The Steel Guitar Forum

A good friend of mine in her mid-30s, and with no prior experience with ANY musical instruments, got interested in lap steel and has just picked up an old 6-string. I have 30+ years of multi-instrumental experience / formal musical training, and I'm still frankly a steel dilettante, but I've done basically all of my steel learning on my own - something she won't be able to do. It's one thing to figure out the steel if you already have deeper background in both guitar and theory. It's another thing altogether if it's your first instrument!

I'm wondering if anyone has any solid recommendations for good total-beginner materials centered primarily around 6-string C6th. I'll be helping her too, of course, but it'd be nice if I could have a supplemental text or two.

The less the materials expect someone with a preexisting / prior guitar background, the better, obviously. (I know - that's going to be the tricky part.)

I would start her on Mel Bay's Non-pedal C6 lap steel book. I would also make a couple of simple BIAB tracks, basic chord changes, G, Em, C, D, etc. and teach her what chords are, how and where to play them, and have her play chord changes to the tracks. And write out some simple single note tablature of well known songs... very basic stuff. Also technique: using the bar properly, the picks, blocking, slides, slants, etc. Another option is the Jerry Byrd big course.

Once you get her started down the path Doug suggested, he has a couple of tab books that are absolutely great. Course, he was too modest to mention them himself

Thank you, gentlemen. I do have plenty of experience teaching, just not so much on the steel; another factor is that my friend is in California while I'm in OK.

I've never been a big fan of Mel Bay books generally, but I must also admit I've never looked at Scotty's book. It might be a good affordable place to start. I'm certainly open to the other ideas here - along with any others that happen to come down the pipe, particularly those emphatic on building real musicianship vs. just learning standards by rote.

Incidentally, Doug, although my friend is far more of a rock / pop listener, your Youtube video of "So Rare" definitely helped sell her on the idea (I sent that one over to her as it's a personal favorite!). I'll have to go look for that tab collection now!

Thanks Jim and RD! It's hard to say what works best for a certain student, without "in person" lessons. People learn in different ways. It would be great if one method worked for everyone, but it doesn't always work that way.

Amen, Doug. They call it "differing learning styles" in my industry.

From a DVD aspect.....forumite George Piburn has an excellent Beginner's C6 2-DVD set that would be appropriate. He covers it all....picks, blocking, bar use, chords, etc. $10...well worth it.

http://www.georgeboards.com/songs.html

I have Scotty's book and is well worth the money, as is the material mentioned from George. By the way, go to www.Georgeboards.com to find those DVDs. I learned my first song "Steel Guitar Rag" from Georges DVD. Most beginner music instruction for c6 is going to be geared towards more traditional stuff, hope she can hang with that till she learns the basics enough to do her own thing. "First Lessons in Lap Steel Guitar is also a good entry point. It is downloadable via Mel Bays website as well.

You really should check out Doug's books. Very nice.

with "total beginner" being the keyword - i think i would start her in one of the open major tunings first. i'm just one of those that thinks C6 for a total beginner is way too much. esp if she will be on her own.

get her playing some music first to show she can do it.

now, i don't have any self-study recommendations for this route, but maybe others can chime in

Most folks start with an open tuning, but to be honest I tried open E and didn't care for it, and still can't play in it.

However, I like to play traditional steel stuff and some Hawaiian songs, so maybe I'm an exception to the rule. I've also played C6 enough not that I can just sit down and "find" a melody fairly easily...I'm still working on fitting harmonies and chords in though.

It sure wouldn't hurt for her to try an open tuning, although there is relatively little material out there for that compared to C6th.

There is a forum member Mark Van Allen who sells an open tuning course for beginners:

http://www.markvanallen.com/store_books.html

I've actually been thinking of getting this myself and taking another stab at Open E.

Hi, sorry for the shameless plug, but tell her to feel free to check out my C6 Lap Steel stuff on YouTube. There's tons of free videos, and if she likes my teaching she can get the full lesson download. Here's a quick link to all my C6 Lap Steel Lessons: https://www.lessonswithtroy.com/home.php?cat=297

Troys stuff is another great resource...he is a great teacher, it is affordable and avaible immediately by download.

Depending on the level of dedication I would suggest to check out Joe Wrights videos on the Sierra website:

kind of low on fun (but YMMV) but very high in technical value.

A really good place to start to create a daily exercise regimen.