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Bach and the lap steel guitar

Posted: 31 Jan 2011 8:03 am
by Don DeMaio
I'm dying to get some J.S. Bach cranked up on the 6-stringer but tabs of the old guy are hard to come by. If you have tabs of anything by Bach would you mind posting links here? Or, if you're selling, let us know.

Here's a great video of Bouree played by Doug Livingston: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2vz_1lC51z0. Needless to say, I'd kill to get the tab for this, especially if it were in C6.

Thanks.

Don[/url]

Posted: 1 Feb 2011 12:13 pm
by Roy Thomson
Hello Don,

I recorded this a few years ago. No tab but it
may be of some help to you?

http://picosong.com/97s

Another transcription of Bouree

http://picosong.com/97w

Good Luck

Roy

Posted: 1 Feb 2011 5:59 pm
by Steve Atwood
Don, Here's a tab of the same Bourree that Roy played. It's for a 6-string, with a multibender, but you might be able to come up with a presentable version of it by skipping a few notes here and there and doing some string pulling.

http://bb.steelguitarforum.com/viewtopi ... ht=bourree

I've tried to play some of the pieces I used to play on classical guitar and it's mostly impossible on a 6-string lap. But I've taken the melodies from two Fernando Sor studies and added my own bass lines to them and they sound pretty good. I think it's OK to experiment. If there's something you want to learn, give it a try and see what you can do with it.

Here's the Sor pieces:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-pGPQCdjf0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_loSZ4LlAY

Posted: 2 Feb 2011 10:43 am
by Earnest Bovine
The only Bach pieces that I find easy enough to play on solo steel are the ones that Bach originally wrote for unaccompanied violin and cello. You're asking about lap steel and I just don't think any of these would be possible on lap steel because for me I need all 12 strings, 6 pedals and 6 knee levers to play them.
I think the way to play Bach on lap steel would be to play a single note line with other musicians playing the other lines.