Steel Guitar Tuition
Details of courses are being added all the time!
Please check this site frequently!  Thanks.

 JEFFRAN MUSIC COURSES

by the late JEFF NEWMAN

JEFF NEWMAN

A SKILLFUL PLAYER BY AGE 20 AND TEACHER BY AGE 26. HE PRODUCED HIS FIRST ALBUM COURSE IN 1969. THIS FIRST TOURING PEDAL STEEL TEACHER (1971) ALSO ESTABLISHED THE FIRST RESIDENTIAL SCHOOL IN 1976. HIS TABLATURE SYSTEM AND VOLUMES OF STUDY COURSES HAVE BECOME INSTRUCTIONAL STANDARDS FOR 3 DECADES. HIS EDUCATED APPROACH AND HIGH EXPECTATIONS FOR HIS STUDENTS HAVE MADE HIM…

“STEELS FOREMOST INSTRUCTOR”

BORN: JANUARY 7, 1942 ARKANSAS CITY, KANSAS
DIED: APRIL 7, 2004
INDUCTED: 1999

This Steel Guitar Hall of Fame inscription courtesy of Dewitt "Scotty" Scott
 http://scottysmusic.com/hofplq.htm

 

Jeff's Steel Guitar Hall of Fame plaque says it all!
SHOULDN'T YOU BE TAUGHT BY THE BEST!

 

The following piece was published in The British Steelies' Society Newsletter in early 2005.
If you're new to the pedal steel guitar, you may find it useful.

THE PEDAL STEEL GUITAR
LEARNING AND ADVANCING

I taught myself how to play.  This was not by choice, but because in 1966 there was no instruction available.  Today, there’s a wealth of good tuition material out there and the best, in my view, comes by way of DVDs.  It’s the next best thing to having a one-to-one lesson with an experienced and capable teacher.

The late Jeff Newman was world-renowned as the finest teacher of pedal steel guitar.  He had had over 20 years experience running classes at his Jeffran College in Nashville, and then almost as many years developing his video (and later, DVD) instructional courses.  These courses make use of that wealth of knowledge and are well thought out and well presented.  They cover the whole aspect of playing this most difficult of instruments and, because I firmly believe that they are so beneficial to all would-be players and many current players, I have listed some of them here, with their prices at Gerry Hogan Music.  In particular, these are the “early years” courses and I have prioritised them in the order in which Jeff thought they should be covered:

                                                                                                                            £

Beginner / Intermediate (E9th)

PSG Illustrated (Basic fundamentals / facts about pedal steel, prior to owning)                                35.95
(This course is for someone thinking about whether to play a pedal steel)

Pedal Steel Guitar Techniques (3 floor + 3 knee, 2 hour fundamentals course)                            69.95
(The absolute basics, right hand, left hand, pedalling, volume pedal)   

Right Hand Alpha (1-hour essential 'hand aerobics' class to help get a great right hand)              29.95
(A must as a guide to how to pick “properly” – and get a good tone!)

Special price for PSG Techniques + Right Hand Alpha package is currently £79.95! i.e. SAVE £20!

Up From The Top I (For the real beginner - 4 hour course, discusses A & B Pedals only)            79.95
(Teaches the logic of the E9th, via a very detailed discourse on A & B pedals)



Up From The Top II (Discusses the 'D' lever)                                                               59.95
(Again, a detailed analysis of the E9th using the D lever)

Up From The Top III (Everything about the 'F' lever - 4 hour course)                                  79.95
(This detailed analysis of the E9th uses the F lever – and the A pedal)

Special price for package of all three Up From The Top courses is currently £189.95!
i.e. SAVE £29.90!

*************************************************************************************

Just Play the Melody (Beginner/Intermediate E9 melody patterns - 3f + 3k)                                    59.95

Chord Connection - seventh (2-hour Beginner/Intermediate chord progressions)                    59.95

Give Me An Intro (Learn how to play and invent intros/turnarounds - all levels)                       59.95

E9th Chord Dictionary (Save years of learning music theory and searching with this!)               54.95

(Most can be gained from the above 4 courses, if they’re taken after a reasonable time has been spent on the previous 6!)

The above courses should keep a new-ish player busy for a few years, although I am sure many will think they have completed them after a few weeks!

This instrument is capable of delivering some of the most beautiful musical sounds on earth.  Why not give it a chance, by making sure the technique you are using will allow this!  The above tuition, and others not listed here (ask for full price-list from Gerry Hogan Music: 01635 - 278321, or email: steels@hoganmusic.co.uk) will help you achieve that magical tone and choice of notes.  I wish these had been available when I was learning – they would have saved me years of heartache and struggle!

Gerry Hogan – January 2005


DVD-based Courses

Pedal Steel Guitar Techniques (3 floor + 3 knee, 2 hour fundamentals course)
(The absolute basics, right hand, left hand, pedalling, volume pedal)
  
Course consists of Tab Book, 2-hour DVD and CD of rhythm tracks for practicing with

H Tab book is comb-bound and lays open nice and flat
H Tab itself is clear and extremely readable

A MUST FOR BEGINNERS!  - £69.95

Right Hand Alpha (1-hour essential 'hand aerobics' to help get a great right hand) 
(A must as a guide to how to pick “properly” – and get a good tone!)

Course consists of 1-hour DVD and CD of rhythm tracks for practicing with

A MUST FOR BEGINNERS! - £29.95

BUY BOTH THE ABOVE FOR £79.95! and SAVE £20!!

 

Up From the Top I, II and III

What Jeff Newman wrote: (see http://www.jeffran.com - now being run by Fran Newman)

About five years ago we started the UP FROM THE TOP video series with the A&B pedal version (Up From The Top I). It was quite a hit with hundreds of players. Since then we have steadily worked on making this course of instruction a true step by step course that would take you through all the right things you need to know in the right order.

There are still lots of new players who don't know what this is all about, and maybe you are one of them.

First, we need to agree on what a course ought to be. Many players assume that learning pedal steel guitar is about learning a lot of licks or chords. That might be good if you knew how they all got used in a song, or any song. Our view of a pedal steel guitar course is that of teaching you how to understand the real basics of the E9th tuning and what the A&B pedals really do.. first.

That was why we started this course with the four-hour video version using just the A&B pedals and nothing more. It gave you the right foundation for understanding how the E9th tuning came about to start with. This four-hour course gives you all the right licks and scales that got us playing pedals back 50 years ago. If you don't understand those principles then everything else you learn after that is just useless and confusing information, more than likely.

Too many players want to jump into too much at once. They want to learn to play all the knee levers, and all the pedals, all, right now. It just doesn't work out very well. Learning the basics of what the A&B pedals do is a must, and you must be good at playing what you can with those pedals and nothing more. It is a matter of learning to walk before we run.

But There Is More

Some people thought the A&B pedal course was going to be kid stuff only to find out it gave them what they had been missing all this time. This course gives you some great phrases... licks, and how to use them as fills with a singer along with a band. You learn the difference between a major chord phrase and a seventh chord phrase. You learn that there is a time to play, and a time to get out. You learn that it is a science and not a mystery.

We followed that A&B pedal version with the two-hour video course showing you how to use the knee lever that lowers the 4th and 8th string E's to Eb. We call it the D" lever. Some call it the E" lever. It doesn't matter what you call it; it is how you know to use it.

The "D" lever was the first knee lever to be invented for the E9th tuning. Every guitar has it, and most players use it once in a while to play some chords. This course shows you how it was intended to be used, in melody lines and phrases. In effect, this one knee lever got us out of playing on one fret, across the strings, and got us thinking and playing left and right laterally the way you hear the good guys playing now. Unfortunately, there are still thousands of players who have this knee lever that still play like they didn't know the first thing about it.

The "D" lever gave us the ability to invent scales all over the neck that slide and gliss. If you are not using this knee lever this way then you are missing something aren't you? When you tie the A&B pedals in with the "D" lever you have some of the best pedal steel guitar imaginable. That is why we offer the "D" lever version of the UP FROM THE TOP course (Up From The Top II).

If you have a normal guitar built within the last 30 years you have the F lever on your guitar This lever is probably the least understood of all. It is one of the last knee levers to come along. Used by itself, it doesn't sound to well. Maybe that is why so many people leave it alone. But, if you are going to play pedal steel guitar today you cannot ignore it. Every player you hear on television, on the road, and in the studio is using it... extensively.

The F lever raises the 4th and 8th string E's to F. This change gives you all sorts of scales, licks and phrases, and chord progressions that you just don't want to do without. It makes the sound of pedal steel guitar as it is today.

It is not a knee lever that you want to learn to use the first day you get a guitar, and that is why we left this for last. The "F" lever version of the UP FROM THE TOP course (Up From The Top III) is four hours long, and could have been another four hours if I had the time to tape it. The amount of information this knee lever offers is limitless. It will change the way you think and play everything. When you can use the F lever along with the D lever and the A&B pedals you can finally see and understand where most of all these good licks you hear on records are coming from.

These pedals make perfect sense when you learn how to use them in order, and with some degree of understanding as you do it. They all make scales, melodies you can use in any song for intros, turnarounds, and the actual melody of the tune.

Some folks would like to know why we call this course;

"UP FROM THE TOP"

This series of videos is about learning to play like a pro... from the beginning. The beginning is the top, not the bottom. We learn to play up from there. Playing is fun and we should not forget that part. It is fun from the start... the top of every song to bottom of it.

Each one of these courses comes with DVD(s), CD of all the rhythm tracks to practice with, and a book with everything tabbed out that is played on the DVD. You can just watch the DVD, or watch and read the tablature. Any way you do it, you are going to have fun and learn how to play the E9th tuning the right way, and understand what you are doing for a change. If you take this course in order you will find it the best way to learn that you have ever tried. This is

THE RIGHT STUFF

Up From The Top Series (E9th)

NEW LOWER PRICES!

Part I - The A & B Pedals (4-hour DVD-based course)

£79.95! + £5 P&P

Part II - The D Lever (2-hour DVD-based course)

£59.95 + £5 P&P

Part III - The F Lever (4-hour DVD-based course)

£79.95 + £5 P&P

or BUY ALL 3 FOR JUST

£189.95 + £5 P&P!

 

SCOTTY'S LAP STEEL TUITION & TAB

Basic C6th Non Pedal Lap Steel Method
by DeWitt Scott

This is a clear and concise introduction to playing the 6 string lap steel using the C6th tuning - ECAGEC (strings 1 - 6), possibly the most popular lap steel tuning, used for Hawaiian music, Western Swing and '40s and '50s country tunes.
The course consists of a 96-page book containg photos, diagrams and the tab for 36 popular tunes like: Shenandoah, St Louis Blues, Joy To The World, Greensleeves, Amazing Grace, Red River Valley which are all on the accompanying CD.

THIS COURSE IS WELL WORTH .......................... £19.99