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Topic: New here... |
Ruud Bemelmans
From:
Netherlands
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Posted 19 Nov 2011 9:42 am |
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My name is Ruud. i'm a blind musician from the Netherlands. I figured I'd better join this forum as the information on here seems extensive and it never hurts to have a place where you can learn and ask questions. I recently bought an electric lap steel, because I always loved the smooth slides, the impressive sustain and overall expressiveness of this instrument.
A little bit about my background music-wise. When I was 9 I found a 1970s Hondo Dreadnought guitar in the attic and was taken with the instrument. I had been doing recorder and some small percussion so far, but that never captivated me as much as the twang of an out-of-tune guitar with 4 remaining strings. 
I taught myself how to play guitar in the next few years, though the progress was slow. Then I started getting bass guitar lessons when I was 13, which hugely aided my own project of improving more and more on acoustic guitar. My love for guitar has stayed strong for the 18 years since I found that dreadnought in the attic, having resulted in me adding various other guitars to my collection as well as banjo, ukulele and Irish bouzouki and now… the lap steel!
I've only had experience with bottleneck slide guitar before and even though there are similarities I think the lap steel in comparison is a different ball-game with more complex rules and techniques. I do like a challenge though. For now I've just been doing chords and melodies separately to focus on my slide technique and hitting the chords/notes accurately, occasionally playing along with songs to have a sonic handhold.
I am very partial to low sounds, so for the time I've had the lap steel now it's been in a "modified" C6 tuning, that I based on open D, which by far is my favourite open tuning. So, from low to high: C G C E A C. The highest string being equal to middle C. My guitar carries it off beautifully without having floppy strings. All the resources I've looked at online state a higher C6, which doesn't appeal that much to me. As with the standard C6 tuning I have all major and minor chords at my disposal and it still works very intuitively, even to the point where I could play along with a bunch of songs that most definitely weren't in the key of C. I'm slowly going to incorporate using fingerpicks in my playing, but as i'm used to fingerpicking without picks I'm not really fussed how long it'll take me. Besides, with fingerpicks I don't get positioning feedback that easily.
One thing I really like about the lap steel is the raised strings and almost inaudible harmonics created by the bar that I use to navigate the fretboard reasonably successfully. I've played my resonator guitar flat on my lap and it just feels way different.
I look forward to exploring the possibilities the lap steel offers... |
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Brad Bechtel
From:
San Francisco, CA
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Posted 19 Nov 2011 12:20 pm
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Welcome, Ruud!
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Brad’s Page of Steel
A web site devoted to acoustic & electric lap steel guitars |
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Tom Gray
From:
Decatur, GA
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Posted 19 Nov 2011 3:18 pm
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Hello, Ruud. I don't know if you are already aware that your tuning is similar to the C# minor 7 tuning used by some of the great 1930s and 1940s Hawaiian musicians: low to high E-B-E-G#-C#-E. Your strings are in the same relationship but two full steps lower. If you haven't already, you might check out the playing of Dick McIntire and the later recordings of Sol Hoopii for some classic Hawaiian music in that tuning.
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www.tomgraymusic.com |
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Ruud Bemelmans
From:
Netherlands
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Posted 20 Nov 2011 12:59 pm
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| Tom, I wasn't aware of that. Thanks for the info. I was planning on putting up a reply here with info about my guitar, but I still have to get pictures. So, that'll be something you can still expect in this topic one of these days. |
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