How to Play a Six-String Lap Guitar
A lap guitar is very similar to a regular guitar, and the early acoustic versions had large bodies making them look just like a regular guitar. Unlike a regular guitar, the lap guitar is designed to be played on your lap, with the neck to your left, and using a metal slide on the strings to create the notes. This slide also creates a slightly tinny sound that the lap guitar is known for. Lap guitars also have the strings raised off of the fretboard and replace the now-useless frets with line markings instead.
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Instructions
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Place the lap guitar on your lap with the neck pointed to your left. If desired, you can place the guitar on a small table in front of you, instead of your lap. If the lap guitar is electric, you need to plug it in to an amplifier and turn the amplifier on.
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2
Tune the lap guitar to your desired tuning. Since lap guitars use a slide to make the notes, it is difficult to make chords with multiple strings. Because of this fact, most lap guitars are tuned to "open" tunings, where consecutive strings form a chord when the slide is not used. Some common tunings, from low to high, are GBDGBD (Open G) and AC#EAC#E (Open A). Play each of the six strings and rotate the knob at the end of the neck to adjust the pitch of the string. You can use an electronic tuner if you cannot recognize individual notes by hearing them.
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Put on your finger picks. The thumb pick sits on the thumb and has the pick coming off of the bottom side while the finger picks sit on the middle and index fingers and have the picks coming off of the tip of the fingers.
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Pick up the slide on your left hand and place it over the strings. You can cover all six strings with the slide, or just a few strings.
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Pluck one, two or three strings with your picks, and move the slide up or down the fretboard to adjust the notes you are playing. You can also strum your thumb across the strings to play more than three at a time.
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References
- Photo Credit guitar image by Bosko Martinovic from Fotolia.com
