Arrangements Overview

I will have steel guitar arrangements up and going starting in June 2009. Feel free to download the sample arrangement (see below) and steel guitar lesson pages to get a feel for what the arrangements will look like. Thanks for your patience!

Overview

My steel guitar arrangements are carefully prepared with quality music engraving software and include notation of important steel guitar techniques and phrasing such as hammer-ons, pull-offs, glisses, and slant bar positions. I'm incorporating what I feel are the best ideas from existing publications, staying with familiar markings whenever possible. The arrangements include a standard treble clef (placed above the tablature staff) to notate rhythm. Standard notation is the fastest, most accurate way to get all the picking information you need - when to pick a note and how long to hold it.

Download

You are free to download download the sample arrangement of "Open String Blues" and the steel guitar lesson excerpts from my upcoming steel guitar instruction book. You can also download the Tablature Key that comes with each arrangement, explaining all the notation symbols you will need to play through the arrangements, including tempo, rhythm, and phrasing markings. Note that I am currently updating the Tablature Key to conform more closely to tablature conventions used in standard guitar arrangements.

Audio to Accompany Arrangements

Tablature is a great way to learn the basics of a steel guitar arrangement. However, there's no substitute for hearing a performance. I will provide audio versions of each arrangement, which will include a normal speed version, a rhythm track you can use to practice with, and if necessary, a "broken down" version where finer points of the arrangement are explained further. I am still working out the details of the audio format to be used.

Tunings

Each arrangement comes in one of five basic tunings: C6th, C13th, A6th, B11th and E13th. Others will probably be added. Stay tuned! The tunings are shown and spelled out in the chart below. Note that the C13th is similar to the standard C6th tuning (E string on top), which was used by many players in the '40s and '50s. Adding the seventh tone (Bb) to the tuning greatly increases its richness, and it has become arguably the most visible tuning in Hawaii over the last 20-30 years.

Tab Tunings
C6th	C13th	A6th	B11th	E13th
G	E	E	E	E
E	C	C#	C#	C#
C	A	A	A	B
A	G	F#	F#	G#
G	E	E	D#	F#
E	C	C#	B	D
C	Bb	A	F#	G#
A	C	F#	B	E

(For 6-string instruments, omit the bottom two pitches.)