Steel Guitar beginner lessons?

John Long · Post by **John Long** » 19 Jan 2015 3:42 pm

Hi All
I am so new I don't have my lap steel yet. It is in the mail, as they say!
Please, does anyone have a good beginners program for the lap steel, which they would recommend? My steel is a Rogue RLS-1.
Thanks in advance
John Long

Jerome Hawkes · Post by **Jerome Hawkes** » 19 Jan 2015 5:41 pm

i would say forumite George Piburn - i think he has a youtube channel you can check out and see if thats what you need

John Long · Post by **John Long** » 19 Jan 2015 6:20 pm

Thanks. I'll check it out

John Booth · Post by **John Booth** » 19 Jan 2015 6:23 pm

Just pay attention.
Pay attention to everything.
Pay attention to each and every detail.
It'll be fun
Welcome

Deirdre Higgins · Post by **Deirdre Higgins** » 19 Jan 2015 6:40 pm

Hi John, and welcome to the SGF
Here is a link to Sierra Steel Guitars website, there you will find several free lap steel lessons by Joe Wright. I started with these and they got me off on the right track.
Down the road I would seriously recommend the Jerry Byrd instruction course sold by Scotty's Music.

Sierra
http://www.sierrasteels.com/lessons/lap-lessons.html

Scotty's
www.scottysmusic.com/byrdbook.htm

I wish you all the best.

Deirdre

John Long · Post by **John Long** » 19 Jan 2015 7:11 pm

Thanks Everyone!
I have never participated in a forum before. Great stuff. Can't wait for my guitar
John

Marty Forrer · Post by **Marty Forrer** » 19 Jan 2015 9:41 pm

Deirdre Higgins wrote:Hi John, and welcome to the SGF
Here is a link to Sierra Steel Guitars website, there you will find several free lap steel lessons by Joe Wright. I started with these and they got me off on the right track.
Down the road I would seriously recommend the Jerry Byrd instruction course sold by Scotty's Music.

Sierra
http://www.sierrasteels.com/lessons/lap-lessons.html

Scotty's
www.scottysmusic.com/byrdbook.htm

I wish you all the best.

Deirdre

There is something wrong with the Lap lessons on Sierra. The PSG ones are still up, but the lap ones cant be accessed. I emailed Sierra, but never heard back.

Deirdre Higgins · Post by **Deirdre Higgins** » 20 Jan 2015 1:04 pm

Marty Forrer wrote:
There is something wrong with the Lap lessons on Sierra. The PSG ones are still up, but the lap ones cant be accessed. I emailed Sierra, but never heard back.

Thanks Marty, I guess I should have tried the link first, I also just emailed Sierra.

Brigitte Skelton Baker · Post by **Brigitte Skelton Baker** » 21 Jan 2015 12:14 pm

This is my first post. I'm new, too, and feeling slightly overwhelmed. I have a piano/acoustic guitar background but this is a whole new animal!

I've been working on my striking and blocking technique but would like to branch out to at least scales! Currently looking anywhere and everywhere for information of where to start. I need "Steel Guitar for Dummies," I guess.

You guys please wish me luck AND pray for me.

Brigitte Skelton Baker

PS That cursing you hear in the distance is probably me.

Stephen Abruzzo · Post by **Stephen Abruzzo** » 21 Jan 2015 12:22 pm

Brigitte.......click on the link below and put in your tuning and desired scale and VOILA....instant info.

Welcome aboard.

http://www.looknohands.com/chordhouse/g ... ex_rb.html

Deirdre Higgins · Post by **Deirdre Higgins** » 21 Jan 2015 1:41 pm

Hi Brigitte,
I too am a beginner, having no musical talent whatsoever when I picked up my guitar. I can't give you a whole lot of advice but to cheer you on, and to say have fun with it. You will find steel guitar a very enriching, and expressive instrument more so than any other. Watching Jerry Byrd on Youtube helped me plenty just by studying his technique.
At this point I would have to say, taking a few beginner lessons would help just to get the proper technique established if you can find someone in your area.
If you are using a C6 tuning Doug Beaumier has two very good song books for lap steel. I find learning songs as I go keeps me going and keeps the fun factor alive.
Here are some links:

Doug's Website
http://www.dougbsteel.com/dougpage3.html

Also a very good song book is:
Mel Bay Basic C6th Nonpedal Lap Steel Method by Dwitt Scott

George Boards
http://www.georgeboards.com/

Deirdre

Troy Brenningmeyer · Post by **Troy Brenningmeyer** » 22 Jan 2015 7:30 am

Hi John, sorry for the shameless self promotion, but I'll throw my hat in the ring. I'm not sure what tuning you are using, but here are a couple links to my Lap Steel Lessons

C6 Lap Steel Lessons For Beginners:
http://www.lessonswithtroy.com/C6-Tunin ... l-Lessons/

Open D Lap Steel Lessons For Beginners:
http://www.lessonswithtroy.com/Lap-Stee ... In-Open-D/

~Troy~

Chris Sattler · Post by **Chris Sattler** » 16 Mar 2015 6:33 pm

Hi to all. Can anyone see for me if they can get Joe Wright's lessons on lap steel to load and play? They are here

http://www.sierrasteels.com/lessons/lap-lessons.html

I have viewed them a while ago and thought they were great. But now they won't work for me. The others open and play just fine but not the lap steel lessons.

I have recommended them to a friend who is taking up steel. I also did contact Sierra and ask them about it but they still don't seem to work. Is it just me?

Bill Moore · Post by **Bill Moore** » 16 Mar 2015 7:04 pm

This web page:
http://dennysguitars.homestead.com/lessonsindex1.html
owned by forum member Denny Turner, covers just about everything you might want to know.

Also see Dave Stewart's web page:
http://www.steelc6th.com/

David Ridgeway · Post by **David Ridgeway** » 17 Mar 2015 7:11 am

First I would like to say, George Piburn's lessons are more than worth the investment also, Doug Beaumier's 2 lap steel books with the backtracks are also more than well worth the investment, I used them both and got to the point that I actually posted some videos on youtube so that my kids could see my progress, not sure if I can share here but my channel is Patriot435 I'm the one playing the little 1940's era Dickerson 6 string lap.

I would like to ask though if anyone knows of 8 or 10 string lap steel lessons or any info on how to actually play with the extra strings?

I got away from the lap for a while (had some medical issues, life stuff you know) and now I am wanting to get back into it but I'd like to add the 2 or 4 strings

Any help would be appreciated

BTW, the vids of me playing were about 6 months into learning, every extra minute that I could spare I was on that thing

Thx for any assistance

Charlie McDonald · Post by **Charlie McDonald** » 17 Mar 2015 10:38 am

Brigitte Skelton Baker wrote: I need "Steel Guitar for Dummies," I guess.

There is no steel guitar for dummies, but as you can see a lot of helpful people who have felt like one at moments,
and lots of link to find all kinds of things. Welcome.

Barbara Berg · Post by **Barbara Berg** » 18 Mar 2015 5:20 pm

Hi John,
Welcome to the SGF. I will throw in another teacher. I take lessons on Skype with him. His name is John Ely, I've learned lots from him. Send me an email if interested and I will give you his email address.

Bob Moore · Post by **Bob Moore** » 23 Mar 2015 5:29 pm

I tried both lap and pedal links and neither worked at 9:25pm EST. Bob M

Victor Becker · Post by **Victor Becker** » 24 Mar 2015 6:04 am

Try: www.UniversalChordMapper.com

This web application will be very useful for beginners.

Experienced players will enjoy it, too...

Steve Knight · Post by **Steve Knight** » 24 Mar 2015 8:50 pm

The lap and pedal steel lessons are working fine for me. I just tried several lessons on both pages. I'm using Safari as my web browser on a Mac, if that makes a difference.

George Rout · Post by **George Rout** » 30 Mar 2015 7:08 pm

And nobody ever mentions the simplist and earliest method from back in the 30's and 40's and 50's, the A Major Tuning. I still play it, and I still teach it - (locally)!!!!!

Geo

Bill Leff · Post by **Bill Leff** » 31 Mar 2015 4:02 am

Great to see more women taking up the steel guitar and contributing to the forum!

John Botofte · Post by **John Botofte** » 31 Mar 2015 11:28 pm

For 8-string (ACEGACEG) lessons get Cindy Cashdollar's western swing course. Very good!
John

Paul Honeycutt · Post by **Paul Honeycutt** » 1 Apr 2015 10:11 am

Welcome John and Bridget!

I started on Dobro, moved to open E lap steel and I'm now taking on C6 on six string as I get my D-8 playable.

My advice is to listen to everything you can and get those sounds stuck in your head. Pretty soon you'll start coming upon some of those sounds on your guitar. Any lessons are a big help and the method books and on line resources mentioned are important.

George Rout, I play bottleneck underarm guitar in A, so I've been using old tab books to come up with ideas. It's a good tuning and has seemed to have slipped out of favor.

James Honberger · Post by **James Honberger** » 2 Apr 2015 5:31 am

Welcome John,
Did you get the Rogue yet? If so, can you post a pic or two?

JH

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