A lap slide guitar is a stringed musical instrument that also is referred to as a "dobro guitar." You can hear lap slide guitar in multiple styles of music such as Hawaiian music, Bluegrass and country. Learning to play the lap slide guitar is a process of becoming familiar with the notes on the instrument, as well as the techniques involved in playing.
Instructions
1. Lay the guitar in your lap with the neck facing your left hand and the end of the guitar toward your right hand. Left-handed players do the opposite.
2. Tune the strings of your guitar. Pluck each string as you watch an electronic tuner to see what pitch is being played. Musicians use various tunings for lap slide guitars, but one of the most common ones to begin with is open G. The sixth string (the one closest to you and the thickest one) should be tuned to G. If it is too high, loosen the tuning key and if it is too low, tighten the tuning key until you reach the right pitch. The other strings from low to high are B, D, G, B, and D.
3. Place the slide onto one of the fingers on your left hand. Experiment with different fingers and slides until you get the feel and the sound that you want. The material that the slide is made of will affect the sound of your instrument. Experiment with different types (such as metal and glass) until you find the one for you.
4. Place finger picks on the fingers of your right hand. You can use plastic or metal ones, depending on which sound you like.
5. Place the slide onto the strings on the neck of the guitar. Pluck a note with your right hand as you move the slide with your left. Use gentle pressure. If you press too hard, the strings will buzz.
6. Learn the fretboard of the guitar by studying a fretboard chart and playing different notes (see Resources). In general, the closer you move toward the body of the guitar with your slide, the higher the pitch.
7. Play individual notes for melody lines and multiple notes for chords. Since you are using an open tuning, you can strum the strings without even using the slide to hear a G chord. If you want to change the chord, position the slide across all of the strings on various frets. A common chord progression is G, C, D. You play a C by fretting the fifth fret and a D by fretting the seventh fret.
8. Play with others as often as possible, and play with recorded music as well. You can use websites that provide the chords for songs as a resource when learning new songs.
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