Moving in Phrases
You may remember that playing the chromatic scale at a single position with pedals is still kind of tricky, especially the notes on string 5 (SEE CHROMATIC LESSON HERE). In order to solve this problem, we can play a combination of vertical movement and horizontal movement. I call this "moving in phrases."
There any number of ways to move in phrases. You can move the bar every 2 notes, every 3 notes, every 4 notes, etc. Different strings can be used to make up these phrases too. Below are examples of 2, 3, and 4-note phrases using strings 5, 2 and 4.
Here is the chromatic using 2-note phrasing (in other words, the bar moves every 2 notes):
- You can find the notation legend here:
LEGEND
- You can find the full explanation of my notation system here:
PSG NOTATION
- You can find out how to read sheet music here:
READING MUSIC
- You can find the tuning arrangement of the pedals here:
COPEDENT
Here is the chromatic using 3-note phrasing:
Here is the chromatic using 4 note phrasing:
These patterns can be played very quickly if you have all the necessary pedals, namely the [d] Lever in this case. If you don't have the [d] change on your instrument (1/2 step lower on string 2), then see if you can find another set of strings where there are chromatic phrases. Like I mention above these are not the only strings on which to find chromatic phrases. Use the COPEDENT to see if you can find others.
Tetrachords
Moving through a scale 4 notes at a time is called playing tetrachords.
A tetrachord is a 4-note section of a scale.
All 7-note scales can be divided into 4-note halves.
For example, the C major scale:
CDEFGABC
can be divided into
CDEF and GABC
Translated onto the steel guitar, this means that you can play four notes at one position and move the bar and play the remaining four notes. This allows for rapid scale movement and is the preferred way to play through scales for many steel guitarists.
Where to play them? Because of the harmonic variety at each bar position, there are many locations across the neck to find tetrachords for numerous scale types. For now, I am going to list just 2 locations of the C major and A minor tetrachord patterns. This will give you an idea of how tetrachords work on the steel guitar.
C Major Tetrachords
C Major scale with Tetrachord pattern (root note on the 5th string):
Note this pattern requires the [e] Lever. If you do not have this lever on your instrument, you may use a bar slide to play the E and B notes. However, the trick to playing tetrachords quickly is to use as little bar and pedal movement within each pattern. In this case, then, it is probably better to play another tetrachord at a location that requires more basic pedals.
Here is an example (root on the 8th string):
This tetrachord formation only requires the [b] Pedal, which is equipt on nearly every Pedal Steel Guitar.
A Minor Tetrachords
Here are 2 ways to play the A minor scale with Tetrachord patterns:
There are many other ways to play tetrachords on the pedal steel with the basic E9 tuning. Finding uncommon ways to play them can lead to some unique and interesting phrasing in improvisation.
Next
Section:
DYADS
HISTORY
CONSTRUCTION
TUNING
COPEDENTS
LEGEND
NOTATION
BEGINNERS
SCALES
CHORDS
COMPOSITION
IMPROV
TECHNIQUES
EXERCISES
CLASSICS
TIMELINE