Pedal steel guitar

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Pedal steel guitar with two 10-string necks
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Pedal steel guitar with two 10-string necks

The pedal steel guitar is a type of electric steel guitar incorporating a stand and pedals. The pedals are used to change the tunings of some of the strings, and depending on model may be assigned functions at the discretion of the player.

While there are some fairly standard pedal assignments, many advanced players devise their own setups, called copedents. The range of copedents that can be set up varies considerably from model to model. Aftermarket modifications to make other copedents possible are common.

The pedal steel was developed from the table steel guitar and lap steel guitar. Like the table steel, the pedal steel may have multiple necks, but the pedals make even a single-neck pedal steel a far more versatile instrument than any multiple-neck table steel.

Many musicians specialize in performing on both pedal steel and some form of lap steel. A particularly popular second instrument for pedal steel players is the resonator guitar played in steel guitar fashion (i.e., played face up on the player's lap).

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[edit] History

The pedal steel guitar is the latest development in a story that started with the invention of a technique of playing used in Hawaii in the late 1700s, wherein the strings were not fretted in the normal manner by the left hand, but rather by sliding an object such as a comb or the back edge of a knife blade along the strings at the neck of the guitar. Several persons have been credited with the innovation.

The Hawaiian style of playing was very popular in the United States during the 1920s and 1930s. To increase the volume of the guitar, a resonator cone was added by the Doypeyra Brothers to create the resophonic guitar.

By the 30's, the hollow guitar body was abandoned for a flat slab of wood and the addition of an electric pickup; this became the lap steel. It was the first electric instrument to achieve commercial success.

The limitations of chord shapes imposed by the use of the steel slide (or "tone bar") led to the addition of multiple necks, resulting in the table steel guitar. Later musicians experimented with adding rods and levers to change the tuning within a neck while playing, resulting in the pedal steel guitar.

Several pioneers of the electric guitar were first famous for their work on the then more popular electric steel guitar, among them Adolph Rickenbacher, Paul Bigsby and Leo Fender.

Both lap and pedal steel guitars were closely associated with the development of country music and western swing. However the pedal steel's liquid, yearning sound has begun in recent years to be coveted by many modern musicians, beginning in jazz and blues. In particular the rising popularity of alternative country has brought this instrument's beautiful sound to a much wider audience, and it has been used in many different musical genres. Jùjú music, a form from Nigeria, uses pedal steel extensively.

The best-known proponents of the pedal steel guitar are Buddy Emmons and Jimmy Day, two of the most innovative and most visible players in the relatively short history of the instrument, due to the thousands of recording sessions and jobs with the cream of the country music singers from the late 1950s onward.

A Concerto for Pedal Steel Guitar and Orchestra has been written by Los Angeles composer Michael A. Levine. It was premiered on April 16, 2005, in a performance by the Nashville Chamber Orchestra, with Gary Morse (of Dierks Bentley's and Dwight Yoakam's bands) as soloist, and Paul Gambill conducting. The piece is believed to be the first concerto ever written for the solo steel.

[edit] Description

Underside of a 12+12 string showing the knee levers and mechanism
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Underside of a 12+12 string showing the knee levers and mechanism

A pedal steel guitar is typically rectangular in shape, and has no sound board but only one or more guitar necks, each together with its head and machine heads, and heavily modified. These are mounted on a stand equipped with foot pedals and usually knee levers. Many models feature two necks, the nearest to the player most often using a C6 tuning and the farther away using an E9 tuning. The most common configuration is one or two necks of ten strings each, but eight-string and twelve-string necks are also popular, and even 14 strings on one neck can be found. Three-neck instruments are less common than those with one or two, but are not uncommon.

The pedals and/or knee levers (engaged by moving the knees left, right or vertically) on the underside allow the performer to tighten or relax one or more strings in combination, changing the instrument's tuning during performance.

[edit] Playing

A 13-string single-neck pedal steel set up for playing.
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A 13-string single-neck pedal steel set up for playing.

A performer typically sits on a stool or seat at the instrument. The right foot usually is used on the amplifier's volume pedal. The left foot usually is used to press one or more of the instrument's foot pedals. The knees are positioned under the instrument's body so that by moving them left, right or even vertically, they can push levers that hang from underneath it.

The strings are positioned high above the neck of the instrument. Rather than being pressed to a fret on the neck, the player's left hand holds a polished metal bar called the steel on the strings. The steel can be slid up and down the length of the neck, while still touching (effectively fretting) the strings. This raises and lowers the pitch of the notes heard when the strings are played. If the bar is kept perpendicular to the neck (in the orientation of a fret), all strings touched have had their effective length changed equally. The right hand plucks the strings, usually with a set of thumb and finger picks.

The pedals and knee levers are also used to control the tightening and loosening of certain strings and thereby control the pitch of the notes sounded. Engaging one or more pedals and/or knee levers will alter the pitch of any string controlled by those pedals or levers.

Characteristic effects are obtained by changing pitch of one or more strings while other strings' pitches are static or change at differing rates. Melodic lines are composed primarily of diads (two note chords). Also, single note octave harmonics are used to provide countermelody. In the E9 tuning, many characteristic clichés involve tonic-dominant and tonic-subdominant harmonic relationships.

Mastering the pedal steel guitar can take time due to its harmonic complexity and unusual physical technique required. In country music, where the pedal steel guitar is most commonly used, talented players are highly esteemed.

For a table of one tuning of the pedal steel guitar, see copedent.

[edit] Makers

Most pedal steel guitars are produced by smaller makers, and many are custom-built to player order.

This list is incomplete. Please add to it if you can.

[edit] Notable players

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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