Jag har sedan jag började spela pedal steel varit intresserad av hur instrumentet kan användas på olika sätt i olika sorters musik. Efter att ha hört musik där jag tycker pedal steel låter likt en klarinett blev jag intresserad av hur jag kunde ta fram det soundet ur instrumentet. Genom att studera ett antal låtar och solon har jag fått en djupare förståelse för hur en klarinett låter i swingmusik. Jag har utformat ett antal övningar utifrån de upptäckter och svårigheter jag har stött på, vars mål är att göra mitt sound mjukare och mer likt en klarinett. Övningarna har kompletterat inlärningen av låtar och solon och tydliggjort de faktorer jag tycker ha bidragit till mitt resultat. I den här studien har jag upptäckt olika speltekniska faktorer som kan bidra till att en pedal steel låter mer som en klarinett, framförallt hur jag gör mitt anslag för att få ett mjukare sound. I arbetets avslutande del behandlar jag mina frågeställningar och kommer fram till studiens styrkor respektive svagheter. På vissa områden har min metod visat sig vara mycket effektiv och på andra områden skulle metoden kunna utvecklas och förbättras.

Considering the cultural importance of country-western music in the United States, especially in places such as Texas, the exclusion of country-western music from the musical offerings of public schools and universities (Bates, 2019; Bates, Gossett, & Stimeling, 2020) could be seen as problematic. Furthermore, the absence of the country-western style from formal music education has led to the concomitant exclusion of an an entire musical instrument from formal music study: the pedal steel guitar. The purpose of this inquiry was to engage in the lived experience of becoming a pedal steel guitarist in order to ascertain how I, as a learner of an instrument primarily used in country-western music, could interact with others within both the country-western and pedal steel guitar communities of practice as I gained competence as a pedal steel guitarist. Using communities of practice (Wenger, 1998) and landscapes of practice (Wenger-Trayner & Wenger-Trayner 2014) as a theoretical framework, I employed autoethnographic methods to document the lived experiences contained within an 18-month period in which I progressed from a nascent pedal steel guitarist, to performing professional gigs at various dance halls and honky-tonk bars. Data collection methods included journal entries, interviews with accomplished pedal steel guitarists, and the creation of artifacts such as tablature transcriptions and recordings. I created a short ethnodrama (Saldaña, 2011) to elucidate the conflict I felt between various aspects of my musical identity as my previous musical experiences both enabled and inhibited my new learning project. After analyzing my pedal steel learning project using language from Wenger’s (1998) framework of communities of practice, I concluded that Wenger’s interlocking concepts of participation and reification respectively served as the propulsion and rudder that allowed me to traverse my learning trajectory. In addition, I discussed impications of my research for music teachers, such as destigmatizing the role of mistakes (such as wrong notes) in the learning process; music teacher educators, such as the importance of facilitating boundary experiences for preservice teachers in order to broaden knowledgeability; and music learners¬, such as the benefits that can come from—to quote my pedal steel mentor Bobby Flores—“diving into that cold river with no inhibitions” when it comes to learning a new instrument.