New Pedal Steel Uses

Christopher Goodman
May 12, 1997

New Uses for the Pedal Steel

The pedal steel guitar is a uniquely American instrument. It is a descendent of the Hawaiian slide guitar and is related to the dobro, which are two American instruments. When electric guitars were introduced, pickups were added to the Hawaiian guitar, and the body of the instrument was changed, eliminating the natural amplification to avoid feedback. Thus the modern lap steel or slide steel was created. It was an all electronic instrument that is still commonly used today by such artists as Junior Brown. Though an easy to play and somewhat flexible instrument, it had several key drawbacks, especially when compared to a regular electric guitar. Because the fingers fret the strings on a regular guitar, there is some flexibility as to the voicing of chords and the technique of changing chords. Many different types of chords are possible. However, there is much less flexibility on the lap steel because a bar is used to fret the strings. This is what led to the development of the pedal steel - lap steel players wanted more options, so they added pedals, and later knee levers, that bend strings up or down in adjustable amounts. This equipment was added as early as the late thirties, but it did not become common until the fifties and sixties. More strings were also added. (Van Allen)

With these continuous changes, a standard pedal steel was slow to develop. Arguably there is no standard, but there are two or three common forms now. At one point, professional steelers commonly used steels having up to twelve strings per neck, with over ten pedals and six knee levers. Although many professionals still develop their own pedal steel, there are two forms that are considered standard. The two forms relate primarily to the number of necks. A pedal steel in the middle to high price range will have two necks, one neck is usually tuned to some variation of a C6 chord, but the exact pitches still vary a lot. The other neck is tuned to the more common E9 "Nashville" tuning system. It is this tuning that is most common on single neck models.

# note_LKL_Ped1___Ped2__Ped3__LKR__RKL___RKR

1 F# ________________________________+G_________

2 D# ______________________________________-D/C#_

3 G# _____________+A____________________________

4 E __+F________________+F#____-Eb________________

5 B _______+C#__________+C#______________________

6 G# _____________+A_____________________________

7 F# _____________________________________________

8 E __+F_______________________-Eb_________________

9 D _________________________________________-C#__

10 B _______+C#___________________________________

("Nashville" tuning Table by Bob Shilling) (Lee)

The number of pedals has settled down to about three or four, with about the same number of knee levers. Almost always, the left two pedals are standard - pedal one raises the B's to C#'s, and pedal two raises the G#'s to A's. This facilitates easy sliding from the I chord to the IV chord, or V to I, in major without having to move the bar between the two chords. The other pedals are less standard, although a common use for the third pedal is raising the fourth string (counting to the player from the farthest string) to F# and fifth string to C#. One of the knee levers is usually used to drop low E down to D#. Certain types of knee levers allow you to set two changes for the same lever, giving you some tactile feedback as to which one you are using. Steels with this knee lever often add an E to D change to the E to D# one, or (as in the table) D# down to D and C#.

For traditional playing, three picks are used. The output of the instrument is run through a volume pedal, and then sent to an amp. Reverb is often added, too, and this has become an important, recognizable aspect of the sound. Techniques for articulating notes set the sound of this instrument apart. The picks are worn on the underside of the finger, and the goal is to "rub," not pick, the strings in a claw-like fashion. A steel bar, a little less than one inch in diameter is used to fret the strings, and is left resting on the strings without picking it up. The volume pedal is used constantly in most playing, especially in slower music, to shape the notes. One of the biggest clichés in country music is a pedal steel sliding in on the chorus of a sad ballad. Almost always, the player uses a volume pedal to give a slow attack to the sound, and to help sustain the sound for measures without having to restrike the strings, while still being able to change notes using the pedals and knee levers. (Easter)

This is how the pedal steel developed and how it is usually played today. Though a difficult, or at least very different, instrument, it seems that the flexibility of this instrument would make it among the more popular instruments of today. It is easy to modify, can use all the effects a regular guitar can, and has few limitations on the voicings of chords, if it has enough pedals and a logical tuning system. However, the sound is still cliché. Even in recent country music releases it seems to be reserved for slow, sad songs - the fiddle has reclaimed any territory not dominated by the electric guitar. This loss of interest in the pedal steel, as well as its interesting capabilities and playing techniques, are what have drawn me to the instrument. I hope to become a capable player, with plenty of techniques that will allow me to use the instrument in many genres outside of stereotypical "country."

One way to do this is to export the instrument directly to other styles, or to go back to earlier styles in which it was used. The "father" of the pedal steel, Alvino Rey, did not play country music - he was a big band leader. In the one recording I have found, his steel sounds rather like the typical guitar of his day, in uses and in sound. He took a rather interesting solo, but most of what I have heard could have been done on a regular guitar. However, the voicings of chords on a steel often resemble the way parts for a horn section are written, so sometimes a players today actually try to mimic the sounds of the horn section in big bands. The ability to slide also invites imitation of the trombone, as Jeff "Skunk" Baxter did with Steely Dan, replicating the original trombone solo of Duke Ellington's "East Saint Louis Toodle-oo." (Van Allen)

The pedal steel has also been used in some Rock and Blues recordings. This is not surprising, since country is so closely related to these two genres. Uses in these two genres is often even more cliché than in country music, for it is often used to add a whiny sound, or to "countrify" the sound of a song. However, one rather unexpected use is by Demola Adopoju of Nigeria. He plays pedal steel guitar, minus the volume pedal, in a pop/tribal dance music genre known as Juju with African music legend King Sunny Ade. "Country music from ANOTHER COUNTRY!," as David Van Allen puts it. (Van Allen) I strongly suggest listening to this music if you want to hear something different, inovative, and good. Juju music comes from Yoruban (largest Nigerian tribe) traditional music. It gained in popularity as an average/working man's alternative to Highlife, the popular music of the more elite in Nigeria, and it surpassed Highlife in popularity in the 1960's. It is rooted in tradition - percussion is very important, particularly the talking drum, and vocals are usually of the call and response variety. But, these musicians are also innovators - taking in western/european instruments and making them their own, such as the accordian, the pedal steel, and most recently (late 70's, early 80's), the synthesizer.

Michael Perlowin's 1995 album "Firebird Suite" brought Twentieth century classical music to the pedal steel. (Lee) As far as I have found, this is the only album using the pedal steel in modern art music, and none of the works recorded were written for the pedal steel. However, it is an important album for the pedal steel, in much the same way as Walter Carlos's "Switched-On Bach" was important for the synthesizer. It shows that the instrument is agile enough to be used in music other than its traditional settings.

One obvious way to break away from the sound of the pedal steel is to use effects. I think this is rather ironic, because reverb is almost a defining characteristic of the regular sound. But, as Perlowin says,

I don't consider Reverb an effect; it's an integral part of the sound of the instrument. I have a custom patch in my digital reverb that has just the barest hint of flanging added. It's so subtle you can't hear it, but it adds a shimmering effect to the reverb that's very effective on the steel. (Perlowin)

So, one can see that steel players pay a lot of attention to effects, even though the effects are often light. But for achieving a different sound, "I use everything. Distortion, compression, phase shifter, wah wah pedal, Chorus, Flange, Echo, etc. but I use them all VERY sparingly. Like seasoning in cooking." (Perlowin). Rusty Young used many effects, notably playing through a Leslie rotating speaker cabinet for an "organ" tone. (Van Allen) I tried this technique using the Boss SE-70 effects processor and found it surprisingly convincing. Probably because that is characteristic of an organ, but also because the steel can have a fairly pure tone.

I have spent time using the pedal steel with analog synthesizers. This has produced some interesting, but unexpected results. Pitch tracking is especially bad with the Pitch to Voltage converter, even when playing only one note at a time. Sympathetic vibrations from the other strings, and other extraneous noise, confused it. This problem carried over to my other attempts, which were Ring Modulation, Frequency Modulation, Amplitude Modulation, and some filtering. Of these, only filtering worked the way I anticipated. The first two did produce interesting results, though - a very complex, full sound, the qualities of which I could vary in any number of ways, from sliding the bar to strumming or tapping the strings. Amplitude Modulation, especially with a square wave, gave the instrument a gritty sound, and when the oscillator was slowed down produced many fast reoccurring notes, sort of like an infinite delay.

A fellow Conservatory Student, Evan Gardner, and I have been trying new and different ways of articulating notes. I have adopted a fourth pick, which I hope will allow me to add more seventh chords in some other tunings, though I continue to use the standard E9 because I am new to the instrument. A fifth pick is not feasible for me because I use the side and pinkie of my right hand to stop my notes. This, along with finger blocking are the two normal techniques for stopping notes. (Easter) Tapping the strings, instead of "rubbing" them, also produces usable results. The sound is softer and has more noise, but still has a definite pitch. Evan has decided to not use picks at all - he switches instruments often, and does not want to have to fumble with finger picks just to take a quick solo on the pedal steel. This changes the sound, but not as much as one would expect, because the normal technique with picks is more of a rub. However, it still gives a softer attack. (Gardner) Another technique is playing the strings like a drum with the palm or fingers of the hand. This produces a wall of sound that hints at a chord, because of the tuning, but is much more complex sounding. And with all of these effects, including use with synthesizers, the addition of sliding the bar creates a new, distinctive sound. For instance, in the drum example, the pitches change, but there are too many pitches for there to be a tonal center.

The final way that I have researched for breaking away from cliché pedal steel usage is the development of alternate tuning setups. Although there still is not much of a standard, like there is a standard for the piano or guitar, the E9 tuning has become overly common. Many players feel that this tuning is limiting, even though it has its definite uses. Part of the problem with the tuning is that it is so well suited to country music, which emphasizes triads, 6ths, and 9ths, instead of 7th chords. Alvino Rey got around this by having ten different pedals. The sheer number of pedals gave him many options on types and voicings of chords. He also used four knee levers. It should be noted, though, that Michael Perlowin used the E9 tuning in his "Firebird Suite" recording, so the E9 tuning still has its possibilities.

Bobby Lee, and a few others, have been experimenting with a diatonic, or scaler, tuning. Most of these tunings seem to mimic the way the pedals are set up on a harp - they are used to change the key signature. No particular diatonic tuning has become popular, but I am experimenting with a variation based on Bobby Lee's (Bobby Lee's f diatonic[outside link]), which seems to be well thought out. In fact, he states that this is the tuning he usually uses when he reads music, and makes references to playing Bach using it. I have been at a disadvantage in developing a useful diatonic tuning because my pedal steel only has one knee lever. A successful diatonic tuning, at least one that is harp-like in nature, requires several knee levers so that more key signatures can be easily reached.

My main problem with the regular E9 tuning is that it is so major - I can play minor chords, but I am very limited in my options (especially because I only have one knee lever). A drawback of the diatonic tunings is the loss of range - open strings are confined to just over an octave, while the standard tuning stretches almost two octaves, with common variations going over that. But, using the bar, the instrument still has just over three octaves of usable range with the diatonic tunings. The diatonic tuning, being scaler, also seems to make reading music easier. In the E9 tuning, the pitches of the strings are not exactly in order, and the intervals between neighboring strings can vary from up a fourth to down a fourth. This, along with the many variations of pedal functions, obviously makes reading standard notation on the E9 a little confusing, especially if the music has more than one note at a time (after all, it is a chordal instrument). Another drawback is the loss of most or all whole step bends - the pedals and levers are used up creating the key changes. This is a big loss because one of the unusual, and characteristic, abilities of the instrument is the ability to simultaneously bend the pitches of different strings different amounts, which is practically impossible even with the best synthesizers (and complicated when it is possible, often requiring use of external software like Max and internal modification on individual MIDI channels).

The pedal steel is really helping to round out my general instrumental techniques. It is the first string instrument that I have concentrated on learning, which nicely works in with my training on keyboards and brass. It is a chordal instrument, but it requires a different way of looking at music. Listening to intonation is of utmost importance. It also requires coordination, a skill I am lacking in, but that I am being forced to develop playing this instrument. I have enjoyed learning to play it, and recommend it to anybody looking for a new instrument for playing or composing.

Works Cited:

I especially recommend looking at the tuning pages - there is a link to them from the main page listed above.

4. Perlowin, Michael. Email correspondence. March 12, 1997

5. Gardner, Evan. Telephone interview. April 21, 1997

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