Have We Outgrown The E9th Chromatic Tuning?

[Bill Hankey]

b0b,

Still, if you pull songs out of the hat, songs with chord changes like Willy's "Georgia", even if you are familiar with the melody, the first try at playing them isn't always that easy. Armed with an arsenal of changes would insure bringing the tune into proper perspective; minus the gymnastics. "Tea For Two" is a doozer of a chord song. It's not the "run of the mill" pleasing changes associated with country music, but for sure the tune will be a bit of a challenge, provided 4 tones are played simultaneously with the true melody.

[b0b]

"Georgia" is more often associated with Ray Charles than with Willy Nelson. Moreover, those chord changes can hardly be considered "modern", as the song was penned by Hoagy Charmichel in 1930! Ray Charles version went to #1 on the pop charts in 1960, and I daresay it's the arrangement that most people think of when they hear the title.

I've never had any problem playing the song on E9th. It has no unusual chords that I can think of, and the E9th's chromatic strings can always supply melody notes beyond the chord structure.

"Tea For Two" is even older than "Georgia", being from the 1925 musical "No, No, Nanette". I think that most people remember it from The Lawrence Welk Show, where it was often featured as a song-and-dance number. If you're trying to make a case for a new copedent, it might be a good idea to come up with more modern examples that could use it. In 40 years on the bandstand, I've never been asked to play "Tea For Two".

[Johnny Thomasson]

No.

[Bill Hankey]

b0b,

Pick up the marbles; you win this round of exchanges. I am very pleased to learn that you are not of the type to buy into superficial chicanery, as is indicated by your commentary. Readers can be assured that you will continue to drive a point home, should anyone attempt to sway you away from personal beliefs, apparently acquired through various experiences and studies. Your accounts carry a determined point of view in the face of controversy. In relation to steel guitars, I would trust in your judgment. Many things are subjected to changes over the years, perhaps tunings such as the E9th chromatic will remain unchanged throughout this century. Of course, I'll never know.

[Olli Haavisto]

If you want to find every altered version of a chord at their familiar home positions you will need lots of levers but if you know the notes that give those chords their special flavor they are all over the neck with minimum pedals and levers.
F#mb5 ? Try am6 etc.
The chords for Georgia, for instance, can be played with A&B + E to Eb lever, not a fancy version maybe, but a correct one.

[Mike Perlowin RIP]

I played the following songs at my recent restaurant gig. Just me and a guitar player, playing instrumentals all evening. No vocals.

(Some of these were inspired by Jim Cohen's "Home James" CD)

A Whiter Shade Of Pale
Can't Take My Eyes Off You (Frankie Valli)
City Of New Orleans (Jeff Newman Style)
Country Roads
Dancing Queen (Abba)
Dance With Me
Downtown (Petula Clarke)
Georgia On My Mind
Here There And Everywhere
I Can See Clearly Now
Imagine
Jingle Bell Rock
Let It Be
Let It Be Me
Lonesome Town
Killing Me Softly
Manha De Carnival (From Black Orpheus )
Medley: Never My Love, Walk Away Renée, As Tears Go By, Tuesday Afternoon, With A Little Help From My Friends.
Medley: When You Wish Upon A Star, Somewhere Over The Rainbow, Tara Theme (From Gone With The Wind.)
Norwegian Wood
Old Man River
Runaway
Since I Don't Have You (Skyliners)
Unchained Melody
Venus (Frankie Avalon)
What A Wonderful World


Every one of these songs is really well suited to be played as a steel guitar instrumental on the E9 tuning. Every one of them worked well when I played them.

Most of them are not country songs, and have more than 3 chords. And in some cases, I had to find out what the chords were by looking at the sheet music.

I've said it many times before, and I will probably say it many more times in the future. The pedal steel guitar is not a country instrument. It's a musical instrument, capable of playing almost any style, and is only limited only by the imaginations (or lack thereof) of it's players.

[Mike Perlowin RIP]

b0b,
songs with chord changes like Willy's "Georgia", even if you are familiar with the melody, the first try at playing them isn't always that easy...."Tea For Two" is a doozer of a chord song.

This is why I say that every steel player ought to learn to read music. Or, at the very least, chord charts.

Songs like this that have more than the usual 1,4,and 5 chord changes are only hard to play if you haven't previously learned them. Once you know the chord changes, many of them are no more difficult than a 3 chord country song.

In my previous post, I pointed out that I had to look up some of the changes to some of the songs on the list. Most of these are available on line. In one case, I had to go to the library to find the song.


I really don't understand why so many musicians who play by ear refuse to also learn to read.

[Bill Hankey]

Mike,

I would enjoy hearing you play Tara's Theme, from "Gone With The Wind". After reading Vivien Leigh's biography, I learned that the beautiful and exciting English actress passed away at the young age of 53. Undoubtedly, one of the greatest films of all times.

[Bill Hankey]

Mike,

If I may recite a famous quotation: CHET ATKINS said while addressing an audience at STANLEY PARK in 1985, "The symphony orchestra directors asked me several times if I could read music. I told them not enough to hurt my playing." Wow! Who would believe a man of his stature would admit to having less than perfect abilities to read? Judging from a musician of his abilities, it could be six of one, and a half dozen of the other; this so-called imperative rule of the thumb that one must read to excel in music. I once read that the music of LUDWIG van BEETHOVEN has not been interpreted correctly. Again, stipulations enter into the works of the masters.

[David Mason]

These kind of questions often seem to try to relate things that aren't really connected. In this case, there's an undercurrent that the E9th tuning results in less use of steel in popular music. I would argue that the E9th tuning does lead to some easy "cliche" licks, but if you want popularity, a better question to ask is: why don't more steel players write and sing music that people want to hear?

I'm not sure that the music that's on either country or pop radio is something I'd want to be associated with, but if you want to "expand steel guitar" you've got to be doing something that the masses like.

[Lane Gray]

I wouldn't say one MUST read, but I'd say the more one knows about one's field, the better.
I'm glad I was forced to learn what all them marks mean. I wish I'd kept the practice up (it'd make it easier every time, once a year, when I sit down with the steel and the sheet music to Für Elise)

PS: Bill, that's because he wrote in German

[Tracy Sheehan]

Hey Mike. I didn't understand it at the time but i learned to read music when i was 9 or 10 years old as i was taking piano and later taking violin my teacher would ask if i was reading or playing by ear. For some reason i could hear a song one time then play it note for note or do my thing by ear. So for me playing by ear was easy.
Later when i taught violin/fiddle for a while i always recomended at least learn theory so if they had problems with chords on the steel they could look at the top of a sheet of music and get the chords and theory would help them figure out the Major 7ths,9ths flats,ect. They could then learn any chord in the first fret then move it up. Worked for me. Tracy
Almost forgot. I also used to show fiddle players how to play in any key. Flats,sharps,ect.knowing music theory made this much more simple.

[Bill Hankey]

Lane,

To each his own.. as they say, the proof is in the pudding. Skillful playing isn't reserved for any particular musician. You are apt to find that there are pickers hiding out in closets, so to speak, who can play steel to anyone's satisfaction. That's the way this music business was intended to be. There are so many things that the average person doesn't understand. Many questions go unanswered. That's life.. It would be interesting to learn if there are those who tune their instruments differently.

[Tracy Sheehan]

Bill if you are refering to me. As i have posted before,when i started out in music there was lots of things i did not understand as i had been born with perfect pitch ear and didn't understand that either.
I always used a tuning fork on one string and tuned the rest by ear. Until i found out years later what perfect pitch ear was that explained why nothing sounded exactly in tune. A curse being born with perfect pitch ear but here i am repeating my self. Have a gud un. Tracy

[Mike Perlowin RIP]

Mike,

I would enjoy hearing you play Tara's Theme,...

Bill, Lloyd Green does it a lot better than I do. His version is on the "Slide" CD.

My 2 points were that 1: there is a ton of songs from other genres that work really well on the steel, and 2: A lot of songs have more complex chord structures, and you can't always hear the song and play it. You need to look it up and learn it.

"Killing Me Softly" is a good example. The tune has a gazillion chord changes, and nobody can just play it after hearing it a few times. It needs to be studied. But once you learn it, it's a great steel guitar song.

Another example is Frankie Avalon's "Venus." Most of the chords are easy to figure out, but there's one that I had to look up. In the key of C, during the bridge, in the line "Surely the things I ask" there's an F#m7b5 on the word "things" that goes to a Bm on the word "Ask." I couldn't figure that out by ear, but once I looked it up and read it, playing it was no problem.

[Bill Hankey]

Mike,

"Unchained Melody" is an ideal instrumental to chase out the minors, minor sevenths, minor sixes, etc. The melody is laid out fairly well for the pedal steel guitar tuning. (E9th) to be more specific. I got into a bunch of the old standards through an association with my late friend, the late Howard Mullaney. He was an absolute wizard in chord language. He would spend hours teaching proper chord usages, as they apply to "old standards". I was a whole lot country music, and he was a whole lot old standard tunes. What a blast! We never ran short playing instrumentals. I remember "White Christmas" as a classic Mullaney chordal arrangement. My "roots" are in country music; making it necessary to steer in that direction while playing across the board music. I'll try to locate Lloyd's rendition of "Gone With The Wind". I've never heard his recording of the sad melody.

[Bill Hankey]

Tracy,

Thanks for dropping by and cuing the readership in on "perfect pitch", and its advantages. I've experimented in the past with pitch memory by playing a position on the steel, then closing my eyes, I attempt to return to the position after playing relative chords a few frets on both sides of the position fret. Pitch memory is needed to establish good melody lines.

[Alfred Ewell]

The late Al Vescovo (who only played C6) once teased me about playing what he called "the hillbilly tuning." I answered that E9 was "The Mozart tuning."

My God that's so true it's funny. Thanks!

[Bill Hankey]

Society is made up of a variety of individuals. Learning to cope with varying degrees of socially compliant inhabitants is a big part of nurturing and cultivating visibility as a pedal steel guitarist. There is a need to realize that generosity plays a huge part in the life of a musician. It's quite apparent that entertainment halls usually combine their earnings from other activities, to afford a well paid band. Face it, some will give you their shirt, while others have a problem giving the time of day. One of the deterrents to circumvent part of these sequences of events is to enter the premises well "tuned". In actuality, if everything is orderly, with no outward signs of a lack of coordination within the group, it will be picked up by the patrons and management. Once the music fills the halls, music appreciation unrestrained among critics of a particular genre commences to spread from table to table. If the steel guitarist's volume level is adequate and constant in combination with a proficient lead guitarist, little attention will be paid to negative comments made by roaming critics. In the final analysis, the cash register makes or breaks a band. Management excels at cashing up at closing time. Mood swings originate at the cash register. Again, a well tuned steel guitar has the potential to build a crowd, as well as promoting future bookings. The E9th chromatic, and C6th are crucial to a band's augmented advancements in total sound enjoyment. I believe a pedal steel guitar equipped with a SPECIAL tuning could help to secure club bookings galore, well into the 21st century.

[Charles Davidson]

Mr. Hankey says [A pedal steel guitar equipped with a special tuning could help to secure club bookings GALORE well into the 21'st century.]Gonna try that [special] tuning as soon as someone explains it to me,IF it will secure more bookings will sure try it. Gotta call my band leader and tell him to fire that agent of ours,that we can get more work than we can handle when I can find that SPECIAL tuning on my guitar. YOU BETCHA,DYK?BC.

[Bill Hankey]

Charles,

As the song is written, "Everyone must meet his Waterloo." NAPOLEON met his at Waterloo, a town south of Brussels, in Belgium. Happenstances and haranguings eventually fall into a state of finality. I refer to the bemoanings and snipings commonly alluding to derision associated with textual criticism. Your implied tendencies to oppose and frustrate efforts to hinder a possible advancement in tunings, is reminiscent of Washinton Irving's "Rip Van Winkle". Constant badgering drove Rip deeper into the Catskill Mountains, and Mrs. Van Winkle met her Waterloo while screeching at a salesman. Any steel guitar workshop should be free of distractions. Survival of the fittest is a term well-known for its veracity in situations that test the strength of an individual's belief. Dissuation is a centuries old compulsion instigated by faint-hearted individuals. Those who fall in that category should read quotations made by Sir Winston Churchill.

[Lane Gray]

Mr. Hankey, have you got any ideas about what shape the new tuning should have?
I don't oppose a new tuning, nor do I oppose new changes on either existing standard tuning.
But I don't think that'll achieve yer goal.
Fresh changes or fresh tunings and the same approach won't change much of anything.

[b0b]

I believe a pedal steel guitar equipped with a SPECIAL tuning could help to secure club bookings galore, well into the 21st century.

Clubs are filled with young patrons who like to dance. Today's dance music is no real challenge on any pedal steel copedent. Its chordal requirements are fundamental - often the root and fifth are all that's required - and the scales are more often pentatonic than not.

The copedent used is totally irrelevant to bandleaders, dancers and seated listeners. Musically, the intelligent selection of notes in the context of a song is all that matters. The notes fit, or they don't.

Much commotion was made over Robert Randolph's dance music style when he appeared on the scene. Some steel players thought his unique 13-string E7 copedent was the key, but Dan Tyack plays the same style of music on his E9th with an added low E string. Having a low E is not a new idea at all, as Winnie Winston's book demonstrates. It's simply a personal variation of the standard E9th copedent.

If your playing is in a rut, try some new music. Try disconnecting your A and C pedal rods to discover new positions (every note they make is redundant). In short, "It's a poor workman who blames his tools".

[Bill Hankey]

Lane,

Modern man is a bastion of frugality. I once used a sledgehammer that was needed in a project that I was working on, to block my truck tire on a busy street. I forgot to return it to the cargo space, and drove off. Three tenths of a mile down the the road I realized leaving it behind. Less than two minutes had passed, and my hammer was a goner. The quick and parsimonious individual claiming ownership was nowhere in sight. A very valuable lesson was learned from that experience. That written code, something about possession is 99 percent of the law, comes to mind. A new and unfamiliar tuning that proved to have unique characteristics unexplored,
could move along, much like my striking hammer. Perhaps the current E9th tuning should be referred to as the silhouette or outline tuning. The E9th, constructed by various subtle reasonings, is self-defeating through the use of that 2nd string Eb note. No amount of explanation could explain away that oddball setup; masters or no masters involvement, in its creation.

[Lane Gray]

Buddy Emmons said it was Lloyd's idea. His explanation would work.
I find them useful, and I'm glad he expanded the neck.