Learning to Play a Six String Lap Steel

[Taylorplayer]

I have just finished building a 6 string lap steel guitar. I think it turned out pretty decent.

Can anyone recommend a good book / video series on how to learn the basics of playing it? I plan to use the classic C6 tuning. I really want to do this right!

Any advice will be much appreciated!

Thanks,
Will

[mstuartev]

Haunt some of the slide forums - Resohangout , The Steel Guitar Forum. Lots of good resources and folks there. Homespun Tapes has lots of DVDs and stuff you can download. I play weissenborn acoustic slide and have done well by them.

[Bikewer]

I found this site useful:
http://www.well.com/~wellvis/steel.html

I built one too a while back, but the technique of playing is so "backwards" to my usual bottleneck technique I've never worked on it much.

[mstuartev]

Originally Posted by Bikewer

I found this site useful:
http://www.well.com/~wellvis/steel.html

I built one too a while back, but the technique of playing is so "backwards" to my usual bottleneck technique I've never worked on it much.

I hear you. I played Spanish style bottleneck for years. Took up lap style with a tone bar. Weird at first but I love it now. I can see the fretboard so learning scales is easier.

[blue]

The only advice I would give is to buy both a quality T bar and Hawaiian style bullet. The Latch Lake hawaiian bar, formerly associated with Bob Brozman and sold as the Broz-o-phonic is an amazing hunk of steel.

The learning curve is huge compared to a standard T bar. HUGE! But once you do learn to hold it, and lift it off the strings and move it around, it is superior because of the ease and control you will have with slants, and reverse slants. Reverse slants are so much easier with a concave ended bullet than a T bar. The fact that the Tbar has a built in handle makes it easier up front. But while slanting to the left is very easy (fingertips pointing to the left for a right hander), that reverse slant where you go to the right is limited by your body. With the bullet you pivot the bar, and your wrist and elbow movement is minimal.

Anyway, it'll run you around $20 plus shipping. Have both. And work with the bullet and give it a fair chance.

I can't help you with the C6 as I've been playing G, D, and their associated minors since I started a decade ago. There's so much music hiding in them waiting to be discovered, that while I would love to get into the C tunings, I may not be around long enough

[Taylorplayer]

My thanks to all. This is the lap steel that I made. I am determined to learn how to use it, but I don't expect it to be an easy process!

[/IMG]

[Bob Womack]

I pretty much moved over my bottleneck knowledge and then learned on my own by watching and listening to others. Now, there were some pretty good others: Ted Turner of Wishbone Ash, David Lindley of Jackson Browne, et. al., and David Gilmore with Pink Floyd and solo. I work in various tunings, and whatever modified tuning it takes to reach notes when I'm working in the studio. I've learned that it doesn't pay to be stoic with this instrument and try to stick to established tunings. Instead, be utilitarian: If you can't easily get an interval you need for a lick or melody within a tuning, grab the tuner and move a string to make it easy or easier. You'll be glad you did.

Heed what they say about tone bars. I use a Shubb-Pearse SP-3 Sally Van Meter ergo bar and love it for hammer-ons and pull-offs.

How about a little inspiration from one of my sessions? CLIP
Copyright 3:16 Media

HERE is a tune ("Wade in the Water") from a scoring session.

Bob

[FolkRock Rules]

Nice work, Will.
I haven't done much lately with my SX Lap 2 (their model with a P90), but I'm sticking with C6 for that one.
My Squier Bullet Special just got retuned into Open E, so I can attempt to learn Juzzie Smith's "The Keys." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjSijEE4KuQ Wazinator did another video with Juzzie giving a mini lesson on that song.

Andy Volk and Doug Beaumier, both members of the Steel Guitar Forum, have done two or three books on lap steel and C6 in particular. I just got a copy of Andy's latest, Exploring C6th Lap Steel Guitar. http://www.volkmedia.com/Volkmedia.c...C6th_Book.html

I'm not a big fan of country or Hawaiian music, but there are several songs in each of Doug B.'s books (25 Songs and 25 MORE Songs) that I'd like to learn. http://www.dougbsteel.com

I'd also recommend Joe Dochtermann's site. Joe has a lesson on YouTube about playing "Sleep Walk," with an interesting over-the-shoulder view of him playing. I bought this set as an eBook download. http://www.joedocmusic.com/product/lap-steel-dvds

Have fun.

Edited to add: Bob W., those clips were excellent.

[blue]

Originally Posted by blue

But while slanting to the left is very easy (fingertips pointing to the left for a right hander), that reverse slant where you go to the right is limited by your body. With the bullet you pivot the bar, and your wrist and elbow movement is minimal.

Got this reversed in my mind from being in the "teacher's chair" while instructing my son. So as Willie Wonka (Gene Wilder of course!) said:

"Strike that! Reverse it!"

[Taylorplayer]

Thanks everyone! The clips sounded great, and I really appreciate the information shared. To me, that is the true strength of the AGF - and I am thankful for it!

PS - I just ordered a copy of this book: Exploring C6th Lap Steel Guitar. http://www.volkmedia.com/Volkmedia.c...C6th_Book.html Thanks for the tip!

[Rudy4]

I've never been a C6 fan; everything ends up sounding like western swing when I use it.

I have some tuning info as well as a whole lot of lap steel construction information on my website here:

http://www.bluestemstrings.com/pageLap.html

[Taylorplayer]

Originally Posted by Rudy4

I've never been a C6 fan; everything ends up sounding like western swing when I use it.

I have some tuning info as well as a whole lot of lap steel construction information on my website here:

http://www.bluestemstrings.com/pageLap.html

You point is certainly well taken. Then again, being the newbie that I am, if I could get anything "sounding like western swing" I'd be happy! Thanks for sharing your site - very informative!


PS - Once again, my thanks to everyone who has contributed thus far... I am learning more everyday!

[syrynx]

Will, that instrument is a lovely piece of work!

Originally Posted by Bob Womack

I work in various tunings, and whatever modified tuning it takes to reach notes when I'm working in the studio. I've learned that it doesn't pay to be stoic with this instrument and try to stick to established tunings. Instead, be utilitarian: If you can't easily get an interval you need for a lick or melody within a tuning, grab the tuner and move a string to make it easy or easier. You'll be glad you did.

I strongly concur. Happily, a single set set of strings can accommodate many different tunings without compromising sound quality. Here's a chart listing some of the possibilities that can be achieved with a typical six-string set nominally offered for C6 tuning. (Gauges may vary slightly from one brand of string to another, but any six-string C6 set will work well for all of these tunings.)

Str  .036  .030  .024  .022  .017  .014
C6    C     E     G     A     C     E
C7    C     E     G     Bb    C     E
A6    C#    E     F#    A     C#    E
A7    C#    E     G     A     C#    E
E6    B     E     G#    B     C#    E
E7    B     D     E     G#    B     E
E9    B     D     F#    G#    B     E
E13   B     D     E     G#    C#    E
B11   B     D#    F#    A     C#    E
JB*   C#    E     G     A     C     E
WL**  C#    E     G     A#    C     D

*JB = the Jerry Byrd C6/A7.
**WL = William Leavitt's tuning, designed to play a wide variety of chords without slanting the bar.

Do be aware, though, that strings suitable for these close-spaced tunings won't work with triad tunings (open D/E, open G/A, open C, etc.). Standard tuning string sets work well for triad tunings, but they're mutually exclusive with close-spaced tunings. If you want to work with both, you're looking at a second lap steel... and stepping onto a slippery slope.

(FWIW, my own progression went: First lap steel, 1973; second lap steel, 1973; triple 8 console, 1976; first pedal steel, 1979; second pedal steel, 1980; single 8 console steel, 1981. Now, I've about come full circle; my primary lap steels these days are six-string acoustic flattops with extension nuts and sound hole pickups. But the two pedal steels and the two console steels are still in my custody and close at hand...)

I also enthusiastically join with FolkRock Rules in urging you to check out Doug Beaumier's YouTube channel. Even without paying a cent for books or lessons, you can learn tons just by watching his free videos, all of which boast excellent audio and video quality.

But I hope you don't become enslaved by tablature and a "connect the dots" mind set. It's perfectly OK to learn some stuff this way, but it's much more important to understand what you're doing in a given tune or song and be able to apply the same concepts, with modifications, to another tune or song. Here's a lesson which, once you've fully absorbed it (which might take minutes or months, depending upon your grasp of harmony theory), will take you a long way into being able to play. Eddie Rivers is tuned to A6, but the principles and the bar movements work in C6 or any other sixth tuning.



This clip shows just a fraction of the power of a sixth tuning. That power stems from the fact that it includes both major and minor triads at every fret, and a minor triad is the top three notes of both a major seventh chord and a ninth chord. Additionally, easy bar slants make available both augmented and diminished triads.

Good luck! And welcome to the slippery slope...

[FolkRock Rules]

My Doug Beumier 25 Songs and 25 More Songs for Lap Steel Guitar books and CDs arrived in today's mail. I got my Andy Volk Exploring C6th book (which also has a CD) a few weeks ago.

I feel some learnin' sessions coming on.

[Bob Womack]

Originally Posted by Taylorplayer

My thanks to all. This is the lap steel that I made. I am determined to learn how to use it, but I don't expect it to be an easy process!

Did you take the old '50s Gretsch Electromatic as your body shape model? It looks that way, right down to the headstock. I happen to like it, by the way.

Bob