Very New & Very Out of My Depth!

[Melanie]

Greetings from Hampshire!
I was lucky enough to receive a lap steel for my birthday last month and now find myself way out of my depth! Drowning in fact. It’s tuned to C6 as my aim is to be able to play Western swing/country type things. However, I absolutely do NOT play any instrument and never have done, and now realise I need help desperately

So, could anyone point me in the right direction for a tutorial for an absolute beginner with no knowledge of playing anything at all.

Granted, I may be asking too much but I want to play so badly and every tutorial I’ve found seems to assume I know how to play the guitar and/or know the chords. I’m feeling very disheartened and frustrated and am ever hopeful someone can help me.

Thank you ☺️

[nevada150]

Hi Melanie, welcome to the Forum. I suggest that you buy any book from Doug Beaumier to help you. The books come with 2 CD’s, one with Doug’s version of the tune and the other has backing tracks to play along to.
Also, Bert Farroach does Tabs for C6 tuning. You can find Bert on YouTube and sending him an eMail will get you a copy of his Tab, plus a downloadable backing track.
I hope this helps you to start your journey with C6.
Keith.

[Danny Mitchell]

Welcome Melanie,
You might want to check out Joe Wright's lap steel lessons on the Sierra site, to get into the nuts and bolts of establishing good habits.

http://sierrasteels.com/lessons/lap-lessons.html

[Melanie]

Keith and Danny, thank you so much for replying and for the tips. I’ll most definitely check out all of your suggestions. Thank you again!

[JohnDavisStringsHere]

Hi Melanie, don't know how far you are from Reading but Slimbo lives there... he might help you out.

[Melanie]

Hi Melanie, don't know how far you are from Reading but Slimbo lives there... he might help you out.

I actually live closer to Portsmouth

[Melanie]

I really like the lap steel tutorial on the Sierra site but he plays an 8-string and mine is 6-string

Doug Beaumier’s website doesn’t exist anymore either and there are no books on amazon.
Are his books for absolute beginners like the Sierra guys tutorials are?

[nevada150]

Hi again Melanie.
I just tried Doug’s blog site playsteelguitar.com and it took me straight to his blog. Once on the blog you can review his books and also order from there.
There are a few free simple Tabs with backing tracks also on the site.
Hope this helps, don’t despair !!!
Keith.

[Melanie]

How bizarre! It doesn’t work for me
I’ll try again on a computer.

[Mcneilwaeasteel]

Hi Melanie
Just sent you a private message, hope it helps,
Regards
Robert