Pedal steel guitar
Soundslice has native support for pedal steel guitar tablature:
To create a pedal steel instrument, select “Pedal steel w/ Emmons copedent” when adding an instrument. This will create a 10-string tablature instrument, using E9 tuning, with the following copedent:
| A | B | C | D | E | F | G | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| F♯ | +G | ||||||
| D♯ | -D | ||||||
| G♯ | +A | ||||||
| E | ++F♯ | -D♯ | +F | ||||
| B | ++C♯ | ++C♯ | |||||
| G♯ | +A | ||||||
| F♯ | +G | ||||||
| E | -D♯ | +F | |||||
| D | -C# | ||||||
| B | ++C♯ |
This is known as the “Emmons copedent.”
Entering pedal data
The main difference when entering tablature for pedal steel is: you can optionally set an active pedal for a given note. Here’s how to do that:
- Enter the note in your tab.
- With the note selected, use the editor search to find the “Set active pedal/lever” command, and click that command. (Tip: you can assign a custom keyboard shortcut for this.)
- You’ll see a menu at left with all of the available pedals for the instrument. Select one or more, and the tab for that note will be updated.
Here’s what it looks like:
With the proper pedal information applied, our system will be able to do the following:
- Display the correct pitch in standard notation
- Display the pedal name (“A”, “B”, etc.) in the tab
- Use the correct pitch in synthetic playback
How can I use a different copedent?
We only support the Emmons copedent for now, but get in touch if you’d like to use a different one, and we can help you out.