Archive for October 2009

Changing Strings

by Joe
October 19th, 2009

I was giving a Pedal Steel Lesson the other day and the student asked about changing the strings on his Pedal Steel Guitar. I instructed him to consider how much he actually used them. If you are playing your steel a few hours a week then your strings should last at lot longer than if you are playing 8 hours every day. I like to keep the strings “fresh” sounding. The key to look for is when they start to buzz or whine. When they do this they are getting ready to break.

One tip for changing strings is to hold the string at the wind end and with a rag go the entire length of the string like you were cleaning it. This will get the winds out of the new string so when you put it on to the guitar it is not twisted. This will also help to give your strings more life than if you just put them on without getting the winds out. You can get your lesson with me on Skype. Check it out!!

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Live WebCasts

by Joe
October 11th, 2009

We are now streaming a lesson every once in awhile that are geared towards the E9th Pedal Steel Guitar. This instruction is viewed online with Quicktime Player and then the student gets to login and download the video to their hard drive. You can then watch it as often as you wish.

There are currently 10 lessons already recorded and available for purchase. You can check out the WebCast Lessons at the shopping cart. They start out giving my basics, we get into the right hand to start off, then the left. then we put them together. This Pedal Steel Guitar learning method is based upon many years of studying what works best and what are the possibilities.

Watch the video clip to see what happens when we talk about scales. See how charts are seen on the screen to help the student learn the scale patterns that are necessary to becoming a better Pedal Steel player.

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My Set-Up

by Joe
October 7th, 2009

One thing we get to do as steel players is choose our set-up. We get to arrange our pedals and knees the way that makes us the happiest. That is usually still the way they were on your first guitar! I like to think of my Universal Tuning as one big guitar, with huge possibilities. In My Approach to Pedal Steel Guitar I wrote about musical and physical “what if’s”!! You have two ways to change your sound. With your body or your guitar. I’ve done all the pencil and paper work on set-ups and ususally came back to the conclusion that anyone can play any set-up but they tend to stick with what they know.

Joes Ultimate Set-Up

Joe's Ultimate Set-Up

The above set-up is what I would get again on my next guitar. It has all kinds of possibilites for chords and single string patterns. There is a lot of information out there but my general rule for a set-up is to learn the one you got as good as you can. If then you want more then add pedals or knees or strings or however you want to make your playing become more like “you’.

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Multi Camera DVD’s

by Joe
October 1st, 2009

I ‘ve started creating the coolest teaching aids for learning to play Pedal Steel Guitar. I set-up 7 cameras on one steel and record them all separately. That allows me to move all the shots to one computer where I can edit them together to create DVD’s. These DVD’s have multi-angle set-ups. You learn to use your remote control to switch you view on the fly. So while you are watching the cameras on the screen you press your angle button and the view will change.

To make things ever more interesting I utilize 3 separate audio files on each track. You can change from Steel and Band, to Steel Only, and then band only. The audio button allows you to switch your audio with your remote control. The first DVD I made with these navigational tools was House of the Rising Sun. I played it with tracks and then added Scale Pattern practice sessions. The scale practice are directly related to the song. Different rhythms are also available with the audio button on the remote. House Of The Rising Sun.

Keep practicing hard.

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