E9 Pedal Steel: 5 of the Best Practice Exercises

As an Amazon Associate Playpedalsteel.com earns from qualifying purchases. This page contains affiliate links.

The pedal steel is renowned for being one of the most challenging instruments to learn and play, but it has one of the most worthwhile sounds in music. Spending time practicing is probably the best investment you can make as a player, especially if you practice smart and efficiently.

There are various aspects of playing that you can improve with practice (technique, songs, chords, etc.), and many practice exercises can tackle a lot of these simultaneously. Many of the best practice exercises don’t require you to spend a lot of time at each session, but rather they help you focus and pay attention to what you can learn and improve on in that moment.

Here are 5 of the best practice exercises for E9 pedal steel, along with details on what they help you improve on as a player…

1) Harmonizing 3rds & 6ths Along the Fretboard

It is no secret that a lot of pedal steel licks and sounds are derived from the use of harmonized 3rds and 6ths on the pedal steel. Learning how these sound and work in songs can go a long ways, and so can knowing how to find them on your fretboard.

This particular exercise is great for pick blocking, bar control/movement, foot pedal technique, and memorizing where harmonized 3rds are on your fretboard. It involves taking the harmonized 3rds of the major scale, and playing them up and down the fretboard.

This movement is great for moving in between the main pedal and lever positions, while keeping control of the bar and the notes you pick. By isolating each note in the harmonized 3rds, you can work on your pick blocking while adding more interesting variety to the note choices and sounds you are creating.

Here’s a tab that demonstrates this exercise:

When you practice this, it can be very beneficial to use a metronome along with a drone or chord playing in the background. Pay particular attention to blocking and picking each note individually and cleanly, along with keeping the bar straight as you move in and out of positions.

Also, try to use some of your focus and energy on listening to how the notes sound in the context of the drone or chord you are playing over. This is important for training your musical ear and your voice on the instrument, just like you would actively use your ear to choose the notes you want to play while on the bandstand with other musicians.

Spend about 10 minutes a day on this exercise, at least a few times a week, and you’ll start to make great improvements on a lot of areas of your playing. After you start to get comfortable with a scale or pattern over time, switching the scale and/or string groupings can be a great way to continue to make gains.

This is a practice exercise that you can continually alter and adapt over your lifetime to improve on these areas of your playing. Here are a few more variations and patterns that you can use…

As you begin learning the harmonized scales along the fretboard, remember to “connect” them to the main playing positions on the E9 neck.

If you can learn a harmonized scale at a position(s), and along the fretboard, you’ll truly connect the dots and know where to find the scales anywhere on the fretboard as you play. Here are the harmonized 3rds shown above, but at the main positions on the E9 neck as just mentioned.

2) Smooth Continuity for Using the Foot Pedals

This is a great practice exercise for improving your accuracy and precision by using your left foot to control the foot pedals. You don’t need to spend much time on this one for each practice session, just a few minutes can go a long way.

It will help you gain control of the A and B pedals individually and when used in combined movements. These movements can be applied to any pedal position you put your foot in, like using the B and C pedals or pedals 5 and 6 for the C6 neck.

You may notice that it is very similar to the beginning phrases of Buddy Emmons’ “Blue Jade” in regards to pedal choices/uses. The most advantageous part of this exercise is doing it very slowly in your movement between the frets.

Also, try to make your feet engage or disengage the pedals as smoothly and continuously as possible between the movements. If you are hearing the notes change between positions, but continuously and without interruption between the movements, then you are on the right track.

Here are a couple of patterns to use for this exercise – to get the most out of them, practice them at slow, medium-slow, and medium tempos…

For more left foot exercises, check out this lesson: “10 Warm-Up Exercises for Your Left Foot” which dives deeper into all of the possible movements.

3) Playing over Chord Changes in Pockets

Just like six-string guitar, there aren’t a whole lot of pockets or positions on the pedal steel’s fretboard that you need to memorize to fully traverse the fretboard comfortably. Six-string guitar is known for the CAGED system for learning scales, but the same aspect can be applied to the pedal steel’s E9 neck.

Three of the main pockets or positions that can be essential to playing are located at the open pedal position, the AB pedal position, and the E lower position. Memorizing certain scales, harmonized 3rds & 6ths, as well as chords can help you to play almost any song in any genre tastefully and more comfortably.

If you can take one of these pockets and learn the note and chord choices to play for the changes within a song, then you can play a lot of tasty licks, melodies, and rhythm parts for a whole song without even moving the bar much. Having some “go-to” scale options for playing over chord changes can be really helpful. Check out “The Scale Book for E9 Pedal Steel Guitar“, which lays out the E9 fretboard in pockets, scales, and modes.

Eventually, you’ll want to master each one of the positions and then combine them in your playing to gain more fluidity along the fretboard as you play. This exercise can also help with memorizing patterns and numbers associated with the Nashville Number System, or relative patterns that you can apply to any key or song.

Let’s check out a few patterns that you can use for this exercise, which focus on learning the Open position pocket (key of C) on the fretboard…

4) Finding Major Scale Patterns

It is truly amazing how much music that we create stems from the major scale. Most harmony, melodies, and solos utilize this scale in one way or another.

Chords, modes, and licks usually follow some variation of the major scale, whether we are conscious of it or not. Better yet, pentatonic scales and minor keys are relative to the major scale and have a lot in common.

If you can begin to identify the major scale’s notes on the fretboard, and find how they lay out pattern-wise, then you’ll gain a lot of ground in the ability to create the sounds you are hearing in your head as you play.

Most of the pedal and lever positions are great places to begin utilizing the major scale. You can use the pedals and levers to play the major scale at these positions with less bar movement, but all the notes are also there with a little bar movement…

Learning how to play the major scale’s notes in a position without using the pedals and levers is a great way to work on your bar control and picking as well…

If you look closely, you’ll also notice that the major pentatonic scale is the major scale with two notes omitted. The major pentatonic scale is useful in a lot of forms of music, including country, blues, rock, and pop.

A great exercise is to begin identifying and playing the notes of the major scale (and/or the major pentatonic scale) over the 1 chord of a song or backing track. Usually, if a song is in a major key, then playing the major or major pentatonic scale of that key will go a long way, even if you’re not playing over the 1 chord of the key.

Within a song, try to create licks, learn the melody, or solo using the major pentatonic scale. Eventually try to memorize all the notes of the scale in that position, and relate them to the numbers of the Nashville Number System. For instance, the 4 chord of a song is usually built off of the 4th note in the major scale (and the 5 chord is usually built off of the 5th note, etc.).

Here are some patterns of the major and major pentatonic scales to begin utilizing and memorizing on the fretboard. Also included are some riffs and licks that can work well in a lot of playing settings…

• C Major Scale
• Pockets of Major Scale
• Modes of C Major (Open Position)
• Major Pentatonic Scale (Pockets)
• Major Pentatonic Scale (Main Positions)

5) Picking and Palm Blocking

One of the most challenging aspects of playing pedal steel is cleanly and effectively blocking the strings of notes that aren’t being played. This is why many regular guitar players can get deterred from playing the instrument, however this isn’t truly an obstacle to playing the instrument – it just requires a little more focus, patience, and practice to learn.

Some players primarily pick block, while others primarily palm block. Many choose to utilize both in their playing in a hybrid manner. Whatever works comfortably will go a long way for any player.

A great exercise for working on picking and blocking is to work on cleanly blocking notes at one string grouping. Working on pick blocking using rolls is a great way to develop this…

Follow this with moving between strings (or shifting string groupings), and you’ll be tackling two major aspects of picking and blocking technique for steel guitar. Here’s an example of string shifts…

These patterns/exercises don’t need to be played at fast tempos, but precision and accuracy in slower settings will yield great results. You can always begin to speed up the tempo incrementally as you begin to achieve the results you’d like. Often, speed will develop on its own if you keep focusing on accuracy and precision.

I recommend checking out these exercises to help develop picking and blocking, as well as this downloadable guide.

Conclusion

Pedal steel practice can go a long way towards achieving playing goals, especially if you practice smart and efficiently. For any player, it can be tough to find the time in our busy lives to dedicate towards practicing…

However, the best part about these exercises is that each one only takes about 5 minutes a day, 3-4 times a week, to make great progress. If you do this, you’ll likely see some major growth in your playing after a month or so.

I highly recommend keeping these exercises as part of your regular practice repertoire and add variations to them every so often to make sure you don’t stagnate in your playing and learning. You can knock all of these out in one practice session of 30 minutes or less…you’ll be amazed at how much progress you’ll begin making in many aspects of your technique and playing.

---

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…

The Chord Guide for E9 Pedal Steel (E-Book, Digital Download)

Learn the chords on the E9 neck in a way that makes playing simple and enjoyable…

• Almost Every Chord You’ll Ever Need for E9
• Intuitive and Easy to Use
• Make Use of Pedal and Lever Combinations
• Example Tabs of Chord Movements
• Easily Utilize the Nashville Number System
• Great For Any Key and Style of Music

Includes a bonus section of over a hundred pages of extra chord charts, key references, and more!

You may also like…

---