Question for Nashville studio players

Dave Mudgett · From: Central Pennsylvania and Gallatin, Tennessee

I fairly often play slide guitar on a baritone guitar, or using the Drop pedal if that's what I have. It's a pretty unique sound. To hear some examples in the wild, look for Mike Henderson and the Bluebloods. This is a great example outside the normal blues slide guitar realm, from around 1996 - The Edge of Night - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dY2w4OJNN5g - or One Foot In The Honky Tonk - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RuYyJlz2dwM

Or a nice mix of slide, baritone, and pedal steel (courtesy Tommy Spurlock) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RuYyJlz2dwM - and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJn19BrzLAo - or Steve Hinson - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2Bjw6E9DdU. These examples are also more outside the blues vein, but the baritone guitar (I like it on dropped lap steel too) is very effective in that lower range, but out of the way of the other guitars, steel, and bass.

If/when you're in Nashville, I highly recommend checking Mike out at the Bluebird Cafe, where he has been holding down the fort on Monday nights for over 30 years - https://www.tennessean.com/story/entertainment/music/2015/05/10/mike-henderson-marks-years-blues-bluebird-cafe/27086005/. I always have to plan my Mondays carefully when I'm in town so I catch the Time Jumpers one week and Mike on another. It's usually more in a blues vein, but the band kicks major butt.

Dale Rivard · From: Ontario, Canada

Hi Danny, I don't live in Nashville but do a fair bit or recording. For me, it depends on the song whether I'll tune down or not. There are some open string things we can do in the key of "G" but also as Bob Hoffnar has mentioned, some cool open string sounds in the key of "F#". Each unique and different. On a session a while back, I tuned a dobro down to "F#" to get open strings. Worked and sounded fine.

Andrew Goulet · Posted 9 Feb 2023 10:05 am

I would think that lap/Dobro players might retune, but I've never heard of a pedal steel retuning for a song, even in the studio. I would think it would add a lot of time and effort to the session. You'd have to retune, recalibrate all the pedals and levers (possibly running into mechanical problems), play the song (with the pedals and levers possibly having a different feel), and then retune and recalibrate after the session.

Maybe somebody does this but it's a lot of extra effort for minimal advantages, especially for a session player who's not going to be compensated for the extra effort.

However I understand why other instruments are drop-tuned. I think most people don't hold drop-tuning in contempt (look at the Buckaroos), it's just that it doesn't really apply to pedal steel in 99% of situations.
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Richard Alderson · From: Illinois, USA

Dear Danny - You actually got a reply from a top notch steel player on your very first post. He said he just moves his chair an inch. He was talking in earnest. Basically with very few exceptions, not only is re-tuning is not necessary on a pedal steel, it is also undesirable. A six string player can quickly drop the E to D, or even drop all six strings a half step, and its quick and painless- just tune the open strings and you're ready to go. A pedal steel player would have to re-tune 10 open strings, and then also would have to tweak 9 or 10 or 11 (or even more !)"changes" and pedal raises and lowers that are inter-related. Throwing one of them off slightly can affect the others. It would be something of a mess just for one song. And totally unnecessary. So I would believe that mostly nobody does it, as clearly stated above, you just have to move the bar an inch and play the same chord forms and string grips up one fret or down one fret. Where its much more common to tune a string up or down on the fly in the middle of a set would be with lap steel/resonator guitars, although that was not your question, but it can be quite common performing with lap steel or dobro. Pedal steel was built to be able to play in all keys more or less equally by just moving the bar.

Respectfully yours,
Richard A.
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Danny Smith · From: Georgia, USA

Thanks everyone for the replies.

Having been a guitar player for many years, i realize two things will be a little different as I transition to steel:

1. I will have to go back to thinking in patterns and positional relationships of chords, at least for a while. With guitar, i have learned the neck so well (in standard keys) that I visualize the notes and their numbers everywhere on the neck, without thinking primarily in terms of chords or positional relationships (unless it's needed for the song). For example, if I want to catch a '5' note, I just know where all of them are by name and number (again in standard keys) and grab the one with the tone or location I need. So far with steel, I am trying to do similarly, but I'm memorizing at least 4 locations to grab each chord (3 grips and an octave). So far, that's working pretty good.

2. Due to capos and alternate tuning, I have never put any effort into learning the keys of F#/Gb, G#/Ab, C#/Db, or D#/Eb. Guess I need to at least memorize their locations and relative minors now.

Dave Mudgett · From: Central Pennsylvania and Gallatin, Tennessee

I don't know what kind of music you've been playing on guitar. But if you want to play country music on pedal steel, one needs to realize that keys are not generally picked for the convenience of the musicians, but for the singer. The singer is the king or queen. The term 'artist' is routinely used for the singer, to give you an idea of the priority.

So there are not necessarily 'standard' keys. Eb, Db, Bb, Ab, F#, F, or anything else might come up. They routinely do for me. And you're not gonna be able to re-tune a pedal steel, wholesale, up or down between songs. There are steel guitar capos, but I don't that would be straightfoward for pedal steel. I guess you could use something like a Drop pedal, but I've not found the need to do that. Seriously, I think knowing the fretboard in all keys is important.

The good part is that you don't even have to be able to make a good bar chord. The steel bar does it for you, and both the bar and pedal changes are totally agnostic about what key you're in. The bar basically acts as a movable capo. But you do need to know the various positions to play for each key.

Henry Matthews · From: Texarkana, Ark USA

Yes, using sharps and flats is no problem for most steel players though I dislike some of them, C# for instance just doesn’t sound in tune to my ears.. we do Jones on Jukebox C# to D. It sounds terrible until we modulate to D and then just all smooths out.
I think these bands that tune down half step is just totally useless and makes some of instruments sound terrible. The Telly just looses its bite to me. Tuning down doesn’t bother most steel players but it sure puts a kink in using a fiddle in band. You guys tune back up to standard and would sound much better. If singer can’t go up a half tone then maybe they need to learn how. I refuse to play Right or Wrong in F# on the fiddle, I won’t even try. Also, a steel tuned down just doesn’t make sense. Some do it to prevent string breakage. Well you need to fix your guitar or buy better strings. I can’t even remember last time I broke a string and I don’t tune down. My rants for the day! 😊
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Henry Matthews

D-10 Magnum, 8 &5, dark rose color
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Nashville 112 amp, Fishman Loudbox Performer amp, Hilton pedal, Goodrich pedal,BJS bar, Kyser picks, Live steel Strings. No effects, doodads or stomp boxes.

Fred Treece · From: California, USA

I remember buying a song book when I was 14 because it had Jumpin Jack Flash in it, and feeling totally defeated by the fact that it was written in Eb. How the heck was Keith playing that cool guitar stuff in such a weird key? Nobody I knew had a clue about drop tuning, which many years later is what I learned the Stones did for that song. Now everybody knows about Keith’s drop and open G tunings.

I think drop tunings sound great on guitar. So many singers and horn players love those flat keys, and for good reason, why fight it? I have known guitarists who keep a standard E tuned guitar and an Eb one on stage, as well as having a drop-D tuning peg on string 6. Plus capos. When you need open strings, you need open strings.

For pedal steel, naaahhh. Man up.

Danny Smith · From: Georgia, USA

I practiced a little bit with a song in F# tonight (Handle on You with dangerous Dan on steel). The positioning felt a little strange, and I still need to memorize the chords, but using relative positioning, it was surprisingly pretty easy to adjust to, and the tone is really nice in F#. So, I'm a quick convert. Laughing

Tim Harr · From: Dunlap, Illinois

I don't know any steel player that would tune down for a single song ...live or in the studio. I understand why Gary Morse would drop 1/2 step, if he is playing every night on a tour.

I play with a band sometimes that tunes down 1/2 step. I just play everything 1 fret lower.
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