THE
PAUL FRANKLIN
METHOD
A complete Course in E9 & C6 Pedal Steel Guitar.
Learn how to play, the right way . . . right away.
Access a library of over 560 instruction videos!
Enroll Now!
Pedal Steel Guitar Hall-of-Famer Paul Franklin shares his 50 years of playing and teaching experience with you.
From Beginner through Advanced and all the way to Mastery, there are lessons for whatever stage you may be at.
Paul’s Method is applicable to all forms of music — Modern Country, Classic Country, Blues, Jazz, Rock & Pop.
The Paul Franklin Method is delivered as a stand-alone course and as a collection of four Workshops and four Break-Outs.
You can focus your learning by using the Workshops and Break-Outs as handy sub-sets of the Method's 560+ lessons.
E9 Complete contains every single E9 lesson from the full Method. Perfect for those only interested in the front neck.
C6 Complete has just the C6 lessons from the full Method. A one-stop shop for all things C6
Just the Licks breaks out every Lick lesson found in the entire Method, including all of the licks in the stand-alone E9 Vocabulary course.
Right Hand Workshop is a collection of lessons and exercises to hone your chops.
NOTE: These 4 workshops are curated from the complete PFM for student convenience. Not offered separately.
"I've seen most all of the instruction materials that have come over my playing life. This is by far the absolute best, & as long as Paul desires to continue sharing his knowledge I'll be there to take lessons from him."
"I’ve been enrolled in the PFM Method for about 6 months now.
The depth in which Paul addresses each and every topic is just amazing.
It appears, you guys teaming up together with him to structure the content in the way you’ve done it, gave the whole topic yet another boost. Here’s all hats off to a job VERY well done. Thank you so much for this course!"
"It's like having Tiger Woods help you with your golf game. I can't think of any other profession or hobby or avocation where regular folks have this kind of access to the best on the planet."
"It has been a transformational experience for my approach to the PSG. In my experience it is vanishingly uncommon for an artist of Paul’s level of accomplishment to have the interest, generosity, and work ethic required to create a course of this depth, breadth, and quality."
"One of the highlights of my year was discovering the PFM and joining this great community. My playing has improved more than I could have hoped, and my enjoyment of playing has increased commensurately. Your teaching (and inspirational attitude) has made a world of difference for me."
"As a 2nd generation steel guitarist I believe this is the most important thing to happen to the future of the instrument. 25 years ago I did 10 instructional videos for steel, so know the amount of work it takes to do this. Congratulations on a masterful job, Paul!"
Your enrollment in The Paul Franklin Method includes an invitation to join Paul's Facebook Group, where actively enrolled players get direct access to Paul!
Ask Paul any question, suggest future lesson topics, post videos of your progress, get personal tips and guidance, glean exclusive insights from his session and touring life, and interact with your fellow students on the main feed and in the Student Chat.
Click on a Section to see the Lessons
A MESSAGE FROM PAUL
LATEST NEWS & LESSONS
How To Join The Facebook Group
Enrollment Renewal Information
About the PFM Bundle!
How to Navigate The Course - SLIDES
How to Navigate The Course - PDF
The Parts of the Pedal Steel Guitar
Tuning Your Guitar - By Ear
Tuning Levers With Pedals
Other Ways of Tuning the E9th
Changing Your Strings
For 6-String Guitarists
Harmonic Centers for 6-String Guitarists
Open Strings and Intervals
The Four String Groups
Chord Names on the Fretboard
The Open Strings - QUIZ
Fretboard By The Numbers
Nashville Number System - PDF
The E9 Tuning In Intervals
Why Is My Guitar Tuned Like This? - TEXT
Fretboard and Pedals (A&B)
Thinking In Intervals - PDF
E9 Tuning - QUIZ
The Four String Groups - QUIZ
Chord Names On The Fretboard -QUIZ
How to Sit Behind the Guitar
How to Read TAB
Learning
FOR BEGINNERS ONLY!
History Behind The E9th Floor Pedals
Basic E9th Pedals & Knee Levers
The Pedals - QUIZ
Pedals and Chords - QUIZ
Adjusting the Pedals
Rocking The Pedals
Knee Lever Placement
Volume Pedal Basics
Using the Volume Pedal for Expression
Volume Pedal Mastery
Mastering Pedal Squeezes
The Emotional Sound of the Pedals
PF4 And Pedal Placement
Pedal Exercises
Choices For Picking Techniques
The Picks – Why The Choice Matters
Mastering The Bar (Tuning And Tone)
Bar Pressure
All plans give you immediate access to all the Paul Franklin Method lessons.
Auto renews monthly
Cancel at any time!
Pre-pay for 3 months of access
Manual renewal required
One year pre-paid enrollment
Plus 2 additional months FREE!
Pre-pay for 3 months of access
Manual renewal required
One year pre-paid enrollment
Plus 2 additional months FREE!
The Paul Franklin Method is a streaming video course brought to you by Modern Music Masters.
Launched in Jan of 2018 and added to continuously since then , the course library now contains over 475 wide-ranging lessons. And more are added on a regular basis.
The idea is to create an virtual classroom environment you can do 24/7 from your home on any device that can stream online video.
You can review the materials by watching the videos over and over, use the video player to slow things down, and print out TABs and other relevant lesson materials.
You’ll have all the necessary close-up shots of Paul’s bar hand, pick hand and the pedals and levers, and perspectives.
This complete approach to teaching is what Paul means when he calls the Method a “living, breathing course”. Online streaming allows Paul to truly create a Method, not just an hour of hot licks or techniques – though of course hot licks, solos and intros are included!
We are aiming to set a standard of quality and completeness. You should be able to start from scratch and come out playing at a high level. Paul has committed to keep teaching as long as students are willing to learn.
Foundations is Paul's $99 starter course for pedal steel guitar. All of the material in Foundations is also contained here in The Method, which then continues on from the basics and goes deeper into all aspects of the PSG.
The Paul Franklin Method is a streaming online video course, with 7 mini-courses spun off for targeted learning, as explained above on this web page. Your enrollment includes over 475 lessons. You can view all of the videos and content 24/7 when connected to the internet.
Pedal Steel Guitar and Musician's Hall of Famer Paul Franklin is a master player and a master teacher. With decades of experience teaching via cassette and in person at clinics and seminars, the arrival of online teaching finally allowed Paul to reach many more players and get deeper into subjects that earlier methods and in-person appearances cannot rival.
Paul draws on his five decades of live and studio playing with a who's-who of musical legends, from Country titans like George Strait, Alan Jackson and many others to Barbra Streisand, Harry Connick, Jr. and Megadeth. He is expert on both E9 and C6 tunings and has an encyclopedic knowledge of classic steel styles from the early masters of the instrument. Paul was mentored by legends like Buddy Emmons, Lloyd Green, Pete Drake, Weldon Myrick, Hal Rugg, John Hughey, all fellow Hall of Famers. He toured the world with Dire Straits and continues to be the first-call pedal steel player in the Nashville studio scene.
From ripping Rock, to twangy Country, to Jazz, to Western Swing and all points in between, Paul honors the past and keeps pushing the instrument forward. It is his desire to share all of the knowledge he has acquired for future generations to study and carry the pedal steel guitar torch into the future.
The Paul Franklin Method can be viewed on desktop computers and mobile devices – phones, tablets, laptops – as long as you have a supported browser on them and they are connected to the internet. You will need to keep your OS and browser fairly current as how browsers display items changes over time. For example, in the Mac world, you may need iOS 16.x or higher.
The Paul Franklin Method videos are not available for download, though other items like PDFs and TABs, are.
Your enrollment allows you access to view the videos online 24/7.
Paul teaches using the standard pedal setups as used by Buddy Emmons, Jimmy Day, Lloyd Green, Rusty Young, Tom Brumley, etc. Pedal placement is your personal preference, so Paul refers to them as “A”, “B” or “C” pedals. Wherever you have those changes on your guitar is your call.
On the E9 tuning, you should have the two basic knee levers that raise and lower the 4th and 8th strings a half-tone (E to F and E to Eb). On the C6 tuning, the standard Buddy Emmons setup is taught.
Universal or Extended tuning users can benefit from the Course, just apply the concepts to your own tuning/copedent.
Yes. We offer a free Test Drive of this course, containing a select sample of Paul Franklin Method lessons. Just scroll down to bottom of this page.
About Paul Franklin
Paul Franklin began playing steel guitar at age 8. Taking lessons from a Hawaiian guitar master, he quickly progressed and when pedal steel guitars came about, he got one immediately.
Paul was already gigging in local clubs at 11, and a member of the Musician’s Union. Soon calls came to the house asking for a pedal steel player for sessions in the thriving local music scene.
Not only were Pop, Motown and Jazz popular, but the “Hillbilly Highway” of Southerners heading North to build cars fueled a burgeoning Country music scene.
Paul got his first taste of national success as a teenager on Gallery’s “It’s So Nice To Be With You”, a #1 hit single. He also guested on Parliament’s “Country Boy” track and worked with Motown producer Dennis Coffey (of instrumental hit “Scorpio” fame).
The pedal steel was being embraced by Country music, and Nashville was the place for this young prodigy to be, so he headed to Tennessee as a senior in high school to join Barbara Mandrell’s band at the invitation of her father, Irby. He also toured with Dottie West, Lynn Anderson, and Donna Fargo.
Session steeler Pete Drake hired Paul to play on jingles and a few recordings. Franklin joined Jerry Reed’s band and recorded solo albums of original pedal steel instrumentals and Jazz standards. A long stint with Mel Tillis’ Statesiders playing classic country and honky-tonk with an excellent road band was next.
After leaving Tillis, his studio career took off and he was featured in many of the albums of the 1980’s-2000s. In 1991 he took a call from Mark Knopfler that led to playing on The Notting Hillbillies album and eventually with Dire Straits, touring the world and recording On Every Street with them.
In recent years, besides his busy studio schedule, Franklin is a member of Vince Gill’s touring band and holds down the pedal steel seat with the Time Jumpers who showcase Western Swing and classic Country every Monday night at a local Nashville club.
Start With Foundations?