Pedal Steel Guitar Basics

If degree of difficulty in learning to play a musical instrument could be measured, then the Pedal Steel Guitar would be at the top of the heap. There are many factors involved but the main one is the fact that it utilizes every limb. Putting all of the body parts together to play is what causes the beginner to progress at a slower rate than with other instruments.

To progress as a starter on the Pedal Steel Guitar the student needs to look at how his body does the work in creating the sound. The steel guitarist must develop the dexterity in the thumb, first finger and index finger. Each must become capable of starting any move or combination of moves. The picks on each of these fingers must allow the proper angle of attack upon the strings. The starter should learn to apply movement theories to the parts of the body that create the sound.

The way to work on the right hand, which has to pick the strings is to do basic drills that start off simple and then get more complicated. First thing is to work on the thumb, getting it to have the ability to pick a string without fumbling and tripping on the next adjacent string. The body parts that play the music can be trained to have total separation of movement by learning small moves and combining them together to create musical patterns. Those patterns can start with the Single Group. This is learning to play each of your fingers individually. Giving them there own individuality through drills and other training methods.

The Thumb is the simple starting point that you must develop to play Steel Guitar but as you move on you would work on each of the individual moves. These are the single movement group. To play them you would do each of them four times. Play the Thumb, then play the first finger, then play the second finger. This gives you the single group of movements.

Thumb/First finger is a way to alternate between right hand body parts. You would play this movement over and over again. Each finger must learn to play by itself before you start to combine them into groups. This alternate move is another stepping stone in working on playing the Steel Guitar.

Continuing the simple alternate group is learning to combine your thumb and second finger. Over and over. Then you would learn to move the first finger and second finger in repeating alternating moves. This will strengthen the muscles that play and give you a solid foundation for moving the opposite movements of the first three basic alternates. You can learn the other three alternates by reading these first three alternates backwards. Thumb/First Finger, Thumb/Second Finger and First Finger/Second Finger. Learn these forwards and backwards and you’ll be on your way to those magic hands that play the Pedal Steel Gutiar.

Any move in any direction is the key to playing a steel guitar. This can be done by training the right hand. The other parts such as guitar, tuning and type of music can be changed altered by changing bands or guitar brands. New movements that combine are derived from the simple ones. The hands are the key to making things happen on the Pedal Guitar, it is a machine. You hands are are the key to working the machine.

Joe Wright creates Pedal Steel DVDs that help you learn physical dexterity. He also has streaming pedal steel instruction pages that help you learn!!

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