I hope you all are staying safe and healthy. I'm very pleased to announce a brand-new course I've just launched called Paul Franklin's E9 Pedal Steel Vocabulary.
For many years I have received requests from players to do a "Licks" course, where I demonstrate some of the classic sounds that have made the pedal steel guitar so beloved to us and to the public. I have hesitated to do so because I believe that just learning a bunch of licks is not a great way to learn how to play our instrument. There needed to be more to it than just a series of unconnected licks with no guidance on how to use them.
I wanted to find an approach that shows the vocabulary, but also teaches a bit of pedal steel history as to where these licks came from, shows you how to adapt and change any lick to fit other styles, and how I use this process to generate endless licks. To reach that goal, I recorded 50 lessons where I break the licks down into small components and make them easy to combine and alter. I cover some of the trademark sounds of the early greats and many of my own licks taken from my 50 years of live and studio playing.
These are the "pedal steel cliches" that artists and producers will often reference when you get a gig with a band or on a recording session. The marketing copy says "50 Licks", but there are many more than that as I dive deep into modifying them. As you work through the course, you can hear how I have absorbed the key playing styles of the early greats and added - or subtracted - to their ideas to create more. The ability to create an original part based on a style or genre is not magical...it comes from being familiar with this vocabulary and studying and analyzing it...learning how and why it works. Once you have done that, you now know how to generate your own new licks at will.
To learn more about the course, watch a trailer and read the FAQs, click here: E9 Pedal Steel Vocabulary
I hope you find the course as fun and inspiring as I did making it.
Paul
