Reading Music on the Pedal Steel Guitar

Christopher Hillman · From: Manchester, UK

Any advice on reading music on the pedal steel?

I've got a theatre gig coming up and apparently all the steel is scored out. Theres a few months yet and i will get the CD but, it would be a good skill to have.

I did a quick search and it doesn't seem to have been covered on here? only discussed as an option.

I guess on the E9th working from the 4th string as a root would be a start?

Any advice welcome Smile

Doug Beaumier · From: Northampton, MA

I suggest learning the written parts in one area of the fretboard using pedals and levers and later try different positions to play that same part, combine the positions and try to find the smoothest way to play the parts using slides, different pedals and levers, etc. As said in past threads, there are many, many ways to play the same note(s) on PSG. There must be about a dozen ways to play the exact same note, for example a high C, on PSG, different frets on different strings, using levers, using pedals, etc. First learn your parts in one small area of the fretboard and after you hear how they should sound look for other ways, maybe easier or smoother ways to play the same thing.
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Jim Cohen · From: Philadelphia, PA

If the gig is too soon for you to become a competent reader, you might ask them if you can improvise your parts. A lot of directors are happy (sometimes even happier) with what a good steel player can play off the cuff. But some really want the scripted parts played.
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John Roche · From: England

Got the same problem this weekend, I'm playing with a top country band in Madrid Spain, they do a lot of self penned songs which are not run of the mill country, all I got is a chord chart for some of them.it's not very easy reading and playing at the same time. Hopefully they do have a good rhythm guitarist that I hoping to sit near and get some idea what to play..opening song is Alan Jackson's "I don't even know your name" I can get close to Paul's style but no way play his solo ,I take a few songs to get warmed nowadays.. Good luck with you show Christopher

Jim Pitman · From: Waterbury Ctr. VT 05677 USA

I did the "Always Patsy" show a few years ago and was faced with the same thing. I can write notation way better than I sight read it. I wound up using a computer program to notate the steel parts as written in the score then playing them back on the computer. After hearing them, I would figure the best way to play them. I got so I could follow the score and recognize the parts and play them in time. In the end it improved my reading ability too.

Rick Myrland · From: New Orleans

Jim,

Do you know what that computer program was?
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chris ivey · From: california (deceased)

when i first did 'the best little whorehouse in texas',i was fortunate that the guitar player came over to my house and played all my parts for me. then i could recognize them looking at the score. and i found the original record.

Erv Niehaus · From: Litchfield, MN, USA

When most of my steel playing was done on a non-pedal guitar, I could sight read the musical notation and play in on my guitar. However, with the pedal steel, it gets more difficult. As mentioned above, there are SO many more places to find the notes and chords that sight reading the notation and playing it becomes much more difficult. I find that if I sit down and work up tablature from the musical notation I can come up with a much smoother and easier to play arrangement. All my tab is written with the notation shown.

Earnest Bovine · From: Los Angeles CA USA

You didn't say anything about your background & experience & what sort of problems you expect to face.
Reading music in steel is no different from reading on any other instrument, except that in my experience, arrangers don't usually know what's possible/impossible, hard/easy, etc.

Your parts for a theater gig may surprise you with things you don't see at home, such as unreadable and contradictory penciled-in revisions and edits made over many years by many different players.

Jack Stoner · From: Kansas City, MO

In the early 70's, when I was in "Nashvulle" and worked at Little Roy Wiggins music store, Hank Corwin would often come by. He was Julliard school of music trained and could sight read. He would often come by the store with a lead sheet for a recording session and use one of the stock Emmons steels to learn the song. But, he would do it on the C6th neck to learn it and not the E9th.

In 1971, Hank stated that he and Hal Rugg were the only two steel players in Nashville that could competently sight read. If I remember correctly, Hal Rugg had some formal music training. I was surprised he didn't include Emmons.

chris ivey · From: california (deceased)

i think buddy said he wasn't a good reader, but had to bone up on it in los angeles...working with people like henry mancini.

Erv Niehaus · From: Litchfield, MN, USA

Chris,
You are correct.
He once stated that he missed a lot of opportunities by not being able to read music well.
He made up for it in other departments, though! Whoa!

Mike Perlowin · From: Los Angeles CA

I've written a short article (4 pages) on how to read on the E9 neck, which I will send for free to anybody who asks for it. (I've mentioned this before.)

Please send your requests via E-mail, rather than a PM, so I can attach the file to the reply.
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Bill Hatcher · From: Atlanta Ga. USA

Ian Rae · From: Redditch, England

Earnest is right to ask what you already know. Can you read music fluently on other instruments?

If so you can sit down with the dots away from the steel and figure out the starting point for each phrase, rewriting anything that doesn't work on your setup. (We don't know whether the scoring will turn out to be knowledgeably done or of the hopeful variety.)

If not, I've no idea how long it would take to learn as I was taught very young. It would be interesting to hear from anyone who's had to learn to read from scratch in a hurry.
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Dave Grafe · From: Hudson River Valley NY

I have been reading music on a number of instruments for most of my life, but I don't spend enough time practicing in the dark to be able to read music and and play the pedal steel simultaneously, and even then, chordal combinations can require specific grips at specific positions and this generally takes me some time to work out.

This is how I worked out Schumann's "Traumerei" on pedal steel, with the piano chart and some time spent working up the chords and finding the positions required to make it go.

http://www.pdxaudio.com/traumerei.mp3

There were a couple of notes in the piece that were not available to the 10-string E9 setup, and a couple of places where I must confess to contributing a touch or two not available to the piano, but I'm confident the composer would approve Cool

Ian Rae · From: Redditch, England

Dave - that is stunning. Schumann had such an imagination that he must have felt hemmed in by the piano sometimes. He would have loved this, I'm sure.

(At one stage Schumann almost wrecked himself by over-practising, so we can all learn from him!)
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Keith Murrow · From: Wichita, KS

Glenn Demichele · From: (20mi N of) Chicago Illinois, USA

Awesome Dave
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James Mayer · Posted 11 Jun 2015 9:45 pm

Dave, outstanding!

Mike Perlowin · From: Los Angeles CA

Very cool Dave.
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Lane Gray · From: Topeka, KS

Indeed. I dug it. Bravo
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Dave Grafe · From: Hudson River Valley NY

As previously mentioned, I had to sit down and work out the chordal content, then ran it through the computer to print the chords on the chart. After that it was a matter finding what what positions for these chords delivered the necessary notes in a way that allowed smooth transitions to the next chords.

I spent the better part of a morning figuring it out on paper, then a couple of days applying it to the steel and playing through it, "putting the polish on" - I never did get around to writing the fret positions down on the chart, by the time got that far I was having too much fun playing the piece! It's not a hard one, and the "standard" Emmons 3+5 E9 setup has everything needed to pull it off.

Tom Gorr · From: Three Hills, Alberta

I will pile on....that was brilliant expressive playing of head turning quality.

Jim Priebe · From: Queensland, Australia - R.I.P.

Very nice Dave. Your interpretation is great and very refreshing in a world of 'same old same old'.
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