Using Pedals on a Pedal Steel Guitar

Pedal Movement

Portamento Pedal Movement
The most fundamental of PSG techniques is the use of pedals to create a portamento sound. This can mean raising the pitch or lowering it. To perform this, strike a note with the finger pick and engage the pedal or knee lever.

Try this exercise. No bar for now; let's just use the pedals in the open position. The slash (/) means to smoothly play to the next note without striking the second note. If you don't remember where these pedals are located, click HERE.

Exercise 9

Now move the bar to the 3rd fret and hold it steady there.

Exercise 10

Non-portamento Pedal Movement
Just because we can play a note and keep it ringing while we engage a pedal, does note mean we have to. In fact, we may want to use a pedal to play a note but don't want to hear the note "bend." This requires non-portamento pedal movement.

Just as with finger picking, the point is to exercise control. Sometimes we may want the note to bend. Sometimes we don't. Here is an exercise to build your control. Notice there are no slashes because each note is sounded individually.

Exercise 11