My playing on PSG stinks and s---s

Jerry Recktenwald · From: Louisville KY

First of all I would like to thank each and everyone for your valuable insight.I will try to put your suggestions into practice. I definitely agree on playing out helps. You will play things that will surprise yourself that you do not do at home playing. One thing that I need to get down is to learn the E scale with not using the bar. and learn the fretboard like I know the guitar.In the country band that I'm in I been told Jerry doesn't need the music just tell him the key.At the end of the day when I get home I'm tired and lazy because I'm on my feet all day working on a concrete floor. Also when your 65 the get up and go sometimes has just got up and went! A few lessons would do me a lot of good. I know a steel player on this sight who I could possibility give me some lessons [ not free] I know that this post would help someone that wants to learn how to play the PSG May God bless everyone of you and those who will add to this post Jerry R
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If I couldn't play music I would go nut's.How do people go thru life and not have a hobby? life would be boring.

Kevin Fix · From: Michigan, USA

You can practice for four hours a day for four years and you will think you still suck!!!!! When I got to that point, it just made me try harder. I never looked back. Over 35 years now. I still am not the best their is but I do enjoy the Hell out of it!!!! Smile

Bill Terry · From: Bastrop, TX

Jon Zimmerman · From: California, USA

This is quite the thread you started, Jerry. When PF gives advice, and others with expert views to co-incide, blend in...ALL of us stop to listen.
Let's not overlook "feeding the need" as well, AND for wellness. Coffee and snacks won't complete the task of energizing AND sustaining those muscle memory functions and brain cell strain/drain. You should be aware of that old adage "You are what you eat", ..and with that in mind--
Couldn't hurt to marry that nice, deaf woman, who is a great cook either.
Laughing

Jerry Recktenwald · From: Louisville KY

I think that I've found some of my problems. #1 when practicing my open [ no bar] E scale if I do not mute the highest string then my picking hand is not in the right position. My picking fingers are not in to my palm enough.Because the crevice of my hand isn't where it supposed to be . #2 when I slide the bar to a chord to get that steel sound I'm sliding a fret and one half. I found that if I slide 1/2 of a fret sounds a lot better, not as sloppy. I also found playing without reverb or any other effects I somewhat figure out why I sound so bad!
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If I couldn't play music I would go nut's.How do people go thru life and not have a hobby? life would be boring.

Chris Templeton · From: The Green Mountain State

Start with playing one string, hit the note and then add vibrato, like a singer; remembering that the vibrato gets narrower as you move up the neck.
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Arthur Dickerson · From: New Orleans,Louisiana, USA

If you want to improve how you feel about your E9th playing, get a double neck and start working on the C6th. It is amazing how much better your E9 sounds after you do that.
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Paul Sutherland · From: Placerville, California

I haven't heard you play, of course, but I think fairly universal good advice for PSG is play fewer notes, and focus your practice time on intonation.

Many people learning get stuck in the rut of playing too many three note chords. You can get so much emotion out of just a single note, so just play one note the biggest portion of the time, and just two the second most. This holds true, at least for me, for slow passages just as much as it does for faster pieces.

Regarding intonation I don't intend to start a debate about how to tune, but I will say don't rigidly trust the fret lines. Sometimes you have to drift off the fret to get it in tune. That's particularly true if you tune Just Intonation (as I do) and are using the A & F combo. Learn to trust your ears.

Nothing separates the good from the mediocre more than intonation.
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It don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing.

Terry Winter · From: Saskatchewan, Canada

Back in the 70's when I started there were no players anywhere I could use as a resource so just got what courses I could, most were over my head and learned the basics. Was a long process then one day thought how about playing a song in the open position then move up the neck and play the same melody pedals down. After that something fell into place and learning licks, tricks etc only added to what I could do. I found I could play almost anything thrown at me as long as I knew the chord progression and even if I could not get the melody exact I could just play around it and it all worked out...... hey but that just worked for me.

Michael Sawyer · From: North Carolina, USA

I try to walk up and down ,same chord,different places,different inversions.

Biggest thing I figured out is dont overplay,and beat everybody over the head with the same licks...
And play with other musicians every chance I get.
When I bought my first pedal steel, I was already playing lap steel in a band.I had to do it or get kicked to the curb.Dont beat yourself up,keep picking,if it was easy everybody could do it....

Michael Lester · From: Illinois, USA

I've been away from pedal steel since the early '80s in favor of straight western swing steel.

Getting back in to pedals, I've found that a great tool is Karaoke tracks. I acquired from a friend hundreds of backing tracks that he uses in his one-man-band show.

They're professionally done, have different keys, different rhythms and different time signatures. Many of the Country tracks have a steel and fiddle already there - it's fun to see if I can replicate the player on the track.

I can kill an hour very quickly just jamming to these tracks. I sometimes setup a small ZOOM recorder that records my track on the steel and the backing track - listening to the recording makes it real easy to find where you swelled badly or the squeeze was too abrupt.

FWIW, there are a number of sites that offer free karaoke backing tracks.

Douglas Schuch · From: Valencia, Philippines

I'm sorry, but your comments are out of line. When I started playing I was told you have to play 2 years before you can brag "I suck at pedal steel". You've only played 1 1/2!

Seriously, though, that is the truth - it does take 2 years to play badly. I've been playing (with some interruptions) 8 year, and with a band for 1 year, and some days I feel like what I play actually sounds good and compliments the music. At this point, I feel like I play pretty good, but I am terrible at improvising creatively, and to tackle a new song takes me at least a month to figure out what I want to play (not note for note, but positions over the chords, and ways to follow the melody) and then get it up to speed and be able to play it with the band without screwing it up. So my band can not add new material that features pedal steel very quickly.

That feels pretty limiting, but it's the best I can do at the moment.
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Joseph Napolitano · From: New Jersey, USA

My Advice would be:
1.Take Paul's course. It's like having Tiger Woods analyze your golf swing
2.Practice every minute you can ( give up TV, sleep less, whatever it takes).
3.Work on intonation, use drone tracks. A lot.
4.Record yourself and listen carefully, without judging too harshly.
5.Get in a band, play with as many quality musicians as you can, keep your playing simple, and record it.
6. Take Paul's course , for years. Go without food to pay for it if you must.
7. Take Paul's course. With any other hobby/avocation/career, when do you have access to the best on the planet for in depth instruction, along with interactive personalized feedback thru the companion Facebook page ? Someday, when this course is no longer around, everyone that didn't take advantage of it is gonna kick themselves for missing the learning opportunity of a lifetime.

Jacek Jakubek · From: Mississauga, Ontario, Canada

Roy Carroll · From: North of a Round Rock

I'm not the best at articulating what I aim to say here:
Beginners have the toughest time with intonation, it seems.
Bar pressure and blocking helps that.
I wonder why no one teaches these few things? I just call it positions.
1. Pedals down 1 fret back add "F" lever = augmented chord
2.Three frets in front of the open chord with pedal "A" and "F" lever is same major chord.
3.Pedals down, 2 frets back with "A" pedal only is first relative minor.
4. Pedals up 3 frets in front with "F" lever only is diminish chord.
5. Pedals down, with "A" pedal only is six minor.
This works in any open or pedals down position in any chord.
There are a lot more and everyone please chime in.
If beginners word learn these simple rules of position (and more) they would understand the guitar better.
Go Flamers.
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Just north of the Weird place, south of Georgetown

Chris Walke · From: St Charles, IL

Jacek Jakubek · From: Mississauga, Ontario, Canada

I like how Jerry in the original post did not really specify in detail why he thought his playing is bad, so this became a "general advice for how not to suck on pedal steel" advice thread, with everyone giving bits of random advice. I love it. Great stuff!

Willie Crisel · From: Charlotte, Tennessee, USA

can't add much to whats been said,,but playing in frount of a great player/teacher or live gig always tightens my playing up,,no excessive bar shaking,,no over pumping the volume pedal,,been practicing with no volume pedal lately ,,

Mike Beley · From: Alberta, Canada

Gregory Turner · From: Ohio, USA

This is a little lengthy. In 1998 I bought my first pedal steel. I played 6 hours a day for 6 months and got pretty good. Then i didnt play for 10 years. Then played for 6 months and quit again for another 10 years. Just had family issues and all that. Ive now been playing for about 8 months. You have to put in the time. And also that time you put in, needs to be productive. Last night I spent several hours working on PF permutations, and phrasing. I mean, hours of just picking hand techniques. I do progress to some degree everyday. I do believe there are some people that are just more talented than others. Thats how it is in everything in life. I know new guitar players that want to learn Brent Mason guitar licks and then they get upset because they dont sound like him. Here is what I told him. If it doesnt sound good slow and clean, its not going to sound good fast. And be yourself. Some learn faster than others. All I can say is start at the foundation and build your way up. Look at it this way, If you are trying to learn things that are too advanced, youre only going to stay frustrated. PauL Franklins School has helped me to always go over the basics everyday. I'll sit down and go over string groups for a few mins. Then I will work on the bar and go up and down the fret board for a few making sure I'm landing on the frets in the right spots. Then Ill start permutations for a while, then I'll go through sets of chords and phrasings and just keep doing that for hours. It is the hardest instrument to play in my opinion. All i can say is keep at it and stay productive. Good luck guys!
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Dustin Rigsby · From: Parts Unknown, Ohio

Fake it until you make it. We donâ€™t do things because they are easy, we do them because they are hard. If you just pretend like you know what youâ€™re doing, sooner or later people believe that you do !
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D.S. Rigsby

David Mitchell · From: Tyler, Texas

What Franklin said and I'll add one more to that. One cannot play what they do not think. If you can't think it you can't play it. The exact sound you want needs to be running through your brain first in order for you hands, knees and feet to start acting it out.
Some of the greatest professionals I grew up around knew no theory or had no teachers other than a pile of records but the sounds they listened to were so engraved in their brain till they learned to mimic the same sound with their hands, knees and feet. This is not developed overnight. It takes more than just years. It takes thousands of hours in the cockpit to be a proficient pilot. Some players log more time in 3 years than others do in 30 years but I will say this, as far as true greatness in musician abilities some have it and some don't but everybody can always improve their skills.

David Mitchell · From: Tyler, Texas

The most important part for being a musician, singer, producer or audio engineer is learning to listen. Lot of people think they are listening but they are not listening close enough to truly understand what all is happening. You have to train your ears to zoom in and out at will when listening to audio. In this case what the steel part is actually doing. I chose not to concentrate only on pedal steel and be an extremely versatile studio player instead I chose to be adequate enough to make my local studio clients a country record entirely myself for $300.00 a song rather than $1800.00 a song bringing in a band. This allowed me to make $1200.00 in a day's time by not only playing steel but all the rest including the recording and mixing.
I learned to do this in a relatively short time by just really, really listening at what all is going on.
By the time I'm ready to record the first instrument I already have the record playing in my mind. Not only the notes and chords but the tone of the instruments and how the players expressed themselves. They each have a unique character of playing. Have I mentioned about listening instead of playing yet? Just stop playing when something seems difficult and just listen. Really listen and record every little nuance in your brain. As far is theory that's about as hard as learning your multiplication tables. Maybe more like learning to add and subtract. Start by playing three major chords to a simple song and go around the horn 1,4,5 using all combinations of pedals up and pedals down then do it in all other key signatures. It won't take you long to figure out there's a logic to the madness. When I use to give steel lessons before I got leukemia I could have my students playing with pros on the bandstand, any song, any key within 3 months if they just did the homework I gave them which wasn't very much. I never taught them how to play a single song. That's a waste of time. I taught them to listen and understand the general operation of a pedal steel. Once they could do that then they could start learning songs on their own. They didn't need my help after that. Being young also has an advantage to learning but you can still teach an old dog new tricks. I'm still learning and I'm 66. Started playing when I was 7.

https://youtu.be/RpZpgKNbWQs

Landon Johnson · From: Washington, USA

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