Hawaiian and country music,especially western swing,has anyone interested and willing to share knowledge and experience.Does not have a lot of educational material issued and almost everything what I found on sale I bought but many questions still remained unanswered.Long ago I follow Steel Guitar Forum and similar sites but unfortunately very little interesting happening although at some points I tried to revive this topic but to no avail.Recommendations in the form of educational materials, albums, good players,youtube lessons and especially tabs gold apply and will be appreciated.
Lap Steel Guitar
- Thread starter Tonii
- Start date
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RCinMempho
Friend of Leo's
You just named every thing that came to mind. Maybe you can find a good teacher that will do Skype?
I admit it is messy, but my intention is still clear,my english is pretty bad so that the lessons of this type are not desirable.Thanks for your reply.
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String Tree
Telefied
It starts with the Tuning.
There are MANY!
I'm trying to learn too.
From what I have found, there seem to be no real rules.
There are some sites that have tuning and string advice.
http://www.hawaiiansteel.com/tunings/master.php
There are MANY!
I'm trying to learn too.
From what I have found, there seem to be no real rules.
There are some sites that have tuning and string advice.
http://www.hawaiiansteel.com/tunings/master.php
SPUDCASTER
Doctor of Teleocity
Most of the material was written for C6th but with a small correction from this you can get all the other more important tunings as B11, A6, E13, E6.
With this you will also need this,
http://www.looknohands.com/chordhouse/guitar/index_rb.html
and if you still have the Band in a Box and Guitar Pro yourself can learn the melody line and do backing tracks.Thus you will save money because a large part of the educational material offers just that,no accompaniment, solos or passage which is what you need most when you play in a band.Here is an example, and you can try it.
(link removed)
slippin slider
Tele-Afflicted
I not being adventuring, I stick with six strings.
I have tried lots of tunings and hang around open E tuning
Open G & D are pretty standard.
I have tried lots of tunings and hang around open E tuning
Open G & D are pretty standard.
Warren Pederson
Friend of Leo's
Well, to start off you mentioned the Steel Guitar Forum and followed the unanimous advice offered over there? Which is to start with the book/CD Dewitt Scott's Basic C6 Non-pedal Lapsteel book. There's gold in there.
Leon Grizzard
Friend of Leo's
I just got a lap steel myself and am having fun with it. I have found the same things as mentioned in the replies so far. Everyone recommends the DeWitt Scott book. Another great book is Your Cheatin' Heart which has some the great stuff Don Helms played on Hank Williams' records. It is written in E6 rather than C6 but the tuning is parallel, so you don't necessarily have to restring. (It is actually an 8 sting E13 tuning, I think, but he only uses the top strings, so your six string will work fine.) There are some good lessons on the George Boards site.
If you know music pretty well, this thread on SGF has links to some good stuff. The thread degenerates at some point, but is still a great source of links and info:
http://steelguitarforum.com/Forum2/HTML/003549.html
If you have some questions about stuff, start asking.
If you know music pretty well, this thread on SGF has links to some good stuff. The thread degenerates at some point, but is still a great source of links and info:
http://steelguitarforum.com/Forum2/HTML/003549.html
If you have some questions about stuff, start asking.
orangeblossom
Friend of Leo's
Thanks for the link there is a lot of tuning options there.
I just started some 'lap' myself.
I've settled on C6 - CEGACE. All the obvious western and Hawaiian stuff pretty much falls right in there.
*I will at some point buy another (either 8 or 6) and tune it modally, open G or D probably.
So far I'm not using any book or dvd.
I've settled on C6 - CEGACE. All the obvious western and Hawaiian stuff pretty much falls right in there.
*I will at some point buy another (either 8 or 6) and tune it modally, open G or D probably.
So far I'm not using any book or dvd.
These tunings commonly used dobro and blues-rock players,for now I'm focused primarily on C6th but in the future I intend to get another lap steel and to study these tunings.
I just do it and but unfortunately on the SGF are most pedal steel players and materials for PSG has abundant.Although there is also a special section for non pedal players except basic information related to this there are not many useful topics.I already have all the books from Scotty's offers and Basic C6 Non-pedal Lapsteel book whom I would recommend for beginners especially those who have no prior knowledge.
Hi Leon!
Don Helms Your Cheatin' Heart was the first thing I've got.Great respect for your great lesson for western swing guitar.Opening this topic, I had a similar intention to achieve with lap steel and the only difference was that I should be more student than teacher.
But when no one before I will mention two books by Doug Beaumier, "25 Songs for Lap Steel Guitar" and "25 More Songs for Lap Steel Guitar".Excellent teacher and material for C6th 6 strings lap steel because there are not many heavy slants and what I like the most is what you learn how simplify things.
http://www.dougbsteel.com/index.html
http://www.dougbsteel.com/index.html
Tim Bowen
Poster Extraordinaire
As for instruction on the "authentic" stuff, I started getting my C6 thing together with Cindy Cashdollar's DVDs, Learn To Play Western Swing Steel Guitar: Volumes 1 & 2, and went my own way with it from there. Learned Santo & Johnny's "Sleepwalk", learned some Hank Williams tunes, tried to pick out some of Don Helms' parts, stuff like that. I have an agenda whenever I pursue a new instrument: #1: For about a month, seek NO (zero, none) additional or proper instruction and influence. Be an island that's a conduit for happy accidents. There's only one period of time when you know absolutely nothing about something. Take advantage of this with the curiosity of a child. Often some of the things you stumble upon early on when clueless, can wind up being style-defining. Any "bad habits" that show up during this period can be addressed soon enough. But allow yourself to wander and stumble for a little while. #2: Be reverent, be humble, get authentic. This kicks off the course of study that involves all the stuff you're "supposed" to do: proper technique, learning about lineage & history of the players, instruments, and styles, getting your gear & accessories together, learning classic tunes & licks. No trail blazing or wheel reinvention required here, simply digging into what's already been done that works. #3: Get irreverent. So to speak. Go your own way with it. Delve into music that has nothing to do with the "classics" which in this case would be honky tonk and western swing. I've always learned more about instruments by applying them where they're not supposed to live. For instance, I recently completed work on a rock band's record on which I used eight string C6 lap steel extensively. Some "classic" stuff fell into place but there was also a healthy dose of needing to think outside the box a bit. Aside from the usual sliding around, one of the things I discovered over the course of making that record was that the steel sounds wonderful and so different than standard guitars and other stringed instruments when simply playing chords as "diamonds" - that's Nashville speak for 'whole notes', and I think Ken L said they call 'em footballs in LA... but the slang term goes on to include sustained chords in general. Anyway, these sustained chords just sound way different on a steel. I also discovered that I love the intonation imperfections of doubling and even tripling steel tracks, sometimes exactly, sometimes with different inversions. Also stacked C6 tracks with open D steel tracks. #4: Bust that rut. Yeah you know it's gonna happen. We all "plateau" and get stuck in ruts for periods of time. There are loads of different ways to emerge from the slime. In this particular case, one of the easiest I've found for myself is to go back through my Cindy Cashdollar videos for a bit and then go screw around with some other tunes.
SPUDCASTER
Doctor of Teleocity
I ran across this one a while back. A bunch of good links to other sites too.
Have fun!
I assume that this site is very old and has not improved because not mentioned few of the top places who have much to offer and all this for free.
http://www.steelc6th.com/
http://www.gregcutshaw.com/Tab/LapTab.html
(link removed)
I will echo this. As I mentioned earlier in this thread I too have just started with lap steel. The first month I had it, partially due to the string gauge that was already on it, I tuned it DADF#BE.
I dig both the bluesy steel and the western steel approaches. I thought that maybe this'd get me sort of there with both. My first attempt at a song was 'Amazing Grace' (I won't hog bandwith so here's a link) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWvIlPO4VYY
It was friggin' hard. I made it (unknowingly) hard on myself. But I'm glad I did because now that I've gone to C6 I realize why C6 is a 'standard' tuning. I still don't know $h1t about steel. I way over use the volume pedal, my blocking sucks, I drop the bar alot - not too mention I suck at slants and even my intonation is surprisingly bad. But it's fun! And it's actually made my regular guitar playing better.
