which is at least a 2001. Stuart is laughing again.

Bob Lawrence · From: Beaver Bank, Nova Scotia, Canada

Free Spreadsheet Program: If you don't have a Excel program for MS Office or any other alternative program for spreadsheets try the following:

If you have a Gmail account: You could use the Free spreadsheet in Gmail/Doc's

If you don't have a Gmail Account: You could Sign up for a free Gmail account and use the FREE spreadsheet program under Doc's.

Note: Gmail is a free email program from Google.

I use it all the time and it works very well. Just not as polished as MS Excel but slowly catching up with new features being added all the time. I haven't tried Bo Legg file in it but it should work fine.

Joey Aguilera · From: Whittier, California, USA

Or you can use Open Office. It's free!

http://www.openoffice.org/

Eldon Cangas · From: Ontario, Canada

Thank You So Much!! I welcomed the private email with the E9 C6 spreadsheets. Finally a simple tool for visualizing fretboards and modeling other tunings. It is exactly what I was looking for. I tried doing my self but couldn't latch on to the simple cell reference programing. Awsome!

Mickey Adams · From: Bandera Texas

Please send me a copy!!...jetdrivr@tx.rr.com
Im a spreadsheet addict!..Ill update it to a macro enabled Office 2010 sheet and throw in macros for updating copedents...then send it back!...Ok?
_________________
ARTIST RELATIONS: MSA GUITARS
2017 MSA LEGEND XL D10, S10, Studio Pro S12 EXE9
Mullen G2, Rittenberry S10, Infinity D10, Zumsteel 8+9
Anderson, Buscarino, Fender, Roman Guitars, Sarno Octal, Revelation Preamps, BJS BARS, Lots of Blackface Fenders!

Sherman Willden · From: Colorado Springs, Colorado, USA

With my apologies, Bo and all
_________________
Sherman L. Willden
It is easy to play the steel guitar. Playing so that the audience finds it pleasing is the difficult act.

Sherman Willden · From: Colorado Springs, Colorado, USA

With my apologies, Bo
_________________
Sherman L. Willden
It is easy to play the steel guitar. Playing so that the audience finds it pleasing is the difficult act.

ed packard · From: Show Low AZ

Moved to it's own thread.

Bo Legg · Posted 4 Sep 2010 9:43 am

My topic was meant to show a simple little calculator that was simple to use and small enough that you could put it at the top of a spreadsheet and use as a workbook to quickly visualize whatever you wish within a given Tuning.

It was to be used somewhat like building something out of bricks and this little calculator would just show you where the bricks are and it is up to you to know your pedals and levers well enough to gather up the bricks and build whatever you’re constructing.

Knowing the pedals and levers and and using a little theory (chord and scale numbers) this little calculator is all I have and need at the top of each workbook. I have not found anything that worked better or faster for me.

As I said before the beauty of this thing is what it doesn’t do for you. It forces you to learn how your pedals and levers affect the strings instead of just clicking and having them magically appear.

Here is all there is and the way it appears on my worksheet.

ed packard · From: Show Low AZ

Bo...my last post could be seen as an attempt at a highjack to your thread...so I gave it a thread of it's own...and removed it from your thread...my apology sir.

Bob Kagy · From: Lafayette, CO USA

Bo, Stuart,

Thanks for posting this thread and sending me the worksheets.

I never bothered to learn Excel; used ClicTab chord finder and Guitar Map to do my note/chord/pocket locations. They served my purpose pretty well, but your stuff has so much potential that I was moved to go buy a book on Excel. There were things I always wanted to do and this looks promising.

Sherman Willden · From: Colorado Springs, Colorado, USA

I've been meaning to learn eXcel for quite a while so I thought this project would be good and I did learn a few things. As for the spreadsheet the way it is; I am trying to learn non-pedal c6th and this has been a great help.

Thanks to all;

Sherman
_________________
Sherman L. Willden
It is easy to play the steel guitar. Playing so that the audience finds it pleasing is the difficult act.

Robert McDaniel · From: White Oak Texas, USA

Stuart and Bo,
I am posting to thank you for this contribution! I started playing with the spreadsheet this evening and the next thing I knew several hours had passed. This is an excellent learning resource. Again, thanks for sharing, and perhaps this will bring the post back to the top where other beginners like myself may find it.

Sincerely,
Rob McDaniel

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