Melody

The hollowneck guitar really comes into it's own as a melodic instrument, and is capable of being used for many different genres.
The distinctive slide, expressive vibrato and singing sustain give the acoustic steel guitar a vocal-like quality that enables it to step into melodic roles in many different kinds of acoustic music.

 

Posted here should be some things that may help you on your quest to explore the melodic possibilities of the Steel Guitar style...

 

Fretboard Maps can be a useful tool, to aid in learning your way around the fretboard, locating notes on any string, for transcribing or transposing tunes.


Fretboard-Map for Open D tuning

 

Commonly used scale forms can be presented as fretboard "maps" for open D tuning...
These can be useful as a guide for improvising "in key" and memorizing scale shapes for licks and melody lines etc...

D Major scale

D Pentatonic Major scale

D Pentatonic Minor scale

D Pentatonic "Blues" scale

Many licks can be created by using handy "box-shapes" of 2 or 3 note-per-string patterns...
but remember not to get stuck in these!

If your improvising try breaking out of a box by unexpectedly running out of the top or bottom of it on a single string.

Go on, surprise yourself!

These maps were made using the excellent "LookNoHands" website:

A brilliant resource for any style of guitar player, don't be put off by the "Advanced" tag, it's useful for all levels of ability!



When you're on the above page you can set the tuning to any you desire, and display any one of a myriad of familiar and exotic scales, in any key you like!
Notes can be displayed as their names ( D,A# etc) or note intervals or steps.
Amazing!

Print your own blank fretboard maps, to plot out your own stuff.
[click here]
The act of plotting stuff out can be a useful way to "imprint" note groups and "get" the relationships between them, in the same way that lyrics or a poem can be learned by simply copying them out by hand a few times.
( 2 per A4 sheet )

As the Steel Guitar is truly a microtonal istrument you aren't limited to the 12 note Western scale, so the instrument is well suited to playing music using any of the many "exotic" scales found in music where the octave is divided into more notes.

( Many Eastern scales use 22,24,25 or sometimes even more different pitches. )

Here's an interesting ( if heavy-going ) paper by Akine Honingh which really delves into the theory and science behind the relationships between pitches.
Although it doesn't really explore the influence that cultural differences have on the perception and organisation of pitch into scalar patterns it does give insight into the workings and reasoning behind Equal Temperament and Just Intonation, plus the title sounds kinda cool like something from Gurdjieff's "All & Everything".
The Origin and Well-Formedness of Tonal Pitch Structures

 

Melodic Techniques & Tricks

Try sliding to your target note from above and below, and from different fret-distances away.
This technique is known as "playing grace notes" and contributes to the distinctive sound of Steel Guitar.
Particular importance is put on this in Indian Classical Music, where it is known as the "Meend"

See how many notes you can squeeze out of a single strike of a string.

If you know a lick or phrase, try finding it on a different position on the fretboard, this will really "open up" the instrument, you'll find the same notes but with different tones.

Play along to vocal-lines or solos on other instruments for inspiration for phrasing ideas.
You will be impressed by how a simple phrase with very few notes can sound so cool, it's all in the subtle inflections of pitch!
Or for your amusement ( & a good workout ) try aping the overblown & tedious "vocal pyrotechnics" of those lip-quivering RnB singers that crowd the airwaves with their "soulful" schmaltz.