Major Scales - useful beginner's roadmap!

[simon_f3]

Hi all,
As a newbie trying to transpose 30 years of guitar knowledge onto pedal steel, i stumbled across this little vid on youtube, which I found really useful. Most of my country guitar playing involves scales with thirds and sixths, and I was a bit baffled trying to work this out on PSG from first principles. After watching this vid and making a few notes, I feel a lot more informed. Now I've just got to learn to play it nicely, rather than just know about it...!

[Haddock]

Hi
As another player on a mission to convert a lifetime of other stringed instruments into steel playing, I thought I’d voice some support for your scales post. Never been so into scales as on steel. Always found them boring....
Here’s a wee twist to the lesson above to make it even more useful.
I call the scale he's playing my 'open' scale rather than major. What I do is when you get to the top of the scale, keep going up playing the same notes until you run out of strings. Then, on the way back down, when you get to 8 keep on going down until you get to 10, all using the same notes of the scale. Practice until this is ingrained! Now the fun bit. Instead of starting on 8, start on 7. Welcome to the Dorian mode, a minor scale with a slightly happier top end. Start on 10 and it’s Mixolodian, exactly the same as the major but with a nice flat 7 for bluesy notes. 10 with A pedal down and it’s the natural minor etc etc for all the other modes. Move the bar about to find the right starting note for the key you’re in and suddenly the whole fretboard opens up. And you have learned 77 scales for the price of 1!

And then work out all the same stuff for the scale based on A and B pedal down! Hours of fun when you realise how they all interact..

Hope that is of interest to someone.
Cheers
Calum

[simon_f3]

Thanks Calum,
That's given me something to think about - probably for the next few years! Out of interest, do you know if there is a 'correct' way to play the major scale in terms of p i m. Back in my classical guitar days I would repetitively play scales using various combinations of thumb and the first three fingers, but I've not stumbled across any such exercises for PSG. Guess I can invent my own, but if there is an accepted correct way then I may as well learn it!

[Haddock]

Hi Simon
I’m a five string banjo player so the finger pick and choice of fingers to use just happens but I do find there are certain licks where you can get tangled up. Seek out Joe Wright’s videos at Sierra steel.com. He has some great picking excercises that will help. Also love his stuff on pentatonics. And it’s free!
Cheers

[Danny Mitchell]

Yes, Sid, a good little clip.
Since you have a classical background have you considered using thumb and '3' finger picks? Joe Wright, Basil Henriques and a few others have this facility and it allows some lovely extended chords. I've gone for it myself as I'm starting from scratch, but you wouldn't know to listen to me

Calum's scale breakdown is excellent and I've witnessed him, up close and personal, rolling through them, you can see his banjo picking background is obviously helping. He's also developed a really well thought out copedent.
Smart b d

[simon_f3]

Danny - very good point! And I do actually happen to have a spare finger pick which could find its way onto my ring finger

I'm still at the stage where I have to think about scales rather than play them automatically, but I'm getting a good bit of seat time at present so I'm sure in a couple of months I may be able to roll out a decent scale or two. I read about Calum's copedent in the posts following the last SSGW and am very interested to know more - Calum, would you be willing to divulge the secret recipe?

I have what I think is a pretty normal copedent on the E9 neck, but I am tempted to play around with my C6 copedent at some point. However, I'm saving this project as a reward to be enjoyed once I can play some scales without mistakes on the E9!!!

[Haddock]

Hi Simon
Copedent is not a secret and also not too far from the way a modern steel is supplied.
A and B pedals are as usual and C also but I have added a drop on string 10 down to A which is very useful. My new ‘D’ pedal does a tone drop on 5 and a semi tone on 9 and gives some nice options in conjunction with C. In particular, the 5 raise on C and the lower on D cancel each other out with the net result of 4 raising on its own for some nice suspended stuff.
My left knees work the E’s raising and lowering and I have a vertical dropping the B’s a half. RKL has an additional half stop fitted and lowers 6 a half or whole tone and raises 1, half or whole plus 2 a half on the second half of the lift. RKR does the usual drop of 2 and 9 but also raises 7 a tone. The half stops on both right knees mean I can hit a lot of chromatic notes without moving the bar.

Good luck to the pair of you trying the third finger pick. I wish I could but I suspect finger three would always be the poor cousin......

Here’s a bonus scale for you to try seeeing as the topic here is scales. It’s fairly clear when you play about with the notes of the open chord that a major scale isn’t far away. Similarly with the AB chord. But a casual strum of the chord using raised E’s and A pedal sounds like a lot of nonsense. Until you realise that these are the notes of a harmonic minor scale! Specifically, starting from A pedal down on 10 and going up (just a little pedal and knee action required) its the 5th mode of the harmonic minor which resolves beautifully to the BC chord on the same fret. Actually useful!
Cheers
Calum

[Danny Mitchell]

I wish I could but I suspect finger three would always be the poor cousin......

Yes indeed, but in my case, poor cousin Three fits in nicely with poor brothers One & Two.

[Haddock]

Sadly I fear we are all waiting for the money finger. But surely three poor ones is better than two?