The British Steelies Society

Hi,

Followed along on here for a little while, just whilst I try to get the basics but I come from guitar so know my way around that guitar neck and tablature.
I’ve written a piece (or two separate pieces that can be harmonised) on my guitar. Now when it comes to translating this onto my pedal steel, I’m struggling to find how to play this. I can play it on separate strings but not find the right combinations in each fret to play *lets say* - a B on one string that slides to a G and on another string that is higher in pitched for it to go from a Db to a B rather than finding the lower pitched Db.
Have I made this too complicated? That I have written it somewhere else and can’t translate it myself? Would love to know how people transcribe other PS players and know exactly where each is played and what pedals are pressed.

Hope this makes sense and would love to hear how people transcribe

Tom

Hi Tom, I have had similar questions, and I'm not sure I have ever really worked out the answers! Starting from a non-pedal perspective, as I did with lap steel, simply knowing the interval between one string and the others is very helpful, e.g. C to E is a major 3rd, E to G is a minor 3rd, etc. I found this very helpful to transpose guitar pieces onto lap steel. Once you pop some pedals and knee levers into the mix it gets a lot more complicated, but essentially it's still a case (to me at least) of thinking in terms of intervals, and what options are available should you use certain combinations - same with bar slants on the lap steel, though that hurts the brain a bit less!
I highly recommend looking for John Davis's video on basic E9 help on youTube, where he shows how to go through the different inversions of a chord as you move up and down the neck. e.g. E major without a bar, E major at 3rd fret with F lever and A pedal, E major at 7th fret with A and B pedals down, and so on. Once you get the feel of how each chord morphs into the next it becomes a lot easier to work out how to play what you hear on records. I am sill learning, but find that knowing where the I, IV, V and vi chords can be played in different positions has opened up a whole world to me!
Good luck,
Sid

Hi Tom. Sid I'm with JD. If I had bothered to learn where the chords were hiding. I wouldn't have to use my ears so much. Over the years I have spent hours making Excel chord charts and Tab's only to never use them. I can hear the chords I am after in my head and crunch pedals. Levers & grips until I find where the little buggers are hiding. Oh the joys of playing the pedal Steel! Dave

Hi Tom,

For finding out where the notes are you might find this pattern helpful. It shows all the C's, no pedals or levers, follow the arrows for unisons. Obviously you can move this pattern horizontally to find every note on the E9th neck.

It's not a very useful way to learn how to play pedal steel though. Most players play out of positions as mentioned above. ie They learn where the major & minor chords are with several different pedal/lever combinations, and they learn how to move between those positions by sliding through inversions and using harmonised scales. Learning the individual notes on the neck is of more limited use because the pedals and levers put all that in flux. You're essentially changing the guitar's tuning all the time and if you tried to track that that while you're playing you'd quickly go a bit mad. If you know what root position you're playing out of and where the nearest related chords are (eg 4, 5dom7, 6m etc) you can create all those nice pedal steel harmonies quite easily on the fly. They just happen on their own!

There is more than one way to bake a cake though, and I'm sure you will find some value in transcribing things across from guitar. Personally I think life is too short for this. To my way of thinking it's a very different instrument and demands its own approach.

As for transcribing for pedal steel from recordings, it is useful to learn the tab system, it's fairly standardised and explained well in books such as Winnie Winston and Bill Keith's 'Pedal Steel Guitar' (50 years old this year, still in print, still the best). The tricky part is distinguishing where on the neck something you hear on a record is played, although the process is very good ear training. Again, the chart above may help, but knowing positions makes working out the player's moves more predictable and much quicker. Technology such as apps or gadgets that slow down and loop really help too.

Good luck with it. Do get in touch with me if you would like some remote lessons to get you going.

Jonathan