Most Esential For Learning Lap

[Carl McLaughlin]

What would all the experts say was the MOST important thing to learn when learning lap steel.

[Allan Revich]

What would all the experts say was the MOST important thing to learn when learning lap steel.

IMHO (as a “not yet an expert”) the single most important thing is to decide what kind of music you’d like to play. From that decision, nearly everything else will flow.

What you want to play will determine what tuning to start wth

If you just want to play blues and rock, you may as well start with an open chord tuning. Either D/E (151351) or G/A (135135).

If you want to play country, jazz, pop, Hawaiian etc, you’ll probably want to start with C6 (CEGACE) because it’s the most common modern tuning with loads of learning material available.

The next most important thing is to learn from my mistake!

Instead of spending years searching for that “perfect tuning”, choose one of the main tunings and practice the heck out of it!

[Bill Sinclair]

How to hold on to the bar.

[Mike Neer]

Learning to listen. You need to be able to hear your pitch and your rhythm in relation to other instruments. You have to be able to hear all these things and adjust. Practicing in time is a big help, using a metronome or a rhythm track. Recording yourself and listening back carefully should help identify problems. Then, hopefully, you will begin to hear in real time.

[Christopher Blood]

Patience is the most important thing to learn.
Also I agree with Allen pick a tuning and practice the hell out of it. I use open G dobro tuning for everything.
btw not an expert. I suppose you could say I was an expert at being a beginner.

[Nic Neufeld]

I also agree with Allen's advice to figure out what you want to play. Not that you are beholden to a particular style or genre in the long term, but if there's something particular you want to play / sound like, that can help put you on a course of learning, and help make some of the decisions a bit clearer for you (such as tuning, who to learn from, various technique approaches, etc).

[Doug Beaumier]

I agree with Mike and others. Critical listening, especially to your pitch and timing. And lots of practice.

[Michael Diabo]

I would add, in addition to what everyone has recommended, to remember to enjoy the process of learning to play.

Mike

[Andy Volk]

Great advice from everyone. And it's all important: listening, paying attention your pitch, etc. and I'd add the most under explained aspect in playing steel for beginners is that what you don't play (via good blocking) is as important as what listeners hear.
Here's a passage from one of my books:

The steel guitar’s ability to sustain notes and seamlessly glide from note-to-note or chord-to-chord is one of its most attractive attributes. In order to make the most of these capabilities, a fundamental technique used by steel guitarists, which isn’t used by most other string players, is called blocking or muting.

Blocking allows you to control which strings you want to ring out and which tones are muted or silenced. Blocking is critical to playing steel guitar because, without this technique, the strings would ring out and mix together with unpredict-able, muddy or atonal results. However, having strings ring and sustain is often desirable. The key is to be able to control whether or not strings will ring by conscious choice.

Proper blocking is one of the most unnatural-feeling steel guitar techniques for beginners and one that often takes a significant amount of practice time to accomplish. Eventually, blocking and muting become a practically subconscious part of your playing.

[Don Kona Woods]

As Mike says use a metronome or a rhythm track because of the importance of timing.

I used Band-in-a-Box (BIAB) produced by PG Music for practicing and for tape production. You can choose the instruments for your backup. It has a lot of flexibility.

[Carl McLaughlin]

Thanks to all for your suggestions.My biggest downfall i think is what tuning to stick with.I have been playing in open G [gbdgbd] most of the time then i tried C6 [cegace], didn't do too bad with that,but found G more comfortable.Then i see Troy Brenningmeyer showing G9 ,open D ETC ,I start thinking i should try that.Like you folks have stated,i have to Pick one tuning and practice the heck out of it.

Just purchased a Supro Jet Airline w/legs,feels different but love the sound.

Carl

[Allan Revich]

Thanks to all for your suggestions.My biggest downfall i think is what tuning to stick with.I have been playing in open G [gbdgbd] most of the time then i tried C6 [cegace], didn't do too bad with that,but found G more comfortable.Then i see Troy Brenningmeyer showing G9 ,open D ETC ,I start thinking i should try that.Like you folks have stated,i have to Pick one tuning and practice the heck out of it.

Just purchased a Supro Jet Airline w/legs,feels different but love the sound.

Carl

Congratulations on the new lap steel.

And BTW, I have zero regrets about my “mistake” of not sticking to one tuning. I’ve gotten tremendous pleasure out of my experiments and experiences, and my playing has still improved—if not as quickly as it might have otherwise. Also, at least for informal jamming, I could now pick up any lap steel in any tuning, and still find something to play.

[Bill McCloskey]

The number one thing to learn playing lap steel is to learn how to block (and mute). Palm blocking, pick blocking, the ability to isolate tones without unwanted sounds, bar noise, pick noise, unwanted notes

I spent a lot of time just mindlessly pickblocking. Doesn't even have to be plugged in. Sit in front of the tv and just pick block over and over and over.

All the other suggestions are important, but without blocking, it is all for naught.

[Glenn Wilde]

A chair

[Fred Treece]

Is there even a single most important thing?

Patience. Holding the bar. How to sit or stand at the instrument. Listening. Choose a tuning. How to tune. Playing in tune. Timing. Blocking - Without any of those, you’re screwed. And no one has even mentioned the dreaded music theory aspect yet. Do teachers approach these things one at a time, and is there a hierarchy of technique? Or is there a more holistic approach right from the start?

[Doug Beaumier]

Everything is important. If you can't play in tune, it doesn't matter how well you block. If you can't block cleanly, it doesn't matter that you play perfectly in tune. And if you have poor timing, it won't matter that you can block and play in tune!

[Bill McCloskey]

Good point Doug but I would argue that playing in tune and timing are prerequisites for any instrument.

If you can't stay in tune, play a fretted instrument. If you have no timing, take up chess.

But blocking is specific to the lap steel itself. Therefore I put that higher because I'm not sure you can teach pitch and timing. You can definitely teach blocking though

[Steven Pearce]

Great subject.
I’m for sure nobody’s expert, but after 35+ years of trying to learn the instrument that we love to play, I would add this:
1. Commitment to the long haul...I think all the above points are ‘What It Takes’ to figure out this most beautiful instrument. And IMHO, the one thing they all have in common is this: It all takes a lot of time.
2. Love what your doing, and if you do, all the time and work it takes will be worth it.
Just my opinion, but that’s my take.
Thanks for listening fellas,
Steve