How to Play Lap Slide

Lap steel guitars are played laying flat on the lap with the strings facing up.

Lap slide is a technique used with lap steel guitars. The lap steel guitar is found primarily in folk, country and bluegrass music, though it can be used in other musical genres as well. The lap steel guitar is easier to learn than many other stringed instruments because it doesn't require fretting to produce a range of sounds. With a little practice and a well-tuned lap steel guitar, you can get musical sounds almost immediately.

Things You'll Need

• Lap steel guitar
• Finger slide
• Digital tuner
• Thumb and finger picks

Instructions

1. Tune your lap steel first. use a digital tuner or a pitch pipe to help ensure you have a correctly tuned instrument. Open G is a common tuning and good for a beginner. This means the strings, when strummed, produce a G chord. The strings should be tuned, from thickest to thinnest, D-B-G-D-B-G.

2. Place a pick on your thumb and a finger pick on your index and middle finger. Some players wear a pick on their ring finger too, but this can be awkward, especially for a beginner. Place a metal tube slide on the index finger of your other hand.

3. Lay your metal slide gently against the strings, then pick a string using one of your picking fingers. As you pick, move the metal tube slide up or down the length of the string. You'll hear the pitch of the note go up or down, depending upon the direction you go. Practice this until you get a feel for how to time a slide.

4. Add the vibrato technique to give your slides color. Pick and slide as you did in step three, but this time keep the metal slide over one fret and rock your finger from one side to the other. You will hear the note fluctuate. This is called vibrato. Use it as you play slides on your lap steel, especially at the end of a lick (musical phrase made of several notes).

5. Experiment with various ways of playing slides. Try picking a string and then dropping your metal slide onto the string. Try adding a little downward pressure to the string with your slide to change the pitch. These techniques help add variety to your slide playing.

References

• Brad's Page of Steel: Lap Steel Instruction