Does your heel lift off floor?

Joseph Lazo · From: Wisconsin, USA

Hope this doesn't sound dumb, but...

Is it normal to lift your heel when using the pedals? I find myself doing this when engaging one pedal at a time. With A + B, or B + C, my heel usually stays on the ground, but it seems like I'm more accurate hitting a single pedal with my heel off the ground. Am I getting into a bad habit, or is it "anything goes" with pedal steel?

Craig Robson · From: Wisconsin

so this is not a dumb question at all... you are almost certainly correct that, for a lot of reasons, it would be good to keep your heel anchored. The issue related to playing a single pedal is flexibility in your ankle. I have a couple of moves that want the A pedal followed the E knee lowered, and I don't have the ankle flexibility to make the move without hitting the B pedal unless i raise my heel. Do what you need to do.
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Joseph Lazo · From: Wisconsin, USA

Thanks for your comment, Craig. The A pedal followed by kneeing the E lower is a contortion that also makes me lift my heel.

Bobby D. Jones · From: West Virginia, USA

It is not a dumb question.

There is a lot of things to consider. As to how you have to make certain pedal and knee lever moves.

How the guitar is set up. How the levers are located, How the guitars pedals and knee levers are adjusted.

There is no set rule on a steel guitar, Some players split the E knee levers, Emmons setup Raise on LKL and lower on Right knee. With the Jeff Newman Uni setup Raise E's RKL, Lower E's RKR.
As they say "Whatever Floats Your Boat".

Fred Treece · From: California, USA

What Bobby said. I literally got cramps in my leg trying to do what you describe. Splitting E levers right and left with the E-lower on the right knee solved the problem. Now the only time my heel is up is when engaging the left vertical.

Casey Saulpaugh · From: Asheville, NC

I think it's totally fine for the heel to lift off the ground a bit to engage one pedal at a time. However, I think the important thing to keep in mind as far as developing good habits and efficiency when using the pedals is that it can be really beneficial to have a default position for your foot/heel (where the heel acts as an anchor on the ground).

For this default position, I'd recommend having your heel on the ground and your foot hovering over the two pedals that you use the most. This way you are ready to engage them (both, or either one individually) at anytime in your playing, and you don't have any excess movement of the foot whenever it is time to engage the pedals when playing. This allows you to quickly and accurately engage your most used pedals, or to pivot your foot (via the heel on the ground) if you need to engage other pedals.

This way if your heel raises when you engage one pedal at a time, you can quickly get back to this default (or "home" position) and be ready to go for the next pedal(s) usage. By doing this you'll be developing/practicing good habits with the pedals, and still achieving the single pedal usage with the heel lifting for when you need to do this. Just remember to come back to this default position whenever you're done using the pedals - anytime you're practicing/playing, I recommend having your foot in this default position hovering over your two most used pedals even if you're not actively using them at this time. This develops muscle memory (and gets your leg/foot conditioned to this position physically) so that you've always got your foot ready to go when playing - almost like when driving a car many people have their foot hovering over the brake and gas pedals ready to use them whenever needed.
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Joseph Lazo · From: Wisconsin, USA

Cassey, thanks for that input. I've sort of been doing this already, but it's easy to lose focus when going for one pedal at a time. What I notice is that my default position seems to be my foot hovering over both A and B pedals at about a 45-degree angle. This works well for rolling from A to B and B to A. From that I pivot my foot to the right for doing B to C and C to B. Thing is, though, if I lift my heel to more accurately "stab" a single pedal, everything goes haywire and I forget to return my foot to the default position. Gonna work on that.

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