Music Lessons From And For ATS Members.

A simple country guitar lick

When I learn new stuff these days, what I try and do is take a really small unit and build a whole vocabulary with it. In this post I'll describe the simplest way to do a "pedal steel" effect and then in the next I'll try and detail some ways to expand on it.

So, for this effect, the first thing we're going to do is bend the B string up a semi-tone (1 fret's worth).

1. Play the B string at the fifteenth fret with your little finger. This note should be a D natural.

2. Using your middle and ring fingers, play the B string at the 14th fret and bend the string up slightly until the pitch matches the D you've just played.

3. Repeat until your muscle memory is good enough that you don't have to look at the fretboard and the bent note is in tune every time. A tuner can be helpful.

So, now you've learned to bend the string up a semitone.

The secret to make this stuff sound like a pedal steel is to have the bent note ringing against another note. The note we're going to play is the high E string, 12th fret.

Some of you may have guitars with whammy bars. This causes a problem because with most floating bridge arrangements, bending one string causes all the other notes to go slightly flat. If you're afraid of hard work, get a fixed bridge guitar and learn on that.

I've always played whammy bar bridge guitars and so I've actually had to learn to do these bends and keep the guitar in tune. Warning: this takes ages and you MUST use a tuner. Otherwise you'll be putting in hours of practice just to sound horrible.

The trick to this is to bend the top string slightly. The trouble is, then your B string will go a little flat. That means you have to push it a bit harder, which sends the E string a little flat... and so on into insanity. You have to learn to do it in all positions along the string because the tensions vary.

Anyway, assuming you have sorted out all the foregoing, you will now have a lick that goes like this:

1. Play the B string at the 14th fret with your third finger.
2. Bend that C# up a semitone to D.
3. Play the E string at the 12th fret with your first finger while the B string is still sounding.
4. Pluck the still bent B string and release. (D - C#)

Turn that simple lick into part of your vocabulary

Well, the first thing to do is decide what key that lick is going to be in. The most obvious choice is D major, so let's go with that.

So, knowing we're in D major, we start by learning the same lick on the same strungs, but taken all the way through the D major scale, both up and down the neck as far as you can go. I'll give one more example to set you going.

We started by bending C# to D against an E on the top string. The next position for D major would be bending a B to a C# against a D on the top string. This is trickier, because it's a whole-tone (2 fret) bend. If your guitar has a floating bridge, this will mean yet more pushing with the first finger on the top string note to hold it in tune.

So the next unit will go something like:

1. Bend the B string at the 12th fret up a whole tone to C#.
2.Play the E string at the 10th fret while the B string is still ringing.
3.Release the B string.

Practise ways of getting between the two units you've learned thus far. How many different ways can you find to phrase these notes? Learn to slide between the positions to make the whole thing a nice, continuous, slippery line.

Repeat the process for every available position in that key.
Repeat the process for all 12 major keys and any other scales you might deem useful.
Don't worry if this takes years.

Since I have no clue about midi,I was hoping someone can explain it to me.
Why to use it?
When to use it?
How to use it?
How it works and how to apply it in recording?

What about
www.play-bass.com...
It helped me out a lot when I first started the bass guitar.

reply to post by turff


Hey turff!!
I see this is your first post here.I am glad it is in this thread.
Here are a few more things to help you out on bass as well and thanks for contributing.
www.studybass.com...
www.finalemusic.com... (thanks Oolon)

You might want to go to the introductions section and say a quick hello.
Welcome to ats turff.

I just found a website that I thought was fairly good.
Here it is www.guitarchops101.com...

I thought I would add to this amazing and informative discussion by talking about "Harp Harmonics" There are a couple of different ways you can do it.
I will also show videos for each example.

A basic way to do it is to start by lightly touching the 12th fret with your index finger with your right hand (if you are right handed). With the same hand, you will pluck the string with your thumb. This can be done on any string.

You can do this almost anywhere on the neck. For example, if you wanted to play a G on the lower E string, place your left index finger on the 3rd fret and with the right hand play 12 frets higher which would be on the 15th fret.

A great example of this is by Andy McKee's "Rylynn". It isn't until towards the end of the song but its a beutiful song so give a listen.





Another way of doing it is by tapping the note you wish to play. Try tapping the 12th fret with your right hand or 12 frets away from the note you are pressing with your left hand. This video by Erik Mongrain is a great example.



It takes alot of practice to get either one of these techniqes down but they are alot of fun to play.




[edit on 15-6-2009 by CoffeeGeek]

For some reason my videos did not come up.

www.youtube.com...


www.youtube.com...