Pedal steel guitar-Steel Guitar-Joe Wright

Up to this point, we've looked at only the major scale. Now we are going to study the chromatic scale. The graphic below gives us twelve squares and each of those represents a fret on our guitar. They are numbered 1 through 12. Inside each square we have filled in a musical value. All we did was add the altered tones to the major scale pattern, which we see immediately below the chromatic scale.

I use only one octave of the scales. This means that the extended chords, such as the flat 9, are derived by knowing that the flat 9, is the flat 2 an octave higher. If you need more study on this subject, you can find it in most music theory books. We use the same notes on our our guitar that all of the other instruments use, only we have more fun.

Let's review. We have a grid of squares that has twelve columns and ten rows. The rows, up and down, are the ten strings. The twelve columns across are the frets. We start at the first fret and go across to the twelfth. That gives us 120 total positions in one octave on a ten string guitar. These positions represent where a string and a fret intersect. We give each position a square. Inside the square we can place a number which is the scale tone. The scale tone is dependent on the key and the scale type.

Immediately to our left is the grid completely filled. Each note on your fretboard is represented by a scale tone number. The key is C and the scale type is chromatic.

As you start to study scales on you steel, you have to start seeing patterns. The major scale in the key of C should be put to memory. That will tell you what note you have in your 120 string/fret intersections. When I study chords, I use the chromatic scale and then study each row to see what the possibilities are. Every note has a relationship to every other note. For example, if I use the 8th fret, strings 4, 5, 6, then Iknow that that is a major triad in the key of C. But what are those notes relationship to the key of D? To see this let's look at the chromatic scale in the key of D. To make things easier, I've shaded the area on the grid. So the same notes we see what they represent in C, have a new meaning in the key of D. These three notes have a relationship to every key. The computer allows us to look at the same three positions and study what they mean to each key.

Of course if we were to push pedals that moved any of the strings we are studying, then we could use the computer to show us what our three positions mean to any key. The more ways you can find to study your guitar, the more you'll be able to find on your guitar. With all of the courses, videos, tablature, play-a-long tapes and methods that are available to the steel student, you should try to learn from as many different sources as you possibly can.

Scales 4