Lap Steel Split Bar Technique

Here’s a lap steel lesson for my classes that will soon be offered at the UH Maui College. This was taken of me at a Wailuku First Friday performance. I was glad to see that my technique looks pretty good. Here’s why..This is called a split bar. It’s more than just a slant because I am playing 3 strings and skipping one for a 13th chord. I am catching strings 2 and 3 at the same “fret” with the bar nose and playing string string 5 one “fret” lower. I always try and silence strings I’m not playing. Here I’m muting string 1 with my left hand fingers and I’m catching the lower strings with my right palm as well as my left hand heel.