About three years ago arthritis in my hands made playing the guitar a painful experience (my wife and family maintain that listening to me play has always been a painful experience!!). As I have been playing on and off since I was in my early teens the thought of life without playing (??) a guitar was a bit of a downer until I thought 'why not try a lap steel'. The spur for this was my Dad's lap steel when I was a youngster (he used to play professionally before WW2, mainly hawaiian) which he took up when he lost a left hand finger joint in an accident at work back in the late 1920's.
I bought an Artisan lap steel as a low cost entry to the type along with a tutor book (Mel Bay Complete Steel Guitar Method, based on an E7 tuning). I also bought a copy of the Bob Brozman DVD 'Traditional Hawaiian Steel Guitar', however whilst the instruction on technique is good I could not get to grips with the low bass D tuning he uses and have stuck with the E7 tuning as it bears some similarity to a normal guitar (major and 7th cords with a straight bar following the note progression on the first [E] string).
As practice time is limited it took me getting on for 2 years to be comfortable with the steel tone bar, grip being a problem due to the arthritis plus the weigh of the bar ( I use a 7.5 ounce bar). I did try using a lighter bar and also a Shubb Pearse bar (shaped a bit like rail way line section) but in the end persevered with the heavy bar and like all things guitar related it became easier with practice.
I then started looking though my sheet music collection and learning a few songs following which I bought backing tracks for them and made a couple of playing visits to the Cheshire Guitar Club earlier this year and hope to continue visiting them again during the winter months.
If any of you find youselves in a similar position consider changing to a lap steel as a way of continuing playing; it's a bit of an uphill struggle at first but keeps you playing an instrument.
Cheers
Eric
