Playing
The lap steel ukulele is typically placed on the player's lap, or on a surface in front of the seated player.
The strings are not pressed to a fret when sounding a note, rather, the player holds a metal slide called a steel in the left hand, which is moved along the strings to change the instrument's pitch while the right hand plucks or picks the strings.
This method of playing greatly restricts the number of chords available, so lap steel music often features a restricted set of harmonies (such as in blues). Alternatively, the lap steel ukulele player can play the melody or another single part.
Read more about this topic: Lap Steel Ukulele
Famous quotes containing the word playing:
“Lovely,
this plowmans son
with the good-looking wife
has gone so thin over you
that the woman,
though jealous,
is playing the go-between herself!”
—Hla Stavhana (c. 50 A.D.)
“Andy passes through things, but so do we. He sat down and had a talk with me. You gotta decide what you want to do. Do you want to keep just playing museums from now on and the art festivals? Or do you want to start moving into other areas? Lou, dont you think you should think about it? So I thought about it, and I fired him.”
—Lou Reed (b. 1944)
“Those who refuse to play second fiddle may wind up playing no fiddle at all.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)