The Steel Guitar Forum

I am a little reluctant to make this post because I suspect every lap steel "newbie" shows up here with similar questions, but I'm looking for instructional help starting out in open E tuning, particularly any video material with good demos of blocking, picking, and bar control on six string.

Tom,

As a fellow newbie I think our questions are accepted for what they are...new steel players wanting to learn. From what I've seen so far, this is a great group of folks here. Ready and willing to pass on their knowledge to new players. I had no idea there were so many aspects of steel guitar playing...lap, pedal, tunings, strings, different bars, etc. I can't find anyone here in Rochester, MN who knows anything about steels so I have no other choice but to come to the forum with questions. It's good to see other newbies on here asking similar questions to mine. Besides, when someone answers your question I learn from it too so keep the questions coming!

Hi Tom,

Kelly Joe Phelps played acoustic lap steel tuned to open D (which, as you may know, is the same tuning as open E but a step lower) and has an instructional video available through Homespun Tapes.

Here's a link where you can read about it:
http://www.homespuntapes.com/prodpg/pro ... &prodType=

Vince

Welcome, Tom. Feel free to ask questions.

There doesn't seem to be a lot of instructional material using the open E tuning. Is there a particular style you want to play using open E? Depending on your previous musical experience, you might be better off starting with open G or C6th tuning and switching to open E later.

Then again, I started with open E, and it didn't seem to hurt me. Almost all of my learning was through playing with other guitarists.

It certainly helped that I was studying music theory at the time.

Tom--

I'm a new steeler as well. My first efforts were in open "D" and "E", because as a blues player, I was "safe" there. If you want to tweak what you know just a bit, my Dad gave me this spelling of E7th---E,D,E,G#,B,e--for the six string. You will find many things to be the same as you already know, and other things will open up for you sonically, all without blowing your fuse with a B11th, or Leavitt tuning (which I still can't make work! ).

John

anything for rock or blues lap?
so far my instructional guide has been a 25 cent Jackson Browne record.

I thought I saw a review in a Guitar Magazine of guitarist Arlen Roth's instructional video on this topic

Ben Jones wrote: so far my instructional guide has been a 25 cent Jackson Browne record.

And that's probably one of the best instructional guides you could wish for....

Steinar

There is an instructional course with videos by Jerry Byrd that you can order from Scotty's Music. It's kind of pricey but it's really thorough. He starts out in an A major tuning, explores E7, B11, C6, C6/A7 and maybe some that I missed. The course starts you out in a major tuning and then shows how that relates to more "exotic" steel tunings. He also covers harmonizing, scales and music notation reading. A little theory too. It's a very good method.

Thanks, folks. There are some nice leads and good suggestions here. I have found a lot of good material for C6, but I have not turned up much for open E. I most likely will switch to C6 to start the learning process, although I know a great steel player in my town who suggests that C6 really works best on eight strings and is just not that good with six strings. We'll see.

Tom
most of us older steelers started out on E tunings & went to the
6th tunings . starting out with an E 6th or C 6th would not be any
more trouble in the learning curve . It's my opinion , if you start
with C 6th , & later on if you decide to go pedal steel ! you will be able
to see the relationship in using pedals .

Have fun ! It could become an obsession .
Hick

Tom, you might try A major, AC#EAC#E low to high which is one note higher than a dobro's G major, GBDGBD low to high. You'll be able to play on the dobro anything you learn for the lap steel but one note lower in pitch.
Jude

There is actually a pretty good Open E tab and CD set available on ebay from J Dow called Vintage Lap Steel Instruction for Blues. I'm using it right now to learn and while it has little in the way of technique instruction it has very nice tab and his playing is very good. For 14.95 its a bargain.

Jan Dunn wrote:There is actually a pretty good Open E tab and CD set available on ebay from J Dow called Vintage Lap Steel Instruction for Blues. I'm using it right now to learn and while it has little in the way of technique instruction it has very nice tab and his playing is very good. For 14.95 its a bargain.

I found that he also has a cd/tab set for open A and G Vintage Lap Steel Instruction for Rock and Blues. I ordered it as I've already got the lap steel tuned to Open A and the dobro to open G. Looks like a lot of bang for the buck.

Tom, Arlen Roth has a lap steel instructional video for E and G tuning (it's about half and half).
He shows Blues, Rock, Country and Hawaiian licks.
He uses no picks and a Stevens bar. It's very informative, especially for someone just getting started.
I find myself going back to E tuning a lot these days - also E7 and D. Having the root on top opens up a lot of good slant possibilities, and you still have the 1-3-5 triad on strings 4, 3 and 2.
There should be more instructional material for E tuning. Probably more guitar players would "cross over" if there were, because they all understand E. It's home base.

I play mostly in open E & D, & find that the more I play the more I learn...In this area there are now serveral bands that have gave me an open invite to come play with them any time I have an open night away from my regular bookings...I feel that open E is the best for fitting in quickly on any song in any key...great training, much fun....Terry V.

Tom,

One does not need to just study DVD's made for lap steel. Many open D & G tunes that are played on National style guitars are easy to play on lap steel. Especially since many tunes do not require any slant bar or chords using multiple fingers. The open tuning can make full 6 string bar chords if desired by merely following simple music theory up and down the scale.

Stefan Grossman has a DVD out called Bottleneck Blues Guitar. Many of the tunes in both open D and G are straight forward slide with no slants. They can be played very easily on a lap steel. www.guitarvideos.com

Open D and Open G are the easiest tunings to learn in my opinion and the combinations are endless. At first the positions may seem simple and even boring until you get 'over the hump' and find all the notes for leads and interesting combinations. Listening to the old Delta Blues players will be a big help. They use these tunings and often have completely different sounds than each other. Another item to discuss is lap steel DYNAMICS. One can do many interesting sounding techniques by the use of how you approach dynamics. It's really endless.

Thanks to everyone for all of the help and the comments. I am going to take advantage of all of this.

Anyone interested in an excellent E tuning tutorial video check this out:

As I mentioned above, Arlen Roth has a great lap steel video, but it's difficult if not impossible to come by.
That's not Arlen's fault at all, he wants it to be available.
I asked him about it and this was his reply:

Please write to dan.earley@musicsales.com, and tell him of the need
for this dvd to be released. They are being too slow in releasing ALL
of mine!

So . . . I just thought, if dan.earley@musicsales.com received a number of emails over the next few days and weeks asking for the "Arlen Roth LAP STEEL" Instructional video/or DVD - it just might inspire them to run off a few copies.
This would be a good thing for steel players who play E and/or G tuning,
and it would help a great musician and dedicated educator.

I have, in fact, done my bit to rattle Mr. Earley's cage about this item.

Hasn't our hero Bob Brozman got a Lap Steel Blues tuition dvd out. I would guess that he would cater for Open E/D tuning.

I picked up the Brozman DVD blues set a while ago. There's some worthwhile stuff in there and he takes everything very slowly so you can understand. Brozman isn't my absolute favorite player (OK, I'm ducking here) but he's a very good teacher. It's mostly D tuning but I think he touches on others. I haven't really delved into it yet.
http://www.homespuntapes.com/prodpg/pro ... &prodType=

It can be had a little cheaper on eBay.

Rick, I've also sent an email requesting the Arlen Roth video, thanks for the address.

Bob is a great teacher!

Just emailed Dan Early.

Bill Leff wrote:Bob is a great teacher!

That's funny, Bob says the same thing about you!