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Topic: Two ways to go............ I guess |
Ray Montee
From:
Portland, Oregon (deceased)
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Posted 7 Mar 2012 10:17 am |
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For those newer players.........playing in E9th tuning....
I'm curious how many of you first learned the basic open tuning of "E" and then applied the use of pedals to expand the flexibility of that tuning to include A6th elements........
as opposed to how many of you merely stomp on pedals here and there when you 'think' it's a good place and time to do so without any forthought of what's going to happen when you do so.....
or, how many of you simply rely on Tab-memorized to
play your favorite songs? |
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b0b
From:
Cloverdale, CA, USA
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Posted 7 Mar 2012 10:57 am
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I often use the pedals down A6th position. I don't see how anyone can play E9th without it.
When playing western swing, I switch between the following 'tunings', each with it's own set of 'licks':
E13th (A pedal)
B6th (E lever)
A6th (A+B pedals)
I use the F lever for diminished chords, and A+B+F for augmented chords, as required. Easier than bar slants. 
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-𝕓𝕆𝕓- (admin) - Robert P. Lee - Recordings - Breathe - D6th - Video |
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Bud Angelotti
From:
Larryville, NJ, USA
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Posted 7 Mar 2012 1:30 pm
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| I just stomp. After years of stomping I've found I can pick out most any melody and complimentary notes to go with it. With pedals or not. That seems to be the most fun for me cause when I took music lessons as a kid (piano/clarinet), it took me away from fun time with my friends. So I've learned just the rudiments of theory, I can read notated music, and I play almost totally by ear. It's all about me. Oh, and most people that are listening, don't care. Long as it sounds good to them. - So it's like driving a car, I can do it in my sleep. |
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Bud Angelotti
From:
Larryville, NJ, USA
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Posted 7 Mar 2012 2:15 pm
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| Oh - and thats not to say that someone who does not know theory etc. has an advantage over someone that does. They don't. |
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chris ivey
From:
california (deceased)
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Posted 8 Mar 2012 11:12 am
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| which of course brings us to the tried and true style of asleep at the wheel. |
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Michael Johnstone
From:
Sylmar,Ca. USA
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Posted 8 Mar 2012 12:59 pm
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| None of the above really. I played surf,rock,R&B & blues guitar for years and made a living at it before I stumbled onto steel. The liquid sound and gadgetry of the thing fascinated me so I got an early MSA S-10 E9 w/5+4 in 1971. The first thing I wanted to do was figure out where the runs and chords were that I was already playing on guitar. It never occured that I should learn the E9 tuning without pedals first and then add them later because I saw right away that pedals were intrinsic to a pedal steel - especially E9. But I never just stomped away with no idea what I was doing like you suggest some may do. I viewed pedal E9 in layers of relative keys like a 3 dimensional chess game and made charts and lists of what the pedals did,what combinations would produce and how to get from layer to layer w/pedals at different pivot points in the changes of a tune. After I heard some jazzy pedal C6 playing I realized I was gonna have to get me a doubleneck. Somewhere in there I also realized there was something called country music and I would have to get with that to ever really make any money with a steel guitar. Soooo I moved to California,told everybody I met that I was a steel player,started working 5-6 nights a week in country bars in sh!+y bands using my ears to stay one step ahead of the changes till I learned the book. I bumped into great players like Pete Kleinow,Doug Livingston,Al Perkins,Red Rhodes and Jay Dee. Everyone told me I should be listening to Emmons,Byrd and Murphey so I did. Maybe 15 years later I wanted to try straight steel & out of curiosity bought a Stringmaster. I liked the vibe,tone & the challenge to think 2 dimensionally,be forced to distill music into smaller harmonic chunks & still sketch out fairly sophisticated changes and moves just weaving together lines,partials,slants & reaches.Hanging out with Joaquin Murphey and spending so much time with him helped me see what could be done with good ideas,picking skill,bar control,a clever tuning and no pedals.That kind of "less is more" minimalism also helped when I decided to take up solo mandolin. It's all music. |
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Earnest Bovine
From:
Los Angeles CA USA
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Posted 8 Mar 2012 3:28 pm
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| I'm with Mike on this. When I started steel it never occurred to me to play it without pedals. I had never heard of Buddy Emmons, Jerry Byrd, or any steel players, and I had no idea what was possible, or what had already been done. I'd been playing piano for 20 years, loved nice chord changes, and got the idea that this cool machine might be made to play nice chords with some pitch-bending as a bonus. To do that I figured that I would need as many pedals & knee levers as possible. |
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Roger Rettig
From:
Naples, FL
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Posted 8 Mar 2012 3:54 pm
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Me too.
What drew me to pedal steel was the capacity it had for moving the notes within a chord. Nothing I had heard on non-pedal guitars had thrilled me although, of course, having now been exposed to some wonderful stuff being played without pedals, that was a hasty judgement on my part.
However, I still think that it would pedals or nothing for me.
I hope, however, that Ray's not suggesting that we indiscriminately hit pedals in the vague hope that something nice will occur! I'd like to think that I give it a fair amount of thought.....
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Roger Rettig: Emmons D10, B-bender Teles and Martins - and, at last, a Gibson Super 400!
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