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Topic: New Kid On The Block |
John Hartle
From:
Thailand
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Posted 29 Dec 2017 12:26 am |
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Hello, I am John Hartle from New Orleans, La. Retired now and living in Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand. I am learning to play lap steel now on my 12 string that I converted to a 6 string lap steel. I am totally new to lap steel. I play some guitar in standard and DADGAD plus piano. I read music well. Otherwise I am lost on the steel. All help, suggestions, instructions are most welcome. I like open D tuning. Suggestions on a good book are needed. I hope to get to know others on here and wish all of you a very happy new year.
John |
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Mike A Holland
From:
United Kingdom
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Posted 29 Dec 2017 6:26 am
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| Welcome to the forum John. |
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Bill McCloskey
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Posted 29 Dec 2017 7:06 am
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The nice thing about D tuning is that there is only one 3rd which means it makes it an easy tuning to do power chords for rock and blues based music.
The bad thing about D tuning is that there is only one 3rd which makes it less desirable for other forms of music.
Personally i think good old G tuning is the best, most versatile 6 string tuning to get started with. First there is a ton of teaching material for G tuning (much less for D tuning) and you can always retune to D tuning using the same string gauges. |
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Stefan Robertson
From:
Hertfordshire, UK
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Posted 29 Dec 2017 7:21 am
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Welcome John
The question is What genre of Music would you LOVE to be able to play?
What are your aspirations?
_________________
Stefan
Bill Hatcher custom 12 string Lap Steel Guitar
E13#9/F secrets: https://thelapsteelguitarist.wordpress.com
"Give it up for The Lap Steel Guitarist" |
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John Hartle
From:
Thailand
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Posted 29 Dec 2017 8:37 am
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| Stefan Robertson wrote: |
Welcome John
The question is What genre of Music would you LOVE to be able to play?
What are your aspirations? |
Not sure. As a child and up until around age 30 I was country. Raised on Hank Williams. Since then I have broadened out some. Playing piano I like old favorites, love songs, that sort of thing. I also love the old hand clapping Pentecostal type hymns. I really like most types of music except loud music, rap music, heavy medal, and not too much classical. However, if I had to pick it would be country. I love music that has meaning and tells a story like most old country does. Some of the modern music is OK, but a lot of it is IMO trash. I also play DADGAD on guitar and like a lot of the Celtic Tunes. I have been working from Doug Young's book Understanding DADGAD.
I play mostly for myself as a hobby. Sometimes I play for family or friends. I am retired and plan to keep it that way. |
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Andy Volk
From:
Boston, MA
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Posted 29 Dec 2017 9:17 am
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| Quote: |
| he bad thing about D tuning is that there is only one 3rd which makes it less desirable for other forms of music. |
I vehemently disagree. Open D is way more versatile for many kinds of music beyond just rock and blues and quite under-explored in comparison to G tuning. Here's why via an explanation from my book "Exploring Open D and related Tunings."
_________________
Steel Guitar Books! Website: www.volkmediabooks.com |
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Bill McCloskey
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Posted 29 Dec 2017 10:00 am
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Andy, no doubt that there are wonderful things you can do in D tuning and if you wanted to dedicate yourself and are a motivated self learner, I'm sure you can steel stuff lots of places and make it your own.
But I'll stand by my position that it is less than ideal for the new player, if only because the incredible wealth of lessons in G that just aren't available for D tuning. Look at Joe Wilson's site alone which has a wealth of material in G tuning, free for the asking. While Troy offers some D lessons, the great bulk of material is in G and certainly the vast majority of recorded dobro music is in G. |
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John Hartle
From:
Thailand
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Posted 29 Dec 2017 6:34 pm
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| Do you have a link to Joe's site? |
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John Hartle
From:
Thailand
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Posted 29 Dec 2017 6:38 pm
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Look at Joe Wilson's site alone which has a wealth of material in G tuning, free for the asking.
Do you have a link for Joe's site? |
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Bill McCloskey
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Posted 29 Dec 2017 6:42 pm
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| dobrojoe.com |
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John Hartle
From:
Thailand
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Posted 31 Dec 2017 9:33 pm
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OK, to be honest I agree with both of you. I have played guitar in Open G, Open D, and DADGAD. Of the three I think I like the sound of Open D the best. However, between D and G I sometimes change my mind back and forth. Sort of like what I am playing at the moment is what I like best. I have ordered Andy's Open D Book and I have also downloaded a lot of music from dobrojoe.com. I will work on both as I learn.
DADGAD came about because of sore left hand thumb. Also because of my love for Celtic music.
I have two questions: (1) Does DADGAD work well on Lap Steel?
And (2) My Hall Leonard book by Johnie Helms list Open G as L to H D G D G B D and the music I downloaded from dobrojoe is also in G but the strings from L to H are G B D G B D. Which is Open G and what is the other called? |
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Bill McCloskey
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Posted 1 Jan 2018 6:12 am
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| G tuning is GBDGBD |
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Andy Volk
From:
Boston, MA
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Posted 1 Jan 2018 7:21 am
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John, thanks for buying the book and hope you find it useful. DADGAD works great on acoustic steel and Celtic melodies and offers opportunities to exploit open strings and make music across several genres. I'll post an example in an new thread.
_________________
Steel Guitar Books! Website: www.volkmediabooks.com |
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John Hartle
From:
Thailand
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Posted 24 Jan 2018 1:39 am
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Wow,right on schedule. Three weeks is normal delivery time from USA to Thailand. Andy Volk shipped my book on 2nd January and I received it today, 24 Jan. Looks good. Thank you Andy Volk.
Ahh, now, practice/study time. |
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James Kerr
From:
Scotland, UK
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John Hartle
From:
Thailand
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Posted 24 Jan 2018 8:08 pm
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| Very nice and well done. I like that tune. Thank for posting. |
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