Slide...when to learn

[Woolbury]

If you have interest, I don't see why you would wait. Especially helpful if you have a 2nd guitar to leave in open tuning, but not necessary. Here's a few things I've learned on my slide journey.

I can play slide on any guitar, but I do have preferences. Right now my Waterloo WL-14 is my guitar of choice. Someday a resonator will make its way into my collection.

Experiment with different slides. I must have 8-10, but only one of those is truly comfortable. It's a tapered glass that is shorter than the width of my guitar neck.

I play with slide on ring finger, but its a matter of choice. Find if that or the pinky is most comfortable and develop from there.

I found hitting the notes I wanted to play was pretty easy, but getting rid of all the extra noise I didn't want was the hard part. Learning to mute behind the slide, muting with the right hand becomes the major challenge. Find some basic slide lessons (YouTube or dvd), then set out to just play some clear, precise notes. Take it slow and find some sweet singing notes.

Find a song to hone your technique on. I've played Walking Blues, Clapton Unplugged version in open G for years, and still use that as the tune to refine my technique. Find a simple tune and set out to own it.

Good luck, its a really fun addition to your playing!

[Stonehauler]

Thank you for sharing your music Mr. Emerson. You are an extremely talented player.

As for what I will learn first...okay, a bit ashamed to admit it, but probably the slide part of Freebird. Yeah, I know, overplayed song, but I am not playing for anyone else, but for me. That said, lots of great songs from that era as well that work with slide, 12 strings, etc., and those are the sounds that interest me.

Thanks everyone for their kind words and advice. It's greatly appreciated, and thank you one and all for sharing your love of music.

[Howard Emerson]

Originally Posted by Stonehauler

Thank you for sharing your music Mr. Emerson. You are an extremely talented player.

As for what I will learn first...okay, a bit ashamed to admit it, but probably the slide part of Freebird. Yeah, I know, overplayed song, but I am not playing for anyone else, but for me. That said, lots of great songs from that era as well that work with slide, 12 strings, etc., and those are the sounds that interest me.

Thanks everyone for their kind words and advice. It's greatly appreciated, and thank you one and all for sharing your love of music.

If a song inspires you to learn something new, there's nothing to be ashamed of.

It's a pretty basic melody, but in quickly watching/listening to a few of the YouTube lessons teaching Freebird, it becomes obvious that it's a very popular piece. Some show it played with a flatpick, while others use their fingers.

I won't even bother to scan the comment sections, because I suspect there's some rabid fans out there who will rip any given attempt apart for these least obvious infraction.

I'll bet there's even someone out there playing it on a steel pedal......:-)

In any case, just do it.

Best,
Howard Emerson

[MC5C]

Get some Bonnie Raitt, she is, for me, the bottleneck player with the simplest ideas, most melodic approach, her stuff just sits there and is wonderful, yet straightforward. Derek Trucks is another one. As someone mentioned, in normal guitar tuning you have an open Em chord on the top three strings (GBE) and an open G chord on the middle three strings (DGB). You can tune to a low G on the fifth string, and now you got an open E minor 7 chord with the root in the bass (EGDGBE) and the open G chord with the middle four strings. These slide all the way up the neck - C and Am at the fifth fret, D and Bm at the 7th fret, and all sorts. Drop the top string to a D, and you have an open G tuning of great popularity. For playing lead lines, just remember that all the notes are in all the tunings, so it really doesn't matter all that much, and you have the whole neck to play with. If you don't have an interval you want at the third fret, try it at the 8th fret. Last bit of advice - God invented vibrato so you don't need to get perfectly in tune every time, just slide on up there, wiggle around a bit, and you're average in tune at the very least!

[Bluenose]

You don't have to pay multiple thousands for a decent sounding, playable resonator these days. Not so long ago that wasn't true. I'm happy with my Gretsch Alligator. I find that all metal resonators are quite heavy and awkward, that's why I opted for the wood bodied Alligator.