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Topic: History of E9 standard copedent |
Curt Trisko
From:
St. Paul, Minnesota, USA
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Posted 12 Feb 2014 8:30 pm |
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When I was jamming with my guitar player friend last Sunday, he made positive comments on my note choice and the ease with which I find those notes. He said he thought I had that natural musical sense. I'm pretty sure I don't have that natural sense, so what I think he is actually noticing is how intelligently arranged the standard E9 copedent is.
That got me thinking about how it got that way. I know from reading this forum that it was developed in the late 50s and early 60s by Buddy Emmons and Jimmy Day. I remember also reading that it was Buddy Emmons who added the 1, 2, 7 diatonic strings. Does anyone have any insight into the history and development of this copdedent? |
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Tom Gorr
From:
Three Hills, Alberta
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Dave Grafe
From:
Hudson River Valley NY
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J Fletcher
From:
London,Ont,Canada
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Posted 13 Feb 2014 5:31 am
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In the Winnie Winston / Bill Keith book, there is an article on the evolution of the E9th tuning, up until 1975 or so when it was written.
As I recall, Jimmy Day is credited with adding the E on the 8th string, which I think was a huge step in the development of the tuning. But I don't recall hearing much about this, other than in the aforementioned book...Jerry |
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Curt Trisko
From:
St. Paul, Minnesota, USA
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Posted 13 Feb 2014 5:54 am
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| That E9 chart is great. So it looks like the E9 copedent all started with wanting to get from the I to IV chord. Splitting that pedal function into the A+B pedals seemed like no-brainer. Of all the ways that the pedal steel is not user-friendly, the standard E9 copedent is not one of them. |
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Ken Campbell
From:
Ferndale, Montana
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Posted 13 Feb 2014 6:57 am
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| Curt Trisko wrote: |
| .........Of all the ways that the pedal steel is not user-friendly, the standard E9 copedent is not one of them. |
Not sure I'm following you here. Your point is that the e9 is somehow not up to snuff? |
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Curt Trisko
From:
St. Paul, Minnesota, USA
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Posted 13 Feb 2014 7:08 am
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| Quote: |
Curt Trisko wrote:
.........Of all the ways that the pedal steel is not user-friendly, the standard E9 copedent is not one of them.
Not sure I'm following you here. Your point is that the e9 is somehow not up to snuff |
I'm saying the opposite. I just said it with a double-negative. The E9 copedent, though not straightforward to someone not musically trained, is natural and intuitive. The rest of the pedal steel is a box with strings and levers sticking out of it. |
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Curt Trisko
From:
St. Paul, Minnesota, USA
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Posted 13 Feb 2014 8:27 am
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| Don't get me wrong; I'm not saying anything negative about pedal steel mechanics. I'm just saying that the E9 copedent has elegance while the rest of the instrument generally doesn't prioritize it. |
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Ken Campbell
From:
Ferndale, Montana
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Posted 13 Feb 2014 9:04 am
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| Ahhhh. Thanks. I'm not too bright so sometimes I need clarification. I agree with you. The tuning is very intuitive to me. And I think the device itself has a certain elegance as well..... |
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Jack Aldrich
From:
Washington, USA
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Posted 13 Feb 2014 10:55 am
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E9 is so logical! In the Emmons setup, the A pedal raises strings 5 and 10 from the 5 note to the 6 note (using scale numbers instead of pitch, which would be raises B's to C#'s), and the B pedal raises strings 3 and 6 from the 3 note to the 4 note. RKL lowers the 4th and 8th strings from the 1 note to the 7 note. The result is pedals A & B change the I chord to the IV chord, and pedal B and RKL change the I chord to the V chord. It goes on from there. The C6 neck just has to be learned imho.
_________________
Jack Aldrich
Carter & ShoBud D10's
D8 & T8 Stringmaster
Rickenbacher B6
3 Resonator guitars
Asher Alan Akaka Special SN 6
Canopus D8 |
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