BY PETE MADSEN

From its primitive beginnings to its maturity within the age of rock’n’roll, slide guitar has given the guitar participant a voice that extends the emotional vary of the instrument. The slide permits the guitarist to discover the notes between notes—these locations between the frets the place the slippery high quality of human emotion runs. The slide could make strings growl or whimper; it may be daring and menacing, or quiet and sympathetic.

From Duane Allman to Bonnie Raitt to Alvin Youngblood Hart, the most effective guitarists have discovered the bottleneck slide to be one of many extra helpful instruments of their creative kitbags. On this lesson, you’ll learn the way to use this device in your personal music, enjoying slide traces in normal tuning and making use of what you study to play a solo over a sluggish blues in the important thing of E.

Getting Began
Many slide gamers arrange their guitars with barely larger motion and heavy string gauges. Some dedicate one guitar as their slide instrument. I choose a guitar with medium-gauge strings (.13-.56) and barely larger than regular motion.

In the present day slides are available in numerous styles and sizes. Listed below are some suggestions for selecting what sorts of slides may finest fit your particular wants. At first, you’ll most likely need to purchase a small assortment of slides to experiment with. Your finest selections embrace steel, glass, and ceramic. Glass tends to be smoother than steel, however some gamers say steel is louder.

You may end up utilizing completely different slides primarily based on whether or not you might be enjoying acoustic or electrical. As an illustration, I choose a thinner slide for electrical, as a result of a thicker, heavier slide tends to bang round and create extra noise—particularly problematic for those who use a whole lot of acquire in your amp. For acoustic guitar, I choose ceramic, as a result of it appears to mix the most effective qualities of each steel and glass; it slides higher on the string with a constant stress. Metallic slides are thinner and due to this fact a bit simpler to direct and get higher accuracy over the fret. In the event you go for glass, I like to recommend a thicker glass, as a result of thinner glass slides have a tendency to sound skinny. You can too use family objects akin to a socket from a socket wrench set or the cut-off high of a beer or wine bottle—a blues basic!

There are numerous shapes and lengths of slides, too. In the event you play unaccompanied slide, you most likely need one which’s at the very least 2 ½-inches lengthy; that means, you may cowl all the strings directly and play full six-string chords. In the event you play accompanied, experiment with a shorter slide, however understand that the shorter slide might or is probably not ready to cowl all of the strings.

Many gamers place the slide on their pinky; this supplies probably the most flexibility, permitting the opposite fingers freedom to fret different strings and make chords. Different gamers place the slide on their ring, center, and even the index finger. No matter finger you employ, the slide ought to match snuggly. You’ll be able to compensate for a loose-fitting slide by stuffing some foam, tissue, or candle wax into it.

Play Time
Now, mess around along with your slide. Because it touches the string, understand that you don’t want to apply an excessive amount of stress—it’s extra necessary to hold constant stress as you slide from observe to observe. The slide ought to cowl solely the string(s) that you’re enjoying slide notes on. As an illustration, in case you are enjoying notes on the excessive E string, it is best to solely cowl that one string with the slide.

There are occasions while you need string noise and overtones, and instances while you don’t need it. While you don’t need it, you’ll need to dampen some strings. It is a important facet of slide enjoying, and you are able to do it with each palms. I’m going to focus in your left, or fretting, hand, as that’s the hand much less continuously used for dampening.

As you drag the slide throughout the strings, use a number of of the fingers of your left hand to contact and drag alongside that string with the slide. I take advantage of my index finger, which ends up in a slight cupping of my hand. This system will rid you of some unsound string overtones. The cupping of the hand additionally tends to consolidate your hand, making it really feel as whether it is one appendage transferring, reasonably than 5 impartial fingers.

Workout routines
The next workouts and licks are derived from minor pentatonic scales and can be performed totally on the primary two strings. You’ll play an ascending E minor pentatonic scale on the primary and second strings. Together with your slide on, attempt to goal for the precise fret wire, reasonably than in between the frets, to obtain correct intonation. Strive sliding between every observe of the size, ascending after which descending.

How does that sound? Examine your intonation by fretting the notes along with your finger after which the slide. Do they sound the identical, or does the slide observe sound just a little flat? If it sounds flat, goal proper over the fret wire.

Prepared to play some licks? Right here you go:

Lick 1: On the floor, this lick is fairly easy. Play an open string after which slide into the notes of an ascending pentatonic scale. Nonetheless, there’s a trick with the damping finger that I would really like you to attempt. Usually, the damping finger needs to be the very first thing to contact the string and the very last thing you take away. In the event you play this lick and don’t use a damping finger, you’re going to get a “ghost” pull-off sound. It’s possible you’ll like that sound, but when it’s not intentional it’s going to be there whether or not you prefer it or not.

Lick 2: This time play an open second string adopted by a slide on the third fret, after which do the identical factor on the primary string. Maintain observe of your damping finger.

Lick 3: For this, you’ll carry out a descending slide lick that strikes between the second and third strings after which ascends to the fourth string and resolves on an E observe. Strive to elevate your slide whereas holding the damping finger down as you progress from string to string.

Lick 4: This one makes use of a second-string slide that alternates with the open first string after which resolves with the earlier lick (Lick 3).

Lick 5: In the event you took simply the final three notes of this lick, you’d have an E minor triad. However I’ve added the second diploma of an E minor scale to give it a barely completely different taste. Transferring between strings could be little difficult with the slide. As you progress from the primary to the second string, begin out with the slide barely tilted outward from the fretboard. Then tilt the slide inwards as you progress to the second after which third strings.

Lick 6: This one covers the identical fretboard territory as Lick 5 however is targeted on the inside strings (2 by way of 4). You don’t want to tilt your slide for this lick. Strive holding it very straight, protecting all of the strings.

Lick 7: For this, transfer up to the 12^th fret after which up to the 15^th fret. It’s possible you’ll want to slant your slide to stand up to the 15th, however that’s OK, so long as you might be solely focusing on the one string. (Word: when enjoying a number of strings on the identical time, watch out that your slide isn’t slanted and that it traces up completely with the fret; in any other case you’ll sound out of tune.)

Lick 8: This one can be centered on the 12^th fret however you play a backwards slide from the 15^th fret to get there.

Lick 9: Right here, you employ a chromatic run to transfer from the 12^th to the 15^th fret. Generally you want to use the slide to play non-affected notes, however then slide into one other observe. So you’ll merely use the slide to cowl the string and pluck the notes on the 12^th, 13^th, and 14^th frets on the second string; then slide into the D observe on the 15^th fret.

Lick 10: You need to use the slide to play barely sharp or flat notes. On this lick as you slide on the second string from the 10^th fret up to the 12^th fret, you may let the slide ascend just a little as you play the marginally sharpened E observe on the 12^th fret of the primary string. This produces a barely unresolved and haunting sound. The identical thought is used within the second measure of this phrase as you slide backwards, from the 12^th to the 11^th fret, on the second string.

Sluggish Blues Groove
I’ve given you a sluggish 12-bar, three-chord groove in E to play some solos with. The groove is a variation on a primary shuffle. You play a two-beat, two-string chord adopted by a single beat E6 and eighth-note triplet—a riff that dominates the groove all through. There’s a whole lot of house within the rhythm for you to play by way of along with your slide.

There are two 12-bar solos. The primary makes use of a repeating lick that’s anchored by an E observe performed on the fifth fret on the second string. Because the lick progresses, it resolves to an A observe within the fifth measure, at which period the rhythm shifts to the A chord. You additionally play the foundation observe of the B chord with the slide when the rhythm strikes to B within the ninth measure.

Within the second 12-bar solo, transfer up to the 12^th fret, however use an identical rhythmic phrasing as you probably did within the first few bars of the earlier 12-bar. In measure 15, you carry out a Duane Allman-style lick, wherein you slide rapidly backwards on the primary string from the 12^th to the 10^th fret and ascend up just a little slower on the second string from the 10^th to the 12^th fret. Measures 16 to 18 pull notes from the center vary of the guitar; then work your means down to a decrease vary. End off with a lick that begins on the primary string and works its means up the fretboard to play an E minor triad between measure 22 and 23.

Getting a very good sound along with your slide takes a while and self-discipline. You’ll be able to shortcut that point when you have your guitar arrange with larger motion and heavier string gauges. Nonetheless, the secret’s to use the slide like a vocalist makes use of her pure expertise, or like a harmonica participant slips between vocal-like phrases. In the event you concentrate to the notes between the notes you’ll be on strong floor.

Pete Madsen is a San Francisco Bay Space–primarily based guitarist, writer, and educator who makes a speciality of acoustic blues, ragtime, and slide guitar. learnbluesguitarnow.com.

Pete Madsen is the writer of Play the Blues Like…, your full information to enjoying within the types of 12 blues greats in open tunings. The guide is printed by Acoustic Guitar.

This text initially appeared within the October 2014 subject of Acoustic Guitar journal.