5 Right Hand Exercises for E9 Pedal Steel

Picking and blocking for pedal steel is perhaps the most challenging aspect of playing the instrument. If you can accomplish your right hand technique goals, you’ll be able to play the pedal steel much more easily.

But what’s the best way to develop your right hand’s ability to pick and block strings effectively?

Although there’s no straight answer to this question (every player will have different styles, methods, and goals), there are certainly things you can do to advance much more quickly and efficiently. Practicing the correct things, as well as having a clear understanding and awareness of what you are trying to accomplish with each aspect of your practice, will go a long way.

Here are 5 right hand exercises that can really help develop your right hand picking and blocking on pedal steel…

Exercise 1

This first exercise is pretty straightforward and has common elements of much E9 playing. It really focuses on single string playing, at a main position, while employing pedal usage – these things are a mainstay for a lot of E9 playing.

You can gain a lot of fludity in your playing if you begin learning patterns like this at the E9’s main positions (this is at the open position, or no pedal position, in the key of G). It can be especially useful to keep a fingering pattern in mind as you learn these types of licks.

If you can begin developing some fingering patterns, then muscle memory will begin to kick in the more and more you practice them. Eventually, you won’t have to think about what fingers you’re using to pick strings; and if you do have to think about it, remember that there are always multiple fingerings to play something – find what works best for you.

However, keep in mind that there are some tried and true methods in the pedal steel tradition. One of these is the crossover technique: you can use your thumb and middle finger to alternate between strings for a fast, accurate, and efficient way to play single notes.

The fingering shown in this exercise employs this technique. Remember to start slowly to ensure you are playing the notes accurately and precisely – once you can play this lick accurately slowly, then begin gradually increasing your tempo.

5 Right Hand Exercises for E9 Pedal Steel

Exercise 2

So much E9 playing really takes advantage of using the instrument’s pedals (or levers) at main positions to play notes, chords, etc. This is what makes the E9 neck so intuitive and enjoyable – you can utilize the instrument’s mechanics/design to create some amazing sounds and music.

This exercise takes a classic E9 method of using the pedals at the AB pedal position, while also utilizing the 1st string to create a continuity at the position (don’t need to move the bar). The 1st string can be really useful for E9 playing, but it can also pose some challenges for the right hand: how do you pick notes on this string without slowing down and losing fluidity? Better yet, the 1st string can sometimes be more challenging to block.

The nature of the 1st string is that it is out of “sequential order” as far as pitches go. Most stringed instruments have the pitches ascending or descending in order like on six-string guitar.

However, on E9 pedal steel, the 1st string is actually lower in pitch than the 3rd string (on most instruments this string would be placed between the 4th and 3rd strings of the E9 pedal steel). This exercise is great for continuing to work on single string movement that employs pedals at a main position, but also incorporates the 1st string to get the most out of the position and tuning. The 1st string allows you to continue most scales and riffs all the way up to the 3rd string at a position.

If you can begin playing this scale pattern accurately and build speed, you’ll have the backbone of countless licks on the E9 neck that you can create on your own (or that you can recognize in songs or other players). It is walking up and down the major pentatonic scale, a scale that is really useful for a lot of E9 playing.

Exercise 3

This exercise is a really fun one because it employs more bar movement at a position. At first glance it may not look like it, but this pattern is at the open pedal postion (one of the main positions) in they key of C at the 8th fret. However, instead of using pedals and knee levers to create notes, you’ll be moving the bar but still staying in the position – much like a guitar player does with their fingers, however you’ll be using the bar. Buddy Emmons was a master of this especially on the C6 neck, this just applies it to the E9 neck.

The E9 neck is great for using pedals and levers to play notes and create licks, but overly relying on pedals and levers can sometimes stall the advantages of using bar movement. Ideally, it can be great to have an equal ability to either use the bar to play a note or a pedal, and have the choice be a matter of preference/style for your playing at that time. Bar movement goes a long way on the E9 neck, especially when connecting positions on the fretboard. Try not to get stuck in a rut of only playing at a couple of positons and using the

pedals and levers for everything, while never moving the bar (unless this is your playing goal on the instrument). Moving the bar will open up more playing possibilities on the fretboard and really give you more freedom/options for playing licks, solos, melodies, chords, etc.

The scale pattern in this exercise is essentially the major pentatonic scale with the 4th note of the major scale added in as a passing tone. Or you can think of it as the major scale without the 7th tone. When played in time to eighth notes, and starting on a chord tone, you can play this scale to your heart’s content and always be landing on chord tones on the downbeats. This is a great tool and option when playing solos, licks, or improvising anything.

One last thing worth mentioning: this exercise is also great for working on blocking. You’ll have to really pay attention to shifting between strings and blocking accordingly. Only one note should ring out at a time, so you’ll have to really employ effective pick and palm blocking to play it cleanly.

Exercise 4

Sometimes the best way to learn or master something is to break it down into bite-size pieces, and develop these individual components: then it’ll just be a matter of combining these things.

It’s like putting together a puzzle, sometimes you’ll want to focus on certain areas and then combine them once the big picture starts coming together. This approach is great for learning the fretboard.

In the grand scheme of things, if you add up all of the keys, chords, scales, songs, etc that you’d like to play on the E9 neck, it can seem daunting. But if you break these down into components, and you practice each one of these a little bit over time, then it’ll all add up and you’ll find yourself mastering the fretboard more than you could’ve anticipated.

Learning five-note patterns is a great way to work on scales, melodies, licks, and soloing. When these are combined, you’ll have much more options when playing than just running up and down a full scale the same way over and over again.

Think about this: a scale that is played from its root note up to the 9th tone is really just a combination of two five-note groupings. Once you get to the fifth note of the first grouping, the next grouping will take you up to the 9th tone.

These five-note groupings can work wonders for the right hand too. By isolating these groupings, you can really begin to build up speed and accuracy with your right hand when you practice them. Then you can combine multiple groupings for long playing runs – you’ll find yourself traversing the fretboard with more speed, note choices, and fluidity.

Take a look at this exercise, which has two different five-note groupings for minor chords (Em in this case). One employs pedals, one doesn’t. Use a metronome, and once you can get them down pat at a slower tempo, then gradually bump up the metronome each practice session.

Once you get to a tempo that’s too fast, back it down a tiny bit until you can play it accurately. Look to gradually increase your tempo over time as you make accurate gains.

Exercise 5

This is one of the most beneficial right hand exercises to practice, because it can greatly improve your palm blocking ability. It involves the process of shifting between strings that you pick, an important technique that goes hand in hand with pick blocking: if you can pick block well, then you’ll need to also have the ability to shift between string groupings well. Pick blocking often breaks down if you need to move between string groupings and can’t do it with proper blocking and speed.

The variations in this exercise aren’t very musical – the notes you are playing are based purely on grouping patterns, not note choices. They contain many of the string shifting amounts that you’ll encounter when playing.

Be sure to focus on blocking all of the strings that aren’t being played – especially when you move from one grouping to the next (the notes you just played should be muted as soon as (or just before) you play the next notes). The goal of this exercise is mostly blocking – there are 10 strings, and only the notes being played should be sounded as all other notes/strings need to be muted or blocked.

Practicing this type of exercise for five minutes a day can work wonders for your blocking.

Thanks for checking out this page, hope it is helpful and makes playing more enjoyable! If you’re interested in diving deeper into playing E9 pedal steel, check out these resources and guides…