PEDAL STEEL GUITAR  - Some essentials for beginners.

Major & Minor Chords: can be found on strings 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 10 in these combinations:  

          3 4 5        4 5 6       5 6 8     3 5 8    6 8 10    4 6 10

With no pedals or knee levers and no bar these inversions will give you a chord of E

With pedals A+B and no bar these inversions will give you

a chord of A

With pedal A and knee lever F and no bar these inversions will give you

a chord of C#

With pedal A and no bar these inversions will give you

a chord of C#m

With knee lever E and no bar these inversions will give you

a chord of G#m

Right hand:

The picks should pluck the strings at 90 degrees to the strings.

Pick blocking is when you block the string with the pick after plucking it.

Palm blocking is when you block the strings with the flesh beneath your little finger of your right hand.

The right hand is also used to create harmonics.

Left hand:

Hold the steel bar by supporting the four corners.

Top right using the tip of your first finger, top left using  your second finger,

bottom right using your thumb and

bottom left using the base of your first finger.

Your first finger should rest from bottom left to top right.

Keep the third and fourth fingers spread out and lightly pressed against the strings.

Vibrato:

Move the second finger and thumb away from the steel bar so that it is only supported by the first finger but keep your third and fourth fingers in position and still resting on the strings. Now ROLL the steel bar left and right. Do NOT slide the bar as this will result in a bluesy bottle neck sound. Only slide the bar when moving from one fret to another whilst holding the left hand grip.

Left foot:

The home position for the left foot is above pedals A and B together.

Depress pedal A by tilting the foot and pedal B by tilting the other way.

Pedals A and B are also commonly depressed together.

Right foot:

The right foot operates the volume pedal.

It is often used to sustain the sound of the strings.