Harmonics For E9 Pedal Steel Guitar

Harmonics For E9 Pedal Steel Guitar Hi. This is Dave Anderson with Online Lesson Videos and today we’re going to do harmonics for the E9 pedal steel guitar so let's get started. Okay, so if we’re going to work on harmonics for the pedal steel guitar, I guess the first thing they’ll ask you, “What is the harmonic?” Typically, when you play a note, you get a certain pitch because of the distance of the string ringing out and producing a certain frequency. If I divide that frequency in half, I get a harmonic inactive above what I had naturally. So, what I'm doing is I'm just playing the strings open. I'm not using the bar obviously and I've gone up to the twelfth fret. So, if you figure your scale length from the changer to the roller nut, the twelfth fret is going to be halfway. If I put my finger right on top of the screen, some right on the line and I hit that note, I get the harmonic. If I go to the fifth fret, I can divide that again in half and I get a note higher than that. So, I'm just going to do this on the eighth string. I'm going to go the open, twelfth fret, fifth fret. I've also got harmonics on the seventh fret. Those are going to be the three areas naturally without using the bar that I can get a good harmonic out of the instrument. At the twelfth fret above, wherever my position is in this case, we’re playing open and then five frets above and the seventh frets above. Okay so with that in mind, the key is going to be how I make this work with the bar when I'm actually playing something. Now, if you look at your fret board, you’ll notice that where your fret markers are at the third, at the fifth, at the seventh, the ninth, the twelfth, your emblems or symbols whatever you have that kind of gives a reference point what the fret is, it’s probably different colors or maybe than a different emblem from position to position. This is going to help you an octave above. In other words, if I look at the third fret, my marker is in red. If I go up to the fifteenth fret, that is also in red so I notice by looking at the color that I'm 12 frets above that. If I go up to the fifth fret and likewise go to the seventeenth fret, those both are in blue. If I go up to the seventh fret and the then with the nineteenth fret, they’re both in green and so forth. Even my twelfth fret and my 24th fret are the same with the four markers as well. This is going to be a great reference for quickly being able to get your hand in position to play while you're using the bar if you want to produce a harmonic. So, let's just start with the fifth fret and what we’re going to do is we’re just going to take the eighth string and since I've got my bar on the fifth fret, I'm going to take ? first of all I'm going to start with the palm on my hand and I'm going to go up to that same color, which in this case is the seventeenth fret. I'm going to lay my palm right on top of the fret and produce a note. And, if your palm is not right on there, it won't produce that harmonic. It will actually sound like you just play the note naturally. So, there it is. What I found is that because you're ? when you're looking at the pedal steel as you look down towards the head stock or down towards the changer, your line of sight can kind of becomes an optical illusion depending on where you're at. In other words, when you're playing with the bar, when you're looking down here, because you can see literally under the bar, the bar happens to look like it is flat as where it should be. It looks like as a little farther to the left to the fret when actually it’s right on the fret. This can hold true in the opposite manner with your hand if you're trying to do harmonics. In other words, if I'm doing that fifth fret and I lay my palm right on the fret and I can see the fret, I'm actually probably in front of the fret or towards the changer from where I want to be. So, your palm actually is going to look like it’s almost a little bit more right over the fret. And, what you’ll have to do is kind of play around and really get comfortable with your steel in your sitting position and where the proper places to put your hand. So, let's just take that A string and play it a few times. You may keep the volume down on my pedal, pluck the note and then I’ll increase the pedal and I can slowly increase the pedal to sustain that volume and get quite a long note out of that. It’s pretty cool.