Topic: useing a pedal board to change chords

[jimbell52]

I have  been working on some  country  tunes  trying to develop  my pedal steel skills. I am finding it  hard  to change chords and  use the bender  for the great pedal steel sound at te same time.  Has any one tried the use a pedal  board  like on an organ to change chords ??  or have  any suggestion?

[mikf]

I think you have this the wrong way round. Use the pedal for the pitch bend.
Mike

[jimbell52]

really there's a way  to  do pitch bend  with a foot pedal  ??    please point me  in that direction 

[mikf]

You don’t say which keyboard you have.  Have you read the manual? On most keyboards you can select many functions to be controlled by pedal, - pitch bend, style start/stop, sustain, volume and others.  Just access the menu and go to the pedal control selection. On many keyboards you can do this easily by pressing the pedal while hitting the direct access button. For pitch bend control you would need an expression type pedal - like you use for volume control - rather than a simple switch type pedal, because it’s not an on/off function.
Mike

[jimbell52]

Thanks I'll try    I have an S 970 

[mikf]

I believe that the S970 has the direct access button. Once you get to the list of choices scroll down to pitch bend, and select.
 Be sure you get an expression pedal if you don’t have one already. Type “expression pedal “ into a search engine and you will get many options, but the Yamaha FC7 is a safe bet.
Once you get to the basics I can give you some guidance on how to set this up  - span, polarity - and how to  use it. But it will take some practice to get the coordination for good results if you are not used to using pedals.
Mike

[Fred Smith]

Thanks I'll try    I have an S 970

Press direct access, then press the pedal. Now you'll get a list of what you can assign to the pedal.

Cheers,
Fred

[andyg]

You can use a standard foot switch for this, using the Glide function, if the bends you're looking to add are no more than a semitone. You can set the bend down/up times in the same screen as you select the Glide function.

But there's a 'hidden' feature to Glide. If you tap and release the pedal quickly the glide will be fast. If you hold the pedal a little then release, the glide up will be slower. I use this to great effect when recreating the Shadows' version of 'Sleepwalk'.

Using an FC7 for anything other than expression is tricky, to say the least!

[RichardTrench]

Hi guys,

Wondering if the Yamaha FC7 pedal is suitable to control the volume of RH keys?

I use a midi accordion and want to be able to adjust the volume up and down depending on which part of a song I am on.

Regards,
Richard

[mikf]

Yes, that is exactly what it does, but not sure how it would work with a midi accordion.
Mike

[pedro_pedroc]

Well,

If you need your left hand to the distortion/modulation joystick, I suggest you to use the "Chord Looper" feature. Just insert the chords and it will change the style chords for your...

I used this feature at 5:10 on this youtube video, just to use my left hand on the joystick... Take a look at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0NXWf8X5h2c&t=310s

Regards,
Pedro Eleutério