The Key of E — Lap Steel

E major harmonises to E – F#m – G#m – A – B – C#m – D#°; E minor to Em – F#° – G – Am – Bm – C – D. Most of the country repertoire in this key lives on three of those chords — the tonic, the subdominant and the dominant — plus the relative minor when a song wants one darker turn.

The lap steel chair carries a held chord under the singer — the bar laid across the strings, slid into place and left to ring. Its strings are already tuned to a chord, CEGACE, so there is no shape to make — only a fret to lay the bar on, and the slide that gets it there in time for the change. Every diagram below is a straight bar or a short slant, and a quality this tuning cannot spell that way is marked instead of drawn.

Learn the tonic-subdominant-dominant grammar in E until your hand goes there without asking, then add the relative minor, and most of the repertoire in this key is already playable.