Getting Started On Lap Steel

An introduction to playing lap steel guitar.

[@raymondg.rienks9906]

Hello Bill, Thank for the personal reply. I am sure that I will be viewing more of your videos. Since I am restarting my musical performance aspirations I need to pay careful attention to those of you who offer so much to the community of players. Your suggestion will make it easier for me as I move into the lap steel. The more I play it the more enticing it is. I have told others that the guitar is an instrument of “no specific pitch.” Due to the slight variations in pitch of each fretted note, and the development in hearing more accurately, there is an underlying frustration. For those who are annoyed by this observable effect, I say “use and electronic tuner, when it says the strings are in tune, play and don’t listen too closely. I think of the steel guitar as similar to a violin or a trombone - hitting true pitch is up to the player. For now, I have selected a tuning and am running scale patterns to learn the location of the notes. Watching your videos I know will aid my return to the land of the functioning musicians. If not, that is on me. Blessings to all who strive to bring music and joy to others, Rick Rev. R. G. Rienks

[@BillNorksApproachToLapSt-yw5ei]

Thank you for your comment, I wish you lots of success and enjoyment on your lap steel journey.

[@donaldm1156]

I just bought a lap steel guitar, I play guitar not often; which tune do you recommend for beginners? I tuned it in CEGACE is it ok?

[@billnorksapproachtoguitar36]

It depends on the kind of music you want to play. If you want to play old school Country then the C6 tuning you are using will work well. If you want to play blues you might want to use a D tuning: DADF#AD. All the videos on this channel are done in G tuning GBDGBD. C6 has an advantage over D or G tuning because you can play minor chords. I’d say go ahead and start learning on the C6 tuning, check out Troy Brenningmeyer on KZbin, he has lots of lessons online but also offers streaming paid subscription lessons. Hope this is helpful, I wish you lots of success learning lap steel.

[@edwardmaher4880]

Thanks for the video, Lapsteel nice instrument I have been learning for seven years never gave up finally getting it

[@BillNorksApproachToLapSt-yw5ei]

Glad to hear you are making progress on playing lap steel, keep on pickin’.

[@chipper7711]

Huge thanks!

[@BillNorksApproachToLapSt-yw5ei]

Thank you for your comment, I appreciate it.

[@frankignasiak]

Bill Nork, thank you for taking the time to do this. i've been messing around with a lap steel for several months, trying different tunings, just decided on the open G (dobro tuning) as what i am going to use to learn on. tonight i found your youtube channel, all open g tuning ! listened to all your videos, playing a little in between. you got me started up now ! motivated. thanks again.

[@BillNorksApproachToLapSt-yw5ei]

Thank you for your comment, glad to hear that my videos are helping you get started on playing lap steel.

[@raymondg.rienks9906]

Hi Bill, I played professionally for about 30 years, then did some other stuff. My aging hands found six string guitar difficult but I fell into a 1961 Supro Comet lap steel and am now a beginner, again. Your video was important to me but I did find your voice hard to hear. Perhaps second mike would help. I look forward to hearing you, in the next video.

[@BillNorksApproachToLapSt-yw5ei]

Thank you for your comment. I will check the volume level of my voice on future videos. I wish you lots of success learning lap steel.

[@BillNorksApproachToLapSt-yw5ei]

If you click on the word more you can access a transcript of the audio. Maybe that will help you understand what I’m saying.