The Steel Guitar Forum

I have played regular guitar for 50 some years and now I sit down with this Lap Steel and UFFDA NIDDA I feel like a bull in a china cupboard. Picks on the thumb and two fingers don't know what they're doing. That chunk of steel bar sounds like a sick bee. Good Lord how do you get things to come together???? There must be some exercises to get those picks to working as well as secrets to that bar. I bought Troys first lessons but he jumps right into making cords and such. I need real beginner stuff.

I would do a search on the Internet for some Mel Bay instructional books on the subject.

it took me a couple of weeks to just get to where I could get clean sounds and play single notes close to in tune. Slants are not in the vocabulary yet... I was playing tuned to open G, same as I use on slide guitar, and that simplified things as I just went to my slide blues licks. Now I am trying C6... not so much easy!

If you like books then Scotty's old "Basic C6th Non-pedal Lap Steel Method" from Mel Bay is pretty good and let's you pace yourself. I suspect like any new instrument the technique with the bar and picks may feel really awkward at first, and it will simply take a few days of slowly doing something very basic to get used to it. Videos can be good because they illustrate better than a book what is happening, but they also move quickly.

I think GeorgeBoards had a video that covered this stuff pretty well..

I believe it's called Lap Steel Guitar 101.

It's been called "the easiest instrument to sound bad on".
Mel Bay First Lessons Lap Steel Guitar. Available here on the Forum
https://www.steelguitarshopper.com/firs ... el-guitar/
Don't forget to get a new bar and picks too

Ron,
Have a look & listen to this Video, a beautiful tune, played very slow with mostly single string work, the second half shows me playing so you can follow what I'm doing. Don't use a worn out Bar given to you by someone else, if it has tiny ridges and marks from the strings, it will sound just like the anger Bees you mention.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTmg9o1UXOo

Its played in C6th with a high G.

James.

I would have guessed starting from scratch was when first starting to try and use a fiddle bow.
I know I know, I"m going. Tracy

Tracy you got it. One wants to make good sounds from the get go. They don't sound worth a diddlie.

Sierra Steel Guitars has worked with Joe Wright (an outstanding player) and produced some very good instructional videos for “Lap” steel. They are offered for free!

The video “Lap #1” is made for the absolute beginner.
Unfortunately, the videos often fail to work on my computer. Not sure if the problem is on my end or the website. They only stream the videos. I would pay to download them or get a dvd.

At any rate, here is the link:

http://www.sierrasteels.com/lessons/lap-lessons.html



Good luck!