The Steel Guitar Forum

Hello everyone!

I am a newbie to steel guitar. I have been a banjo player for many years and decided to give the lap steel a try! I am having a hard time finding tablature for the the lap steel, especially for songs I am wanting to learn to play. I stumbled across "The Steel Guitar Forum" and figured this would be a great place for resources! Does anyone have tablature music for a 6 string Lap Steel for songs by the following artists?

Loretta Lynn
George Jones
Patsy Cline
Randy Travis
Conway Twitty

Thanks ya'll!

What's your tuning?
Erv

I've been mostly exploring C6, but am open to any tuning!

You came to the right place, I've gotten a few from Erv and there are a couple other guys who do tabs here for a very fair price.

Check with Andy:

https://www.volkmediabooks.com/

I've been mostly exploring C6, but am open to any tuning!

Welcome to the forum.

Your tuning is really the first decision you need to make. C6, G, D, E, A tuning are a few of the more popular 6 string tunings, depending on what kind of music you are trying to play. While you can learn to play any kind of music on any tuning, certain tunings lend themselves to certain styles more readily than others. If you are interested in hawaiian and country, C6 is a common choice. If you are interested more in rock and blues ala someone like David Lindley or Megan Lovell of Larkin Poe, then you might want to consider Open D or E tunings.

Your next decision is the type of bar you want: a dobro style stevens bar? or a round bullet nose bar. Again, for country and hawaiian a bullet bar is popular, for blues, bluegrass, rock, a Stevens bar is commonly used.

Hope that helps.

I just saw your artist list. Most of the artists you mentioned used Pedal steel players and you can't really get the same sound that you hear on the records from a lap steel. I would highly suggest looking at Lessons with Troy who has a lot of beginner lap steel lessons and tunes he tabs out.

I have some song books for 6-string C6 tuning you might be interested in: http://playsteelguitar.com

Doug’s tablature is excellent and he is a great source for the tab you want, as well as Andy Volk, and Erv.

Thank ya'll so much for the tips! I'm excited to get started. I'm hoping to eventually move to the pedal steel. One step at a time tho Ha!

If pedal steel is a goal then E9 lap steel and Roger Filiberto has been around for decades and available strings and book right here from the forum store. Go for it!

This Don Helms book is great if you want to play Hank Williams in C6.

It says he's using an 8 string, but he never uses the 7th and 8th string ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

https://www.amazon.ca/Don-Helms-Cheatin ... 0786689188

Awesome thank y’all so much for the suggestions!

I agree that Doug’s tablature is excellent, and the backing tracks are great!!!