(photo
by Stephanie Pruneau)
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INTRODUCTION
Over the
last couple of years, a number of avid guitarists (young
and old) have asked me for advice on learning how to play
slide guitar. The initial inspiration to finally create
this page came about when my guitar playing son Christopher
Sleightholm and a guitarist I've come to be acquainted with
through YouTube (nutmegger1957) had
asked me for some pointers. This page is dedicated to
both of these fine and talented gents as well as my
musical wife Janice Wyatt who supports me in my crazy
musical world. It took many hours to extract this info
from my little brain and I wish to state this is
strictly my interpretation and experience and it is not
meant to be a complete treatise on the subject of
playing slide guitar, also known as "bottleneck". By no
means do I consider myself an expert in this style of
guitar playing, so I am quite humbled at my being asked
for some direction on this topic. Like you, I’m always
learning. But I’m hoping that these notes, in addition
to all the other instructional resources available on
the Internet, will be useful to anyone who is intent on
learning this method of playing. If you are interested
in the history of slide, my knowledge is sketchy, but
some browser searches will quickly land you on the laps
of many interesting sites.
I hope to help with your learning because slide guitar can
seem like such an alien creature at the beginning. It's
certainly like learning to play guitar all over again, but
only in a different way. The arms, hands and fingers are
used somewhat differently, but with some similarities, as
you will find in your own learning process. There was no
one around to teach me these techniques, so I stubbornly
stepped forth to learn whatever I could, where ever and
however I could. I am slow learner, but am stubborn to
learn things I like. If I can learn to play bottleneck, any
other stubborn guitarist can also.
Why is it also called “bottleneck”? Because some of the
first slides were literally the sawed off necks from glass
bottles. In those early days when the style of slide blues
guitar was forged by our blues predecessors, they couldn’t
just wander into a local musical instrument shop and buy a
tubular slide. They had to use their inginuity and make
slides themselves.
NOTE:
This page does not address chords and finger placements for
alternate tunings. There is already plenty of available
info on the Internet to instruct you in this. My main
intent is to help you with the basics for learning to
comfortably handle a slide. You will learn much in the way
of finger placements simply by practice and
experimentation. If you know basic chords on a keyboard it
is helpful to sit with your guitar at the keys to help you
find the basic chords "by ear". Major and minor formations
are always the most basic and you will find various
patterns of these that repeat up and down the neck. Don't
let any of this freak you out. Just sit down, make some
noise and have some fun. You will be amazed at what you can
discover on your own.
MY
OWN PARTICULAR SLIDE JOURNEY
To be
totally honest I never used to even like the sound of slide
guitar all that much until my friend Terry Goodlad
introduced me to Ry Cooder's music
in the later 80's. By that time I'd already been playing
guitar for over 20 years. I listened and noticed that Ry
seemed to take what the old blues players did and expand
on it, taking it to new, interesting heights that
definitely grabbed me by the ears and caught my
attention. He uses slide on both electric and acoustic
guitar. I particularly like the way he uses a thick
glass slide on his little finger, leaving his remaining
fingers free to fret other single notes and chords.
After coming to appreciate his bottleneck style I came
to appreciate all the old, black blues slide players
that developed the technique for generations of guitar
players and blues lovers to enjoy.
Nowadays there are many resources out there for learning
slide. Many of those are available on the Internet.
However, in later 1980’s, not having the Internet (and not
having anyone to teach me the technique of playing slide
guitar first hand), I went hunting for books. I stumbled
upon a book by the talented, veteran guitarist and
teacher Arlen Roth. It
came with a little floppy 33rpm record with a treasure
chest of old recorded gems from some of the black blues
artists of the early and mid 1900's. His book, complete
with pictures, gave very clear instruction on the
basics. And along with the floppy record I was able to
begin understanding and learning. Not without making a
lot of disagreeable noise at the start, however. Reading
about, listening to and practicing slide became an
obsession which paid off in time.
About 2 years later, I was fortunate enough to see
Ry Cooder perform
live in concert at the famous, historic
Orpheum Theatre in
Vancouver on 2 separate occasions; once with the
band Little Village
and
once as a duo with slide player David Lindley. At
the concert with David, I observed closely with
binoculars from a balcony. By doing this I was able to
put together in my little brain what I was seeing with
the sounds I was hearing. And,… you guessed right,… I
went home and practiced some more. Every day I practice
regular guitar along with some time dedicated to slide.
Expert? Not on your life, but I have fun and I enjoy the
sounds I’m able to get after years of working with
slide. In my early days I was mostly fumbling with it,
but gradually the fumbling gave birth to some actual
technique. Today it is very rewarding to feel in control
(most of the time) of that tubular glass.
TYPES
OF MATERIALS USED FOR SLIDES
Today we
are fortunate to be able to look over the counters of music
stores and choose between glass, steel, brass and ceramic
pre-formed slides that are ready to use right out of the
package. You don't have to make them anymore, unless you
really want to, of course.
Metal slides are obviously heavier and can provide a little
more string sustain, depending on the thickness. They have
a fairly bright sound. Glass and ceramic on the other hand
are lighter in weight and generally sound a little smoother
and sweeter, depending on how they are used. Once again,
the sustain you're able to get will be dependent on the
thickness. What material should you use? You will find your
own preference. Personally, I like glass, since I have
become accustomed to it and prefer the sound and light
weight. I always keep a spare around in case I drop my main
one and break it. Both are kept in little cloth, tubular
pouches that either my mother Marianne Wyatt or my
friend Kasandra Fox sewed
for me (I forget who). The cloth protects them from
breakage and getting scratched. OK,… I am a little anal.
WHICH FINGER TO USE AND HOW TO HOLD A SLIDE
STEADY
The slide can be worn on any finger you chose. I've seen
people use slide on just about every finger. My personal
choice is the little finger because of how it frees up the
1st, 2nd and 3rd fingers in consecutive order for playing
fretted notes along with, as well as in between slide
notes. Plus I like to use my thumb for occasional fretting
on the 6th (i.e. E) string (which some traditional guitar
teachers would slap my hands for doing). But whichever
finger you are most comfortable with for slide, your
remaining fingers can be used for fretting. I
watched Jim Houston performing
in North Vancouver and he used a heavy brass slide on
his index finger, while very comfortably fretting with
his remaining 1st, 3rd and 4th fingers.
Prior to seeing Cooder in concert I was of the false
impression that a slide MUST fit SNUGLY on my finger of
choice. So I asked my friend (and fellow guitarist) Mark
Statchuk to fashion some snug fitting slides for me from
narrow glass tubing that is used in dairy plants. He cut
them to length and carefully smoothed off the edges to
prevent cuts. These were great for helping me learn the
technique. Much of my earliest slide playing was done with
these. They were comfortable and worked OK but the glass
wasn't thick enough to provide nice sustain. It was an eye
opener when through my binoculars I saw Ry Cooder using a
large glass slide on his little finger; large enough that
it could flop around and fall off. But he had it well under
control and was getting some very rich sustain. I saw how
he just gripped it lightly in place by "pinching" at the
"crotch" of his little finger and ring finger. Well if
that's good enough for Ry Cooder, who was I to argue, since
I was still very much a novice. Shortly after I purchased a
larger, thick glass side from Long & McQuade and
started working with it and achieving better results. It
didn't take long to become accustomed to gripping it the
way I saw him do it. But regardless of what I like, if
you prefer a slide that will fit snug, go for it. You
can find them.
2
COMMON METHODS OF HOLDING A GUITAR FOR
SLIDE
As you
know, slide can be played by holding the guitar on your lap
in a seated position, or by holding it upright as in
regular guitar playing position. David Lindley is a
prime example of the former and Ry Cooder is of
the later school. Often lap style uses a solid chrome
plated steel bar like what is used for playing pedal
steel. I prefer playing in the upright, as it gives me
the flexibility I want to also finger chords and single
notes along with my use of slide. It just feels more
comfortable to me and I'm more in control. Through trial
and error you will discover your own preference. You may
even adopt both styles.
SLIDE
PRESSURE ON STRINGS
Light
touch is so important. Use just enough pressure of the
slide on the strings to get the notes to sound, but not so
little that you only get scraping and buzzing sounds. But
on the other hand, you don’t need to press really hard so
that you’re forcing the strings all the way down to the
fret. That will defeat the purpose of slide. You’ll find
it’s a knack. You don’t have to press hard. Just enough to
get relatively clean sounding notes. But in this regard you
don’t need to be an absolute perfectionist either. The odd
little string buzz and fret "click" here and there are part
of the character of slide,… especially evident when playing
slide on acoustic guitar.
STRING
ACTION (STRING HEIGHT FROM FRETS)
If your
strings are so low that you find it is impossible to use a
slide without fretting the notes, you may need to set a
slightly higher action on your strings to prevent too much
unnecessary fret buzzing. It took me a while to find a
compromise,… i.e. high enough to play fairly clean sounding
slide yet low enough to still be able to comfortably play
up and down the neck without slide. Raising the action at
the bridge on most acoustic guitars is not that difficult.
I raised mine on my Martin with a couple cut pieces of a
greeting card under the bone at the bridge. Using heavier
gauge strings can certainly assist with this as well. Light
gauge can certainly give you problems with fret buzzing
because of the lack of needed resistance counteracting the
pressure of the slide. I'll discuss this further down the
page. If you simply prefer to learn to play straight slide
without fretting any notes with your free fingers, you'll
find that raising your action could be desirable, although
you may need to do this at the nut as well as at the
bridge. But just remember that if you do that to a guitar,
it's just good for slide and not regular playing anymore.
With you're guitar set up this way you can use more slide
pressure on the strings because there's less chance of you
pressing down to the frets. If you're uncomfortable with
undertaking any of these minor guitar modifications, a
guitar tech at your local music store could do it quite
painlessly and inexpensively. Perhaps even while you're
browsing, looking at all the new "toys" they received since
you were there last.
STRING
DAMPING
String
damping is quite simply the deadening of strings to keep
them from unwanted ringing. Although having strings ring is
desired at times (especially when using open tunings),
string damping is also desirable for mood, dynamics and
clean sounding playing. This topic falls into a few
categories. Below are the damping methods I like to use:
#1) Damping using the free fingers on your slide hand
#2) Damping using the palm edge of your slide hand
#3) Damping using the heel or palm edge of your picking
hand
#4) Damping using the fingers of your picking hand
The most basic and most important damping method that I
suggest you learn right from the beginning with slide is #1
above. The other's (and adaptations thereof) you will pick
up as time goes on. Plus you may develop some of your own
methods. Chances are you may already be using some damping
techniques with your picking hand in your regular guitar
playing.
The importance of damping method #1 needs a little
explanation. When you hold the slide against the strings
and strum (or pick) you not only get the strings vibrating
between the slide and the bridge,... you also get
"sympathetic" vibrations occurring between the slide and
the nut. This can be a little noisy and aggravating because
these 2 opposing groups of notes are rarely the same pitch
(except if your slide is dead center between the bridge and
nut. When playing electric slide through an amp you
normally won't notice this but on acoustic guitar you
certainly will. If you are using your slide on either your
2nd, 3rd or pinky finger, you can easily "mask" or dampen
the strings from vibrating between the slide and nut by
keeping your free "slide hand" fingers (or finger) between
the slide and nut very lightly on the strings to prevent
them from ringing. This was tricky for me to get. I was
either pressing too hard or not at all. It's a feel and a
knack you'll catch onto with practice. This was another
issue I discovered which was partially solved by using at
least a medium gauge of string. Before long this damping
method will feel natural and you won't have to even think
about it. You'll just automatically do it. Remember how
easy it is to ride a bike now compared to when you first
got on one?
Sometimes you will want the strings to ring unrestricted
and sometimes you won't. This is why it's good to learn
damping control. Effectively damping unwanted strings from
ringing can make your playing sound very clean and
sometimes percussive, like violin pizzicato. With slide you
can do hammer-ons,
pull-offs or
even quick arpeggios ending
on a final ringing note with vibrato. Or even simply
play a grace note ending on a note with vibrato. The
combinations and possibilities are endless. Listen to
and watch some YouTube videos of Sonny Landreth and
Ry Cooder to
get the drift of what I mean. It may be dificult to
actually see these damping techniques (and some of the
other techniques I mentioned), but you can certainly
hear them in action. Especially on their single note
playing. If they didn't use damping you'd hear many
unwanted notes sounding simultaneously. Any phenominal
slide player will use a combination of various damping
tricks. Here's a very good link by California guitarist
and guitar teacher David Lamar in
which he explains string damping for slide further...
a few tips on damping for slide
guitar.
SLIDE
ACCURACY (INTONATION)
Obviously
placing fingers between the frets give guitar players a
precise note. With slide you need to be a little more
careful so your playing is in tune. this will prevent your
drummer from throwing his sticks at you during your big
slide solo. Unlike regular playing, your slide needs to be
positioned directly over top of your frets when sounding
notes so your intonation is on pitch and therefore listener
friendly. Of course you will move between the frets when
you slide up to or down to a note or chord, but always end
up over a fret when “landing” on a note or chord.
SLIDE
VIBRATO
Learning
slide vibrato was one of the most frustrating techniques
for me to accomplish. My whole body would tense and my arm,
wrist and shoulder would just lock up. Then one night I got
a little tipsy on red wine while I was practicing and I
noticed I was finally starting to get it. The 2nd coffee
mug full of merlot (what a classy guy) relaxed me enough to
realize that to create slide vibrato it was necessary to
RELAX,... not tense up. This was major for me. I spent the
next 2 hours just practicing vibrato so that my body parts
could get used to and remember how it felt to do this
technique. I went to bed that night feeling like I had
conquered Everest. When I got up in the morning, the first
thing I did was grab my acoustic guitar and slide and do a
vibrato. YES…I could still do it. My body remembered how to
do it and alcohol was not necessary. COOL !!! The wine was
only a vehicle the night before to help me to learn the
lesson. The body itself (irrespective of the brain only)
has it’s own “memory”. When it’s done something often
enough it takes over and can do what the conscious mind
doesn’t necessarily remember specifically how to do on it's
own.
No…I’m not suggesting you get plastered and play slide. I
don’t want to be responsible for anyone being hung over or
falling off their 12-step wagon. Don't drink and slide. Yah
that was bad, I know. I’m just trying to make a point…
RELAX. You’ll be surprised what you can finally do.
The motion for creating vibrato is sideways, back and
forth, over top of the fret. It's not really a wrist motion
so much. At least it isn't for me. The forearm and hand
move back and forth with the elbow acting as a kind of
pivot point along with the thumb slightly holding a steady
position on the back of the neck. That's the simplest way I
can describe it. And it can be done slow or fast and
applied to chords or single notes. The slide giants
Sonny Landreth and
Ry Cooder have
some of the sweetest slide vibrato I’ve ever heard. Give
them a listen. You’ll find plenty of live footage for
both of them on YouTube.
STRING
GAUGE
I’m a
fuss bucket where this is concerned. If you’re used to
using light gauge strings you might want to consider moving
up to medium gauge on both acoustic and electric. I prefer
medium gauge on my electric and acoustic guitars for all my
playing,…with or without slide. If you are used to light
gauge it won’t take long to adjust to getting your fingers
stronger to use medium gauge. Plus they stay in tune better
and have a richer, bigger tone. Where slide is concerned,
medium gauge will give you more of the desired tension and
resistance against the slide, making it easier to hit
accurate, full notes without contacting the frets below. If
you're a real monster you might even move to heavy gauge.
I'm too wimpy for that, though.
COMMON
TUNINGS FOR PLAYING SLIDE
Slide
tunings can be as many as your imagination will allow you
to discover. Below are some of the more common ones. The
ones with the plus signs (++)
beside them are the tunings I prefer for acoustic guitar.
Whereas the ones with the minus signs (-
-) are
the tunings I prefer for electric.
Open-D
(DADF#AD)
++
Open-E
(EBEG#BE)
- - [This is
probably the most commonly used open slide tuning]
Open-G
(DGDGBD)
++
Open-A
(EAEAC#E)
- -
Standard
Tuning (EADGBE)
++ &
- -
Open-D
and
Open-E have a
direct relationship in that the intervals between the
tuning of the strings are identical. The only difference is
that with Open-D all the strings are tuned a whole step (2
frets) lower than Open-E. Between these 2 tunings, I
normally use Open-D on acoustic guitar because it’s less
strain on the strings, giving them a longer life. The cool
thing is that when you are in Open-D you can capo 2 frets
up from the nut to get Open-E anyway. The deep sound of the
open strings of the Open-D tuning I find very appealing and
bluesy. And of course you can capo at any desirable fret to
get your open strings to any key. Many well known slide
players use capos, so you don't have to think you're
cheating.
Similarly, there is also a direct relationship
between
Open-G and
Open-A in that
the intervals between the tuning of the strings are also
identical. The only difference is that with Open-G all the
strings are tuned a whole step (2 frets) lower than Open-A.
Between those 2 tunings, I normally use Open-G on acoustic
guitar because it’s also less strain on the strings. And
when you are in Open-G you can capo 2 frets up from the nut
to get Open-A anyway. And of course you can capo at any
desirable fret to get your open strings to any key.
I also like to play slide in
Drop-D tuning
(DADGBE) for acoustic and electric guitar. It’s quite
simply standard tuning with your low pitched E string tuned
down a whole step (2 frets) to D. It hasn't been until just
recently that I started playing around more with slide
in
standard tuning.
PICKS,
FINGERS OR BOTH
If
you don’t already use the individual fingers of your
picking hand (with or without finger picks) to pluck the
strings, it’s rather a good time to start exploring that
too, as it will certainly expand the possibilities
available to you for playing slide. David Lindley uses
thumb and finger picks. Ry Cooder uses his bare thumb and
fingers. I sometimes use bare thumb and fingers or a
combination of flat pick and bare fingers. But if you're
not used to, or don't wish to play with individual plucking
fingers, just strum full chords across all the strings
(with or without a pick) and practice sliding up and down
to various fret positions on the neck. This, I found was a
good way to just get started in a simple way.
CONCLUSION
Perhaps
I’ve blathered on a bit too much, and made it sound
confusing. If you feel that way, I apologize. But just
remember this:
BEFORE
YOU THINK YOU SHOULD GET HEAVIER STRINGS AND DO GUITAR
MODIFICATIONS OR BUY A NEW GUITAR JUST FOR SLIDE... just
put a slide on a finger and make some noise. If you give
yourself time to experiment you may even find you don't
need to do any modifications at all, or perhaps only minor
ones. Have fun getting your feet wet and don’t be afraid to
make mistakes. Mistakes are good. That's how we measure our
progress. Sometimes "mistakes" can lead us to accidental
discoveries. Incidentally, some of my favorite riffs I
discovered "accidentally". Your beginning attempts at
playing with slide probably won't sound too pleasing to you
or anyone else within ear shot. So just be patient. Your
friends and family should just be grateful you're not
playing the bagpipes. And don’t forget to listen to the old
blues recordings of slide players like
Robert Johnson,
Blind Blake
(yes he did some slide work too),
Memphis Minnie,
Elmore James,
Bukka White,
Son House,
Tampa Red,…
there are many others. Also listen to the more recent
amazing slide players which include
Duane Allman,
Sonny Landreth,
Ry Cooder,
Derek Trucks,
Leo Kottke,
Jeff Beck,
Colin James,
Johnny Winter,
Bonnie Raitt,
George Harrison
and many more. You’ll hear differing styles, tunings and
techniques from these awesome players, past and present.
There are plenty of amazing videos on the internet which
showcase phenomenal slide playing. Listen, watch and try to
do what you see and hear. That way you’ll be inspired by
and learning from the best in the world, past and present.
Start simple though. And remember,... you won't learn to
play slide by just reading,... you'll learn it by doing.
Reading is useful though to understand the head theory of
the concept.
If nothing else, my wish is that from what I’ve presented
here you will be inspired to discover and follow your own
path in learning this cool technique of playing guitar.
Below are some YouTube videos of me playing slide in a few
tunes. These videos are also on my
YouTube Videos page on
this site. In
"Roll and Tumble",
"Whistle in the Dark" and
"Slip-n-Slide" I use
Open-D tuning, whereas in
"Weight On My Mind" I use
Drop-D. These are not flawless performances but they may be
of help to you. In the near future (as time permits) I may
add some instructional photos and short videos to help
explain some of the concepts described above. Thanks very
much for your interest,
now go to your room and practice !!!
;-) I'll be
doing the same.
ROLL AND TUMBLE - Live
at Rossini's Jazz Club, Vancouver April 21,
2010
WHISTLE IN THE DARK - Live
at the Vancouver Rowing Club November 27,
2009
SLIP-N-SLIDE
WEIGHT ON MY MIND