C6 Learning Material

[Eric Richardson]

I bought my first D10 a while ago, and I still haven't spent a ton of time with the C6 neck. I know there is no substitute for a great teacher (which I am lucky enough to have), but I'm looking for material I can work through on my own.

Despite spending a decent amount of time searching, I feel as though I haven't found as much material as I was hoping for. I'm finding a lot of dead links, and would love some suggestions for learning material any of you have enjoyed. While I feel competent on the E9 neck, I'm still a bit mystified by what should be a simpler neck on paper.

I know this has been talked about at great length in the past, but I'm hoping someone has some new information they'd like to share! Free resources are great, but I'm also okay with looking into some paid options.

Thanks in advance.

[Bill McCloskey]

Paul Franklin has an entire course dedicated to C6.

Other resources; Steel Picking patreon site, Doug Jernigan's patreon page. Herbie Wallaces C6 courses are still available.

[J D Sauser]

I think that if you search for posts by me, you will find some answers and suggestions and methodical pointers.

IF you understand music (since you play E9th, I assume you can navigate thru I, IV, V progression and have some degree of technique), the biggest shocker to you may be that C6th is STEEL GUITAR... meaning, it's a non-pedal tuning with pedals added, and that is to suggest that you play MOVING the bar... a LOT. Refrain from desperately tap-dancing on that P7 in the hopes it will "make music" like your A&B pedals would on that upper neck.

If you have an E9th neck, you would probably want to explore Swing, Jazz, maybe Be-Hard-or-Post Bop and maybe even Sou/R&B into Neo Soul. The main obstacle you MAY hit depending on your musical knowledge is the lack thereoff... meaning having to learn Jazz-"Theory", concepts like ii, V, I and variation of I, vi, ii, V's and so forth, along with understanding that in Jazz the "Key" maybe known but that without a definite Key-change, there are often several key-centers to be identified in most tunes.

Because most of it until "Modal"-Jazz's short stint, has a LOT of chords, you would be well advised to become "blind" to fret NUMBERS and rather see movable fret-distance (|<->| aka INTERVALS) relationships.
Therefore you would want to layout a map of one chord over the whole fretboard... let's take D as an example and identify the distance of it's roots on the 7th, 8th and 9th string so that you would "see" that if you are playing off the 8th string root (a minor position) you always have the same root 3 frets (down) to the left on the 7th string (a Major pos.) and also a root on the 9th string 4 frets up to the right... and so forth.
You will want to explore pockets tethered to these root positions so these "pockets" become an average of 3 frets wide and then develop the ability to play seamlessly thru pocket to pocket.

The next step, once that is acquired, you will want to see the roots on these strings to the next available chord a 4th up, left and right and often on the same fret, no matter which string's root position you are currently in.
Noticed that I haven't mentioned a pedal. And no, I am not talking "Hawaiian"... I AM talking playing Swing, Jazz and/or Bebop.

I see PF's online course is already mentioned and I can only second that and urge to sign up for the whole course (E9th included) because PF treats E9th first and then C6th assuming you know what he taught in E9th! PF's C6th version is a bit fast forwarding and a challenge to follow. I used it more as a reference, but I could not have gained my current understanding of navigating thru ii, V, I's and longer sequences of the sort. I also feel that his choice of tunes to work on is very quickly going from intermediate to fully advanced. Most Jazz students will apply their understanding onto tunes starting with Jazz Blues (Blues with ii, V's into the IV and the I), then a diatonic tune like Autumn Leaves (incorporating the minor ii,V,i with the m7b5) followed by Blue Bossa and then into "easy" Standards like All Of Me and/or Fly Me To The Moon.

Jeff Newman had a series of C6th courses published on VHS and later DVD. These were VERY methodical from the bottom up (as JN would put it) right into Western Swing and some "Steel Guitar Jazz" using tunes which were commonly performed in the 70's & 80's by PSG players.
IF you can find them, START with that and use the the PF online course as a companion.
YES, the music and style is DATED for some or nicely RETRO for others on the Jeff Newman courses.

LISTEN, and understand that in JAZZ, being an "Ear"-player will require a LOT of listening to the point that you can at least HUM tunes, heads and even ENTIRE SOLOS.
There is a world of FREE knowledge out there on youtube, and unless it is your declared goal to sound and play like our steel guitar heroes (good luck with that!), don't underestimate the fact that the first record Buddy Emmons bought at age 14 was a Bebop and Jazz Blues record featuring John Coltrane and other Jazz greats of that time... he wore that album to shreds and practiced to it, and I think that most of the early Steel Guitar Jazzmen did listen to non-steel guitar Jazz too.
I must say that I hardly listen to steel players for ideas anymore. I am NOT suggesting that, but I will say that most of the productive information I am getting on youtube comes from standard guitar, Tenor Sax (which I prefer over alto because they are a little slower and less "squeeky"), flute, organ and keyboard players, even trumpet.
I seem to see very little "real" Jazz Theory explained by steel guitar players. There are few like Jim Cohen who dedicated entire videos to subjects like ii.V.I. Very little and if any only superficial on diminished and altered concepts. You can find all that with other instruments and train your ear by picking what they explain on their instrument to the PSG.

Jazz is like Chess... there are some commonly know moves, phrases, motives, lines and clichés, but it's about CREATIVITY... FREEDOM.

It's a process!... J-D.