When someone asks "how do I play C6 sounds on the standard 10 string E9th tuning", I have to ask "which C6 sounds?" In most cases they are looking for the traditional country C6 sounds ranging from Don Helms' Hank Williams stuff to Curly Chalker's massive chords. I've decided to document in tuning charts, tab and a bit of text discussion what I've been able to figure out about this topic. A ton of C6 sounds are available on the E9th tuning. Many only require the use of the standard Emmons pedal setup and are easy to play. Some require more advanced pedals and more exotic picking grips at non-standard fret positions. In some cases it's not possible to duplicate the low bass strings that are on the C6 tuning if you only have a 10 string E9th tuned guitar. So that's a disadvantage. In other cases you can get a lot of the same chords but the voicing is clearer on E9th and they can be freely mixed with standard E9th pedal and chromatic sounds. That gets you out of sounding like a country picker all night long!

In the chart below I've listed the 7 or so major pockets and pedal combinations that I use to get C6 sounds on the E9th tuning. Many are surprised to find that half pedaling or split tuning pedal 1 not only gives full sounding diminished chords but offers a lot of the 9th chords that C6 pedals 5 and 6 can produce. The tabs listed in the table below the pocket charts vary from very basic up to a version of Ray Price's Night Life that very closely mimics the original C6 version.

If all the tuning stuff is not of interest to you, go straight to the tabs and learn a few until the grips and positions become playable by reflex. It's also helpful to sit at your guitar with the pocket charts and strum through the listed notes at all the positions in one key to familiarize yourself with the basic concepts. Once you get into this you will also find neat uses for pedal 3 to get a full sounding maj7 chord just like the one on C6 strings 9,7,6, and 4. Lowering the 9th E9th string give you a nice minor7 chord just like the one on C6 strings 8,6,5 and 3.

For reference I've included the copedant for my personal pedal steel guitar. It's not perfect and I've left out some useful changes in favor of other changes that suit my style of playing. It's not necessary to have all the pedals and knee levers that I do. But having them available leaves room for experimentation and makes practice time more interesting! If you don't have the B to Bb knee lever on E9th, or if you don't have split tuning on your guitar, just press pedal half way to get a C note on strings 5 and 10.

Comments About Note Pockets Pocket 1 This is just pedals 1 and 2 activated and on the chart below is shown in the key of C at the 3rd fret. On E9th this gives you 8 notes of the C6 scale, 6 of which line up with the top 6 strings of the standard C6 tuning, G,E,C,A,G,E high to low. Pocket 2 This is just the E to D# knee lever activated and on the chart below is shown in the key of C at the 1st fret. On E9th this gives you 8 notes of the C6 scale, 7 of which line up with the top 7 strings of the standard C6 tuning, G,E,C,A,G,E,C high to low. Pocket 3 This uses a knee lever to lower the 10th string a whole tone and on the chart below is shown in the key of C at the 3rd fret. It is a bit unique in that it gives you a low C on the 10th string without having to move the bar to the 1st fret. It omits the middle 3rd scale tone but adds in a major 9th note which forms some really nice chords! Pocket 4 This allows easy access to a 9th chord. Note that you can strum groups of strings with pedals 1 and 2 active (pocket 1), add the B to Bb knee lever for split tuning and go from an I6 to a IV9 chord, go up two more frets and you've got a V9 chord! Drop the 5th string another 1/2 tone and you go from a dominant 7th back to a 6th scale note. Very handy for single string riffs (see the second tab in the tab table below for a good example of this). Also you can play a no pedals down major chord then slide up 2 frets while activating the Pocket 4 changes and get a whole new 9th sound two frets above the major chord. Try it! This change gives you some of the effects of C6 pedals 5 and 7. Pockets 6 and 7 These pockets use the same string grips making it easy to slide between them. Omit string 6 if you don't want the full sound. There's lots of tabs below that explain the use of these to emulate the C6 maj7 and min7 spread grips.

Click here for pocket chart in pdf format

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