Customer Reviews

Mel Bay's Deluxe Pedal Steel Guitar Method

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This book will get you playing the pedal steel guitar fast! I don't have much time to practice playing the instrument (average of 1/2 hour per week) so I have to make the most of every opportunity. I have purchased almost every book available in the hope that one of them will get me off the ground. This is the one that had me playing the first time I used this book (and is getting me to make time to play more often). Most of the songs are traditional folk songs, but you will learn how to make those amazing sounds that got you to buy the pedal steel guitar in the first place! (I didn't realize how much of those steel guitar fills and solos you hear on popular tunes had their roots in traditional folk songs). You will probably get some solo and intro ideas from the samples in this book. The author also introduces playing exercises as the pieces get more difficult to play.

Although this book covers setting up the instrument and the basics of how to use the picks, this book would better serve you if you at least know the mechanical basics of the instrument. The illustrations are not as sharp and clear as they could be (typical of the publisher, Mel Bay) although the music notation and tablature are just fine.

I highly recommend this book, it will get you pickin'!

I know nothing about pedal steel guitars and I assumed that "the standard" for instruction would at least start me out in the right direction. It did not. Take for example a discussion on pics. "The length of the shank [of the thumb pic] will affect your playing so be sure to try several sizes and lengths before you decide." How can I try it before I know how to use it? How does the length of the shank affect the sound? How should it fit the thumb in the first place? A discussion of the finger pics was equally lacking. Consider the statement, "[the bar] . . . varies in weight." So? What weight does one choose and based on what? Finally, on pics, how does one stroke or pic the strings? In the same manner as one strokes or pics a classical guitar with the fingernails? It does not say. What about one's position at the instrument: hands straight, arched, in your pocket; forearms parallel, sloped up, down; feet in relation to the knees and all in relation to the knee and foot pedals? It does not say. For me, a beginners book of instruction first answers the question, "Hey, what's that thing?" Then it goes on to describe the thing in detail. Then it details how one mounts the thing. Then it details how one handles the thing. Then it ties it all together and details how one uses the thing. This book does none of that. Rather, it starts with tuning the instrument, gives a rudimentary introduction to music and then turns you loose on a tune. Huh?