So what is the pedal steel guitars role in
a lot of the stuff you might be likely to
be playing on?
It's chiefly associated with country music,
but it's certainly not limited to that.
But let's just for the sake of argument stick
to country music for a second, because that's
where its role is most clearly defined.
It also serves as a perfect illustration of
what it's really good at doing.
The pedal steel is called a guitar, but it
really has a very different role than a regular
guitar.
With a regular guitar, you can be part of
the rhythm section, you can just strum along
and be part of the, you know, really almost
part of the drum kit, hanging out with the
high hat, especially very friendly with an
acoustic guitar, or any kind of strummed instrument.
You don't really strum the pedal steel, it's
just not how it works.
It's a very declarative instrument, you've
got to decide what you're going to play when
you going to play it, and you don't want to
be playing all the time.
You want to make sure not to step on the vocalist,
but you also want to try to answer or compliment
the things the vocalist is doing.
Another classic use it would be to kick off
a song, very common to kick off and end a
song, and also to introduce sections within
a song in an interesting way.
So you could have heard something like . . . 
vocalist commences here, you get the general
idea.
Simple intro, one, five, and one, and then
back to one, and the singer starts.
Okay, so you can just stop right there for
awhile, let the singer sing, his generic milament
. . . my dog left me, I'm so sad and blue,
and now what I'm going to do with this song
is up to you baby.
So there you see, you're playing between the
vocal and the vocal, you're trying to avoid,
set him up, set her up for his next moment,
get out of his way, but allude to the shape
of the song.
Especially useful if you're going toward the
four chord, for example . . . I'm just sitting
here playing this song.
Aha, so what did we do there, we just did
like a seventh chord, which just wants desperately
to go to the four, and it just as sure as
could be that you feel the tug, that that's
where it wants to go.
So those types of things work really well
with pedal steel, taking advantage of changes
in chords because it is so perfectly suited
at changing chords in a very fluid and fascinating
way, that's what the steel works really, really
well for.
Also ending legs, I mean who hasn't heard
. . . there you go, what more could you ask
for, right?
So the sky's the limit, really.
You can play any kind of music, I'd say not
confined to country music at all.
You can play jazz, you can play swing, you
can play the hardest rock you want, it's a
polyphonic instrument, it works in every key.
There is absolutely no obstacle except your
imagination, and really it's timely for it
to be heard in other kinds of music because
it's a musical instrument on its own and it
doesn't need country music as its sole reason
for being.
Good luck finding your way.
