String numbers

Jeffrey McFadden · Post by **Jeffrey McFadden** » 19 Mar 2018 8:09 am

One of the most unexpected things to me about the pedal steel journey so far has been having to learn, like, really learn and know on the fly, string numbers.

Everything else I ever played, I really didn't care about string numbers, 1 through 10 or whatever. The strings represented notes, or scale degrees. I knew the strings on my lap steel as 1,3,5,6, etc. Scale degree numbers.

But with the pedals and levers, with the changes, only the string numbers are immutable. So people say, play that on strings 3, 4, and 5...

It's actually been one of the harder things to learn, for me, and I still practice on recognizing them on the fly.

Just one of many fascinating things about this instrument.

Ian Rae · Post by **Ian Rae** » 19 Mar 2018 9:50 am

I agree - another on the list of things to get used to. And if (like I'm doing at the moment) you're learning C6 tab on a universal, you have to remember that string 3 is 5, and 1 is 2, and so on and on....

If nothing else keeps me sharp in my old age, this surely will

Jeffrey McFadden · Post by **Jeffrey McFadden** » 19 Mar 2018 10:07 am

Ian Rae wrote:I agree - another on the list of things to get used to. And if (like I'm doing at the moment) you're learning C6 tab on a universal, you have to remember that string 3 is 5, and 1 is 2, and so on and on....

If nothing else keeps me sharp in my old age, this surely will

It's funny - I thought I Absolutely Had To Have a C6 neck - and I haven't plucked a string on it all week. I may someday go to E9 extended, for the low notes, but I'm so in love with E9 for what I play I'm never looking back.

Which is a good thing. I think my brain would melt down if I was doing what you're doing.

Donny Hinson · Post by **Donny Hinson** » 19 Mar 2018 11:21 am

In similar fashion, one thing that struck me as odd when I first played a 10-string E9th was that the 7th string was a 9th, and the 9th string was a 7th!

Jeffrey McFadden · Post by **Jeffrey McFadden** » 19 Mar 2018 3:28 pm

Donny Hinson wrote:In similar fashion, one thing that struck me as odd when I first played a 10-string E9th was that the 7th string was a 9th, and the 9th string was a 7th!

That smoke you smell isn't a tire fire, it's my brain burning.

Ian Rae · Post by **Ian Rae** » 19 Mar 2018 3:42 pm

I forgot to mention also that fret 4 is fret 5......

Tucker Jackson · Post by **Tucker Jackson** » 19 Mar 2018 8:12 pm

Not to mention that, regarding strings:

3 is half of 6, and they're tuned to the same note.
4 is half of 8, and they're also a pair.
5 is half of 10... I think you know where this going.

+++

In terms of scale tones, in the no-pedals fret:
3rd string is the 3rd of the chord
5th string is the 5th of the chord.

If you can remember that the 4th string is the root, you'll have all three notes of the E major chord at the nut. Note this only applies in no-pedals position; in any other chord position like AB, the root, etc, move to different strings.

And then those three notes also exist on the other string in their pair set (see the first part of this post above. We're talking strings 10, 8, and 6. Divide, say, 10 in half, you get 5. So string 10 is like string 5, which we memorized was a 5th. Easy memory trick).