Let's Talk About Learning to Play Slide Guitar
 

Looking for some tips/ideas for this renewed interest. I've played for years and tried to add slide to my playing before, without it ever sticking. I'm more determined than ever this time. Have a couple of guitars that stay in Open G and D so I can get right to it when the mood strikes.

I'm mostly interested in Blues, but like other slide-y genres as well. Ry Cooder, Kelly Joe Phelps, Tony Furtado, etc.

I've found lots of good stuff on YT (Tom Feldmann, ActiveMelody.com and others) but am always interested in what others are learning and playing, tips on slides, strings, techniques, etc.

Anybody out there got anything to say on this subject?

I'm a giver upper on slide too, so I can't give you any sage
advice based on years of experience. But I was thinking
about it earlier today, while watching this video that
was posted on the "is rock and roll dead" thread:



play less notes.

-Mike "that would be my advice to me, anyhow..."

Most of my slide playing is on my cigar-box 4-string resonator that I built a few years back. The technique is the same....

Setting up the action for slide can be approached several ways.... You can do the “Dobro” thing with the action really high, and never finger notes, or hit an intermediate setting where the slide doesn’t hit frets but you can still finger notes (with a little difficulty).... Or.... Just use your standard setup and use a VERY light touch with the slide.

I got most of my early training by shamelessly downloading Bob Brozman’s essential video... .Brozman was a master.

Important things are string muting behind the slide, placement of the slide directly over the frets, learning a good vibrato technique, and learning to slide “up to” or “down to” the desired notes.

Most “roots” playing is chord based and using open tunings, with licks and fills in between. But a lot of contemporary electric blues slide playing leans towards single-note playing.

Thanks for the input guys. I saw that video too, wish I could go back a few decades and practice more! Good point about fewer notes.

I've decided to stay with "standard" action for now. I'm using three guitars, and two of them have .11" action and the other is .09". Don't know if that small difference is enough to make a difference in. Probably not, but as I play the three over the next few weeks I'll report what I find. Each one has different gauge strings, not on purpose, just worked out that way. Lights, med lights and mediums. Two-three thousandths difference affects the action a little, I guess.

The light touch issue is one of the reasons I haven't stuck with it before, but somehow that's less of an issue these days. Once I get to a certain point I'll probably try raising the action on one of these and see how it goes. I figure learning a light touch will probably payoff in the long run.

I also plan to put on heavier high E strings to see if that strengthens the tone as I've read it does.

One tip:
Even Duane Allman went into seclusion when he was learning slide. It can be compared to learning the bagpipe or violin - profoundly dangerous to your social relationships.


Okay, another tip: concentrate on intonation and repeat until sweet. If you have what it takes you will eventually be unable to play out of tune without driving yourself bonkers.

Finally: concentrate on damping behind the slide and palm-muting at thr bridge to make only the plucked string sound.

When I was ready to get serious, I chose the player I knew who had the cleanest techniques, Duane Allman, and started there. Yes, he is known for his electric guitar technique. I didn't allow myself to play sloppy for a good while. I moved those techniques back to acoustic.

Bob

I tried several times to learn slide. Just isn't in my range of abilities. Also, as a lady with very small fingers, there isn't a slide made or customized that fits.

Pick a tuning and just work in that tuning. Open G. D Even standard. Learn your inversions in that tuning that are playable with the slide. Even in standard, you can get a major triad on the 2nd, 3rd and 4th string, a minor on the 1st, 2nd, 3rd. Learn where the partials to do a power chord for the minors if you are doing Open G or D. Above all, play slowly. People try to play to fast. A slow move just sounds so cool. Listen to Lowell George.

When the pandemic started, I decided I was going to hunker down on learning new technique. I picked slide because of a cool Pat Donohue song I've always wanted to learn.
I'd just like to say Bob, all your slide playing tips above are spot on. That's how I've been approaching it. If only, I could do them. :)
At least I know what to do. And what to listen for. It's just hard to get over the hump and play clean throughout. When it clunks it really clunks...
A couple of discoveries I made:
It's eminently possible to do on a regular flattop. I've got a few guitars with various actions, mostly low, but they all work.
You have to go at it lightly, and then even lighter than that.
It really demands a lot of precision. Being a little flat is only slightly better than being a little sharp (which is the worst). You have to be spot on over the fret.
Lastly, working on slide improves other techniques like string and palm muting (as mentioned.)
Anyway, it's a challenge, but doing it every day helps a lot. Also, it makes you listen to what you're doing much more intensely. Because it's so exacting. Another good habit.
All in all, I'm glad I took this on.

Experiment with different slides. I took some lessons that did slide in either open tuning and drop D but they just didn't work for me. Then a friend showed up a couple of years later with a guitar tuned in open (I think it was G but doesn't really matter) and bingo, it worked for me much more easily.

So I set up one of my guitars in Open G and bought the same slide as my friend. It was brass and just didn't quite work for me so I got a glass slide and a ceramic one and for me the sweet spot was the ceramic one.

The clunks got less over time and I've had the guitar setup for a flat nut (no mild radius) and for heavier gauge strings (13s).

My blues stuff is still very basic but it's relatively easy and fun fun fun.

I used to set up a lot of guitars for bottleneck slide players.

The action at the 12th can be pretty standard - no more than 3mm to 2.5mm. And medium gauge strings are OK, although a lot of players swap the 0.013 first string for a 0.015 when playing out of open G and open D.

The 'trick', if you can call it that, is to cut a new nut or simply shim the nut you have to make it just a shade higher. Not by much, a thinner credit card at the absolute max. A lot of slide work involves attacking the first 5 frets and that's really where you need the room rather than raising the action at the 12th.

Cheap boxy sounding guitars work well (less overtones). And I like pure nickel or monel strings, again to reduce the overtones.

Bob's playing tips are spot on. I used to get banished from the house to go and sit on the seafront promenade when I was learning!

I would add to the playing tips:

Learn to use thumb and finger picks. It will feel like trying to play wearing boxing gloves when you first start but you will quickly get used to them. You will be able to generate more dynamic range.

Less is more: You don't have to do much for slide playing to be very effective. Don't try to complicate a song.

It is easier to back someone than play solo: Doing just a little bit of slide to accompany someone else can sound fantastic and be much easier than learning solo pieces.

Use a good quality heavy slide on acoustic guitar: It is the way you'll generate the best tone.

You don't have to play or cover all 6 strings at the same time with the slide: Most (if not all) of the time you are only going to need to play one, two or perhaps three adjacent strings, so don't worry if you have a slide that will not cover all 6 in one go - or if your fretboard radius makes this impossible. There have been plenty of classic slide players who never strummed across all 6 strings when using a slide.

This is an old thread that I found, but I wish to contribute to it, or rather ask a question to you all. This is a rather complex comment that breaks my heart a bit..

I am in advanced level, progressive guitarist that owns a custom carbon fiber, double neck, acoustic electric dual six string. In the past, I used one neck for standard tuning, and the other for DADGAD tuning.. I was big on fingerpicking and complex chording..

In the past year, I had a major finger injury on my left hand index finger in which I form chords. It was a deep cut that also severed the nerve in my index finger. It is healing awkwardly and some times. I worry that I may lose feeling completely in that finger and no longer be able to use it. The skin is growing back in an unnormal fashion and even after a year of healing, I still feel phantom pain as the skin and blood vessels rebuild

I can’t give up on guitar completely. So I have decided that maybe, I will convert my double neck into a dual neck slide guitar. This means I will raise the action with a high nut and saddle for each neck so that I do not ‘fret out’ when using a slide with current low action. I will also choose the 2 tunings that I can jump back-and-forth with. Much like a double neck, steel guitar.

The problem is, I have never played slide guitar before. This will be my forced opportunity to convert. I will use my wedding band for the slide and then no longer use my index finger. It breaks my heart to not be able to play like I used to but maybe this is a unique opportunity to become a specialized instrument of slide guitar playing

My question to you is, if you were in my position, and you have the ability to have a double neck guitar, which always held to specific slide, tuning, which two tuning would you use? I want tunings that I can jump back-and-forth with, perhaps to change chording or pitch.

Here is the kicker: I never liked blues, music, or Americana slide style. And I don’t want to pursue that style. Most of the tunings that I will choose must be in a minor or augmented, chord fashion. So please help me with unique tunings, that are a little along the sad side, and not so much honky-tonk blues open, Major chord, tunings.

https://i.postimg.cc/gchtmKvG/P1130393.jpg

Hi Richard,

I'm sorry to hear about your injury. It was something similar that led me into playing slide. I lost the end of my index finger about 20 years ago now in a rock climbing accident. I took up bottleneck slide because I couldn't fret properly. And one thing led to another and I ended up running a small resonator guitar business for about 8 years.

http://www.buskerguitars.co.uk/

I would suggest that you tune your two fretboards to low open G DGDGBD and open D DADF#AD. The two tunings have very different feels but are related. They are major tunings BUT you can miss out the 3rd and make then very ambiguous. Have a listen to early Kelly Joe Phelps playing out of DADF#AD (albeit lapstyle) and your hear what I mean.



I would also suggest considering trying lap slide playing. I had a later accident skiing (I know, there's a bit of a theme here!) and damaged my left shoulder. For a good while I couldn't lift my arm very well so I fooled around with lap style playing. I never got very good, but you sort of don't need to with slide.........if you play with other folks! I ended up playing with a local bluegrass band for 10 years.

I still get my dobro out sometimes (tuned to high G GBDGBD). The last time was to play with a scratch band of local friends at a Christmas gig. I can't play a single solo piece on the instrument, because I have never needed to, I have always just played by ear supporting other musicians.



I also took up mountain dulcimer, because I could play it with a stick in my left hand to fret the melody. I good reasonably good at that (see the SoundCloud tunes in my signature). And I found that I could get away playing clawhammer banjo because I could just tune the darn thing to make a song easier to play with limited fingers. I ended up running a mountain dulcimer business too!

http://www.dulcimers.co.uk/13.html

I have found my way back to guitar and can get away with being a bit creative in how I play. I don't play barre chords and keep everything quite minimalist. The capo is my friend and I arrange everything to suit what I can manage. I'm sure that as your finger heals you will start to work out the things you can do and develop a new style.



You should persevere with DADGAD because I find that I can get away with just using a couple of fingers to create chords - and rely on open string drones against them. Elzic's Farewell in my signature below is an example where I made up some chords in DADGAD to build an accompaniment that I could then play dulcimer across.

I'm just a hack campfire musician really, never played to any great standard, but I did want to continue to do something musical after my hand accident - and it was surprising where that led. It sounds like you are a far more advanced player than I am or ever will be.... But please don't get too discouraged, there are lots of potential work arounds you can try. I think that making music with other folks - where my input with slide or whatever I'm playing can add positively to the mix - was my saviour.

My basic slide tips - FWIW - are:

1: high action
2: heavy strings
3: aim the slide right over the fretwire, but slide up to it and waggle it when you get there.
4: watch this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NdgrQoZHnNY (open G)
or this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pkhj9z14TBo (open D)

(You will never be that good, of course, but don't let that stop you trying...)

My tips for acoustic blues:

- Wearing the slide on your pinky frees up the other three fingers for fretting.

- Get a good thumb thing happening. I requires a lot of woodshedding, but if you give it enough attention, you'll pick it up, one bar at a time.

- Acoustic blues has a lot of fretting, so keep the action low and confortable for that. Otherwise, you'll have poor intonation and tired fingers.

- Listen to lots of artists: Roy Rogers, Ry Cooder, Taj Mahal, Bukka White, Mark Knopfler, Keb' Mo', Eric Clapton, Johnny Winters, Robert Johnson, Fred McDowell, Elmore James, Rory Block . . . .

"Crossroad Blues"

Do consider lap steel to dip your toes in the water. You may find it quite satisfying in even something as simple as an open E or open G tuning.
Lap steels can be found new very inexpensively, of you might choose to build your own if you have a small shop area. There are complete plans and information at the internet archive of my old website here:

http://web.archive.org/web/201604062...com/page5.html

You can get as fancy as you want, and many folks are incorporating benders on lap steels now. Youtube will show you examples.

Don't be too hung up about a finger or two preventing you from making great music. Jerry Garcia and Django Reinhardt didn't let it slow them down.