Who else relies on piano or guitar to figure it out?

Joachim Kettner · From: Germany

I don't play piano so it's guitar for me. If it's not a simple three chord song, I often find myself needing a standard guitar to figure out melodies and especially chord changes. I than put it on my lap and try to play them on the PSG. Am I alone in doing this?
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Charlie McDonald · From: out of the blue

I'm afraid I still rely on piano to figure changes out, at least in mind, tho not always physically at a keyboard.
I'm still trying to convert to visualizing the fretboard as I go along. It's the price one pays for so long at an instrument.
I think it maybe converts a little better from guitar, or at least from lap steel, but not much help converting from piano.
I wonder how real pros, guys who have played pedal steel for forty years, imagine what they need to, but I'l never know.

Joachim Kettner · From: Germany

Thanks Charlie. I learned to play a very rudimentary version of "Jessica" on the steel by placing the guitar on my lap, while copying the notes on the steel. With a piano one can't do that without changing places, and my memory of notes is short.
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b0b · From: Cloverdale, CA, USA

I use a baritone uke to verify chord changes when I'm sitting at my computer making charts. To really learn a song, I put the reference recording on my iPod and practice steel to it, usually with the chart in front of me.
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Quentin Hickey · From: Nova Scotia, Canada

Since I have been learning the C6 neck and trying to get into learning some beginner jazz standards. I have been relying on my 6 string to get the chords sounds in my head first. That way Ill know how much off the mark I am on my steel.

Jeff Mead · From: London, England

Richard Sinkler · From: aka: Rusty Strings -- Missoula, Montana

Sometimes I use a 6 string. I used piano when I had a synth.
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Jeff Garden · From: Center Sandwich, New Hampshire, USA

I often use a keyboard especially for C6 tunes that have extended chords. Seems a lot easier to add in some "color" with 6ths, 7ths, 9ths, etc or experiment with inversions or added bass notes with all of the choices just a key or two away.
It can take a little work however to find the best sounding/most efficient way to lay it out when transferring from keyboard to steel.

b0b · From: Cloverdale, CA, USA

Jeff Garden · From: Center Sandwich, New Hampshire, USA

"suspended" chords are much easier to play if you leave it hanging on the wall, b0b Smile

Steven Albrecht · From: Colorado, USA

I am newbie steel, so right now I have my steel directly in front of my piano so I can physically see the chord notes and transfer them to my steel, this pedal steel can really warp your mind

Joseph Napolitano · From: New Jersey, USA

I only pick up the six string when I get stuck on a tricky chord change , and I find myself doing this less and less. Sometimes I try to figure out the changes without an instrument in my hands. I never write changes down, because then I'll never commit them to memory.

Ben Lawson · From: Brooksville Florida

I used to use a guitar to figure songs out but after a few (many) years I do it the other way. I do use the steel for finding chords on a guitar occasionally.
I hardly ever play a 6 string anymore so after five minutes on a flat top my fingers hurt.

Stephen Gambrell · From: Over there

I think a piano keyboard is good for finding that "odd" chord. Looking at a keyboard, you can "see" the thirds, 5th's, or any other altered chord. And maybe that's the reason theory is taught at a keyboard. Doesn't mean I'm a piano player--or a steel guitar player, as far as that goes.

Les Cargill · From: Oklahoma City, Ok, USA

I use a piano ( and sometimes the Web ) to dot out some of the more so-phisticated chords available in C6 (B6 side of a U12 ).

Q: When is a IV chord not really a IV chord?
A: When it's B6 tuning using the 5 or 6 pedal.

For E9, I generally only have to resort to the piano when it's something modal.

For the vast Venn diagram union of "neither E9 or C6" available on the One Big Tuning, the piano also gets used.

Frank Freniere · From: The First Coast

Definitely use the 6-string, mostly to make sure the melody isn't getting lost in the harmonies and chords.

Mark van Allen · From: Watkinsville, Ga. USA

Quite a bit of my work is one-offs or short show runs, and I'll use a guitar to quickly chart out unfamiliar tunes in numbers. (Lots of songs will only have notes like "Intro and turn diatonic walk" or "has #3"â€¦) but unless a song has specific steel lines I need to cop, it's guitar.

I have separate practice time and routines for working on PSG technique and repertoire.
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Bo Legg · Posted 18 Aug 2015 7:57 pm

I like what I play on the steel to be a surprise even to me and that gives the song that weekend warrior feel. You know that Iâ€™m pretending I donâ€™t have a mortgage and 65â€ HDTV but Iâ€™m a beer drinkin backwoods talkin country as a sht sandwich country boy pickin in a country band and living in my pickup.

First thing I do is listen and see which one of the 6 country song formulas the song falls under so I can find out which one of my 6 matching country pickin styles Iâ€™m gonna have to play with the song.
I get out my 6 string geetar and play though the chords in the song in the chosen style.
Thatâ€™s all I need to know and Iâ€™m ready for the gig on steel.

Clete Ritta · From: San Antonio, Texas

Been playing guitar and piano long enough that picking up chord progressions or melodies is fairly quick on pedal steel without the need for either physically.

I find that in time it becomes an internal instinct that is more focused on listening than playing. I may picture the part on guitar or piano while listening to it, and then transpose it to steel while its in my head, but more often than not Im picturing the part played on steel while listening.

b0b, is your baritone uke tuned like the top 4 of a 6 string (DGBE)?

b0b · From: Cloverdale, CA, USA

Clete - that is correct. I played guitar when I was young, and it's easy to grab when I'm working on chord charts. I can find chords easier on pedal steel but it's not as convenient as the ukelele next to my computer desk.
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Ian Rae · From: Redditch, England

There is a third alternative - I don't play guitar and I have no room for a piano, but I am practiced in dictation. So I jot down what I hear in notation then figure out where to find it on the steel. I admit this may be unusual and not much help but I'm using the tools I have.
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