Guitar Dictionary Category
Slide, Resonator & Steel Guitar
What Is a Lap Steel Guitar?
A lap steel guitar is played horizontally across the player’s lap or on a stand. A smooth steel bar rests on top of the strings and controls pitch without pressing the strings to the fretboard.
The strings are raised high enough that ordinary fretting is not practical. Fret lines act as visual references rather than metal stopping points.
Acoustic and Electric Lap Steel
Early lap-style instruments include Hawaiian acoustic guitars and squareneck resonators. Electric lap steels use magnetic pickups and a solid or compact body, removing the need for an acoustic resonator.
Both types share bar technique, open tunings, muting and horizontal playing position, but they produce sound through different systems.
Tone Bar and Intonation
The bar sits directly above the fret line for an in-tune note. The player controls the pitch entirely by ear and hand position. Forward and reverse slants allow different strings to sound at different fret positions.
The bar should remain straight when playing a straight major chord. Small angle errors can make outer strings disagree even when the centre string sounds correct.
Open Tunings
Lap steel tunings arrange chord tones and scale relationships under the bar. Common systems include Open G, Open D, C6, A6 and E-based tunings. No single tuning covers every style.
Major open tunings make straight-bar major chords easy. Sixth tunings provide more close harmony and are strongly associated with Hawaiian, western swing and country playing.
Muting and Grips
The picking hand often uses a thumbpick and fingerpicks. A grip is a selected group of strings played together. Muting prevents one grip or slide from bleeding into the next.
Open strings can replace some hammer-on and pull-off effects and help the bar move between positions.
Lap Steel vs Pedal Steel
A pedal steel uses pedals and knee levers to change string pitches while notes are sounding. A lap steel has no pedal mechanism. Chord movement comes from bar position, slants, tuning and string selection.
Why Lap Steel Matters
Lap steel guitar established the horizontal steel-guitar approach that influenced Dobro, electric steel and pedal steel. Its apparent simplicity places great responsibility on intonation, muting and control.
Kalymi Tip
Use the open position and one main bar position as your first map. In Open G, practise G open and D at the seventh fret before attempting every key.
My resonator lesson recommends learning every useful thumb-and-finger grip, first as a chord and then as an arpeggio. This develops both harmony and right-hand accuracy.
Record slow sustained notes without vibrato. Once the centre pitch is reliable, add vibrato with a speed and width that suit the tempo rather than using the same motion on every note.
Related Terms
Learn More
- Top 12 Tips for Resonator and Lap Steel Guitar
- Open G Resonator Poster and Companion eBook
- Slide Guitar Collection
- Open Tunings Guitar Learning Path
- Learn Sleepwalk Plus 10 Slide Tips
- Kalymi Music Library
Reviewed by
Brent C. Robitaille,
music educator and founder of
Kalymi Music.