Guitar or Bass laying in lap.

santucci218 · #1 07-10-2008, 01:08 PM

I see some people playing like this. Tuning their guitars to an open chord and laying it in their lap. Percussive playing and tapping. And i have seen bass players do it as well. Any tips, pointers? How exactly do you get started on doing this. It's not like there are any easy songs to learn or anything.

kesslari · #2 07-10-2008, 03:51 PM

A lot of slide players (dobro and hawaiian) play this way. I know that's different.
Jeff Healey (RIP - great guitar player) played this way. I'd check out vids of him if I were interested in the style.
I don't know of any bassists who do, but there's a lot I don't know.

santucci218 · #3 07-12-2008, 01:27 AM

I checked out healey, pretty crazy style man. Also read that he is blind! Guy makes me jealous. Anyways, slides are cool. but i dig the more open chord tuned busy melodic goodness of say...justin king or something like that. anything?

Brittain · #4 07-12-2008, 09:43 AM

At the moment Erik Mongrain is really pushing this style forward, it's a technique called 'Lap Tapping' and it sounds absolutely beautiful.

I've been practicing for about 6 months now and it really improves you as a player, there's no precise way to learn how to do it it just comes from experience and over time you'll get used to the hand positioning. I don't use open tunings though, I keep my 6 string in standard and work the chords around it, doing that kinda augments your theory side as well as you've constantly got to think if pulling off will fit in with the key of the piece and so on.