The Steel Guitar Forum

I'm a wanna be lap steel player. Love the voice, and want to play the blues on lap steel. I have an old Dickerson 6 string, but haven't been able to figure out where to start. I've been messing around with open G.
Should I start with instructions for Dobro, or is there something better suited for what I want to play? I'm open to suggestions / directions. Thanks, Tony

Tony,

I'm in pretty much the same boat as you. I'm just getting started with the lap instruments, but I've playing bottleneck for a couple of years. Ben Harper is the guy who has inspired me to play lap and I would highly suggest you give him a listen (his CD "The Will to Live" is probably the most radio friendly with electried lap playing while his older CD's have more acoustic lap playing--All well worth hearing). He often plays in a EAEEAE tuning or you can drop that down a whole step to DADDAD which is fun to play in. I would suggest you listen to Harper or any other players you like and just try to copy their licks.

Hey Tony,

Just read over my reply and realized I told you the wrong tuning! The first one is EBEEBE. The second tuning is correct.

Sorry,

mike saye

Mike,

Thanks for the input, I'll give it a try. Any suggestions for videos or manuals?

Tony: The Kelly Joe Phelps Homespun video is an unbeatable introduction to blues lap playing. He's a very good teacher, and as anyone who's heard his CDs knows, an amazing player (check out the most recent album, "Shine Eyed Mister Zen" - some of the most dazzling playing you'll ever hear). All his playing is in open D.