The Steel Guitar Forum

picked up a lap steel last weekend,Recording King RG-31
so where do I start? I'm more into the blues and rock (Allmans,Gov't. Mule,Derek Trucks,Sonny Landreth,tec.) than any other type of music,but also like a little country and other stuff.looked on youtube,couldn't find much. any sites that have free lessons? lessonswithtroy seemed like the best bet. I did buy his lesson on Amazing Grace,seemed like a good launching point. can anyone steer me in the right direction?

some pics of the new lap steel:

Are you looking to actually learn real steel guitar, or primarily biker blues style slide on a steel?
I see Troy can do some neat things, and there's plenty to get out of that style, but compared to what you can do by learning steel guitar the Jerry Byrd way will give you a lifetime of all that and a whole lot more. Are you willing to get all you can out of your guitar, and yourself?

Ron Whitfield wrote:Are you looking to actually learn real steel guitar, or primarily biker blues style slide on a steel?
I see Troy can do some neat things, and there's plenty to get out of that style, but compared to what you can do by learning steel guitar the Jerry Byrd way will give you a lifetime of all that and a whole lot more. Are you willing to get all you can out of your guitar, and yourself?

biker blues,never heard that one before.yeah that style and more traditional style stuff. big Ben Harper fan too.

Troy has some great lessons, including one where he shows some bluesy licks, and then how to play them over the chords in a song. I think most of his stuff is in open G GBDGBD.

Cindy Cashdollar also has some good lessons, including one where she teaches Cold, Cold Heart by changing her open G to G6.
Start with those, then discover the rest of the lap steel universe.

One thing is mandatory.
Have a ton of fun!

There is a great newb-friendly steel guitar get-together in PDX that happens every other week in Wilsonville. A lot of the focus is on lap steel. Check the events section. You don't happen to be the Jon Lund that works for Stumptown?

I forgot to mention that Ray Montee, a regular at the Wilsonville jam, is one of the leading exponents of the Jerry Byrd style.

Matthew Dawson wrote:There is a great newb-friendly steel guitar get-together in PDX that happens every other week in Wilsonville. A lot of the focus is on lap steel. Check the events section. You don't happen to be the Jon Lund that works for Stumptown?

I saw that they have a frequent get together in the Portland area.I live 8 miles south of Eugene,so going up every other week is not an option for me. I work for the U of O.

Jon,

As mentioned in several of the above posts a lot depends on your taste in music and the tuning that best goes with that... that being said there is a lot more "free" things in the most popular tuning for lap steel and that of course is C6th. Try this web site, put up by Greg Cutshaw, free tabs, back up and a demo of how it should sound. He does accept donations and it is well worth giving him a few bucks for all the help you'll get.
Tom
http://www.gregcutshaw.com/Tab/LapTab.html

"...biker blues style slide..."

Made me laugh! Stated with no love for the "genre" I suspect! Reminds me of when I bought my first fiddle from a crusty old codger and he asked "Do ya wanna play country music or the other?"!!

Thomas Temple wrote:Jon,

As mentioned in several of the above posts a lot depends on your taste in music and the tuning that best goes with that... that being said there is a lot more "free" things in the most popular tuning for lap steel and that of course is C6th. Try this web site, put up by Greg Cutshaw, free tabs, back up and a demo of how it should sound. He does accept donations and it is well worth giving him a few bucks for all the help you'll get.
Tom
http://www.gregcutshaw.com/Tab/LapTab.html

thanks for the link Thomas.

Jon A. Ross wrote:"...biker blues style slide..."

Made me laugh! Stated with no love for the "genre" I suspect! Reminds me of when I bought my first fiddle from a crusty old codger and he asked "Do ya wanna play country music or the other?"!!

I thought it was pretty funny too.

Jon A. Ross wrote:"...biker blues style slide..." Made me laugh! Stated with no love for the "genre" I suspect!

Au contraire, mon frère, I loves me the loud and rowdy when done well, especially on a horseshoe equipped steel. To see a bar full of bikers pee their pants in whoopin' glee at that delicious toney distorted growl is a thing of beauty. As they say... fire all your guns at once and explode into space!

Ron Whitfield wrote:

Jon A. Ross wrote:"...biker blues style slide..." Made me laugh! Stated with no love for the "genre" I suspect!

Au contraire, mon frère, I loves me the loud and rowdy when done well, especially on a horseshoe equipped steel. To see a bar full of bikers pee their pants in whoopin' glee at that delicious toney distorted growl is a thing of beauty. As they say... fire all your guns at once and explode into space!

I stand corrected! Getcher motor runnin'!!!

Seems evident from your initial post that your interest is more in the rock/blues realm than in "real steel guitar" (to quote a prior respondent). No shame in that.

I'd say that starting out with open G "dobro" tuning and readily available instructional materials like the "lessons with troy" stuff is a perfectly reasonable beginning. Open D or E, or an E7 tuning will also keep you in familiar territory.

Consider that most non-lap slide playing (Allman, Landreth, older blues guys) is in open G or open D (or their transpositions to A and E). If this is the sound and style you're most interested in, and that you're hearing in your head, translating to C6 tuning seems an unnecessary difficulty. C6 is a wonderfully versatile tuning, but it tends to lead elsewhere.

Eventually, if you're adequately interested and ambitious, you'll no doubt explore a whole range of tunings and perhaps other styles.

Bob Brozman has a couple instructional DVDs available titled "Slide Guitar For Blues - Lapstyle" that you might want to check out. I believe they focus on open G and D tunings (the open G is likely "low bass", rather than the standard dobro tuning).

As someone else said, keep it fun!

Yeah, what James said. There is all kind of stuff to be had and you don't necessarily have to dwell on one style. You can play pretty things or rough stuff on the same instrument owing to your tunings and tone/fx settings.

F.I., here is a list of tunings that I came up with when I first started playing 6 string "slide" guitar. These can all be tuned out of the same set of string gauges sos you can 'speriment with some different things. This is a standard set of G dobro tuning nickel set which will come with a 16 probably on the first string and that's fine.

Read low to hi, left to right.

Maybe a nice little low powered tube amp with a little edge for a greasy type of sound. Nothing like it IMO.

The most used tunings in my arsenal for rock and blues are open G, low bass, and open D per the chart. I keep a capo handy to go 2 frets up for open E and I'm set for the night.

Dobro, Hi G, is way down the list for this kind of stuff for me, but try 'em for yourself.

I like this book. Says for Dobro, and focuses primarily on trad. resophonic tuning GBDgbd, but also has open D. Nice reference, and not focused on a particular style and translates to lap steel just fine.


http://www.amazon.com/Fretboard-Roadmap ... 45&sr=1-15

This video is pretty great and aimed more toward guitarists learning lap steel.
http://www.amazon.com/Arlen-Roth-Lap-St ... B001ZEHRY2

Jon, start off with an open D or E tuning--I prefer E.
It is guitar friendly and there are some easy slant things you can learn to do that you can't do in G tuning.
Also, should you want to play Hank Williams type stuff at some point, you can do it in E tuning.

Duane played in open E--I'm not sure about Trucks or Warren Haynes.

Sonny Landreth plays in open A with a low E, as did Lowell George,
but as you can hear, it is a totally different sound than E.

Ry Cooder plays slide in G and D--he says the D tuning has more of a modal sound, whereas he likes to play rhythm guitar in G.

thanks for all the great reply's.just got done with the mods to my Champ 600,so not much practice time tonight. I think I have got the notes for Troy's lesson on Amazing Grace down,just need to work on the timing now.

Get a copy of "Live at the Fillmore", (71?), and listen to Duane wail in open E !
Also Johnny Winter has some great slide "biker" blues on most of his recordings, electric open truning, and National acoustic.
You can play "biker" blues on C6, but IMHO is works better in open E, D, or low G tuning.

Gotta change the oil in my Harley, so
Good luck and enjoy, what and who you like
Rick

Rick Winfield wrote:Get a copy of "Live at the Fillmore", (71?), and listen to Duane wail in open E !
Also Johnny Winter has some great slide "biker" blues on most of his recordings, electric open truning, and National acoustic.
You can play "biker" blues on C6, but IMHO is works better in open E, D, or low G tuning.

Gotta change the oil in my Harley, so
Good luck and enjoy, what and who you like
Rick

I have three different copies of that recording,greatest live album ever,by the greatest band ever (some say the Stones are the greatest band ever,but they would be wrong). Johnny Winter is a hell of a player. saw him about 5 years ago in a little bar in Eugene,he can still rip it up.

Jon Lund wrote: I have three different copies of that recording,greatest live album ever,by the greatest band ever .

Well, no; The Who-Live at Leeds is definitely the greatest live album ever, with the ABB Live at the Fillmore a very, very close second (the deluxe edition of Eat a Peach has more smolderingly hot live stuff from two Fillmore East shows)! However, on most days I will agree with your ascertion of the Allmans being the greatest band ever! Have fun with your steel guitar!

I listen to Humble Pie - Rockin' The Fillmore, every time I think of those other two.

James Brown Live At The Apollo. Just sayin'....

Mike Neer wrote:James Brown Live At The Apollo. Just sayin'....

That's a pretty solid arguement!

I usually qualify my stated #1 and 2 choices as "greatest live ROCK records ever".