32 ways to play A4

Randy Brown · From: Knoxville, Tennessee, USA

I was explaining to a non-steeler friend how many ways there are to hit each note on a pedal steel. I had never actually counted before, so I decided to pick a note and find how many ways I can hit it. I picked A4 (440 hz) because it's a good reference note, and it's available across the whole neck.

I play a Carter U-12, with a modified Newman copedent... Stock Carter U-12 copedent with a few added pulls.

I found 32 ways to play the note A440. I'm talking about tunable positions, not including half-pedals or bar slants. I use a tempered tuning, so it is a few cents off at various locations as per my tuning, but still would be considered the A4 note.

I was kind of shocked to find so many. Just wondering if anyone else has done similar counts.

Here is my tuning (my cent offset is actually different than this, but you get the idea):

Here are the positions I found the A4:

This is probably old news to most, but I was kind of surprised to find quite so many. Granted, I will rarely play many of these positions, and some I will probably never play in an actual song, but I just found it an interesting exercise to list them.

Mike Wheeler · From: Delaware, Ohio, USA

And to think all 32 of those notes can be represented by a single spot on the musical staff. Shocked

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b0b · From: Cloverdale, CA, USA

This is why I don't like U-12. Too many redundancies. You have 4 ways to get an open C# note, and 3 ways to get open E! There has to be a better way. Whoa!

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John Scanlon · From: Jackson, Mississippi, USA

John Goux · From: California, USA

That is a feat of mental gymnastics.*
I bet you learned a few things in the process, too.

I have a drill I do occasionally. I pick a note, and find its location on every string, in 2 octaves. If I had to add every pedal and lever combination to that drill, a colonoscopy would seem like a fun day.

J

*as Stravinsky said about Slonimsky's Thesaurus

Randy Brown · From: Knoxville, Tennessee, USA

Don R Brown · From: Rochester, New York, USA

Please - don't play A11 !
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Randy Brown · From: Knoxville, Tennessee, USA

Randy Brown · From: Knoxville, Tennessee, USA

Bob Hoffnar · From: Austin, Tx

Randy Brown · From: Knoxville, Tennessee, USA

Fred Treece · From: California, USA

That note must be the winner, right? It is the highest note in the open position, so it makes sense that it could be found in the highest number of positions.

The lower the open position note, the fewer the number of places you will find it. On string 10 there is only one position for B, C and C#. Many lower register riffs cannot be duplicated in the same octave, and phrases that involve A and C pedal raise and releases cannot be duplicated in other positions without slants.

Bengt Erlandsen · From: Brekstad, NORWAY

Add more pedals/levers and you could probably find 10 more ways. Once you get past the confusion of the high number of ways to play it, then you will find that there is only 10 ways, or a number equal to the amount of strings you have. The particular note is only found once per string.... until you retune it, but then it is still only found once on that string. If you know what your pedals/levers do you will automatically compensate with the bar in order to get the correct note.
Thats why sometimes Tabulature is a great help now and then, to show where and how, when the written staff notation shows your note only one place....more or less.

I am not gonna start counting how many ways there are to find all the notes on my S12extE9 7+7 tho.
But it will be a high number for sure, that eventually will come down to 12 or less.

B.Erlandsen
Zumsteel ExtE9 7+7

Fred Treece · From: California, USA

If you have 4 mechanisms that change the pitch of a single string, then you have 5 ways of locating the same note on that string.

I don't know if players actually learn the note names on each string up and down the neck, including all changer effects. For me it's more important to learn the note relationships in terms of intervals and home positions. The OP's point is a good one though, as is the redundancy comment.

Mike Vallandigham · From: Martinez, CA

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