Some Tips On Playing Slide

[Johnny Robbo]

OK chaps... in a recent post, 64Guitars asked for a few tips on playing slide. I don't consider myself a slide player compared to someone like Geo (Dobro Daddy) but I've picked up a few bits & pieces over the years, so here goes:

Technique: I wear the slide on my ring finger & use my 1st finger to damp the strings behind the slide. This is an important point. As you move the slide along a string it will create two notes: the main note that you want, but also it will produce an unpleasant "overtone" from the length of string behind the slide – between the slide and the nut. One of the things many people experience when they first pick up a slide is that nothing sounds quite "in tune". This is often caused by this nasty "behind-the-slide" overtone.



Also, you must remember that the slide should never touch the frets – you are just "gliding" across the top of the strings. Practice doing this whilst maintaining the 1st finger damping action behind the slide. This isn't so easy to do on a guitar with a low action: as a general rule, the lower the action, the lighter you need your slide to be. On a dobro, with a big high action, you can get away with a big heavy brass slide; on a skinny necked Ibanez or Jackson shred machine with a low action, you'd be better off with a light perspex slide. I have my guitars set up with a medium action & use a Jim Dunlop glass slide.

Here's a basic pentatonic scale played first without the slide, then with. Try doing this yourself – your aim is to get the slide version sounding as "in tune" as the non-slide version. This is, perhaps, the biggest challenge to those new to the slide – accurate pitching. It requires you to think of the guitar as a different kind of instrument, one without frets – the same kind of mindset as a violinist, for example. You will only be using the frets as a visual guide, not to produce the actual note. The true "in tune" version of every note is directly above the fret wire, so don't aim at the usual place you'd place your finger when playing without a slide. Above all... LISTEN for the note sounding in tune. This is why it's important to compare your "slide version" of the scale with the "non-slide version."



Once you've got a bit of experience doing this, you'll be ready to play a tune and, eventually, improvise some lead. Let's start with a basic tune centred around the scale we looked at. Here's "Amazing Grace". First I play it without the slide, then with. Try it for yourself. Keep practising and soon you'll find that you'll develop the "knack" of damping with your 1st finger and listening for the notes to sound in tune.



Hope this helps!

John.

[Oldrottenhead]

great tips johnny i'm gonna get a slide.

[Groundy]

Got a glass slide upstairs , had it for years and never tried it, will give it a go,
Cheers John.......

[bruno]

Cool advice Johnny
B

[kenny mac]

Thanks for taking the time to do this johnny very informative.

[alfstone]

Thanks Johnny!

Alfredo

[64Guitars]

Thanks Johnny. Excellent advice.

How about playing chords? In standard tuning, the only obvious option is to play the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th strings together while muting the others. At the 2nd fret, for example, they form an A major triad. If you move the slide to the 4th fret you get a B, 5th fret C, and so on. But are there any other chords or double stops that are useful with a slide in standard tuning? How about when you're playing something in a minor key?

And how do you mute only certain strings? For example, if you wanted to play just the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th strings, I suppose you could mute the 5th and 6th strings with the palm of your picking hand, but then the first string would be left unmuted and even if you didn't pick that string, moving the slide would still cause it to vibrate and make an unwanted sound. I guess you could try muting it with a finger of your picking hand but that could be tricky. Or maybe the pinky of the left hand could be used to mute the first string?

[IanR]

Thanks Johnny,

I've had a play with slides over the years but I'm still not very good.

I like to tune the guitar to open G tuning so that I can play arpeggios. It sounds great for providing colour in recordings.

Ian

[AndyR]

Thanks Johnny. Excellent advice.

+1

How about playing chords? In standard tuning, the only obvious option is to play the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th strings together while muting the others. At the 2nd fret, for example, they form an A major triad. If you move the slide to the 4th fret you get a B, 5th fret C, and so on. But are there any other chords or double stops that are useful with a slide in standard tuning? How about when you're playing something in a minor key?

And how do you mute only certain strings? For example, if you wanted to play just the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th strings, I suppose you could mute the 5th and 6th strings with the palm of your picking hand, but then the first string would be left unmuted and even if you didn't pick that string, moving the slide would still cause it to vibrate and make an unwanted sound. I guess you could try muting it with a finger of your picking hand but that could be tricky. Or maybe the pinky of the left hand could be used to mute the first string?

All depends on what sort or style of music and slide you're playing.

I personally use the slide on the little finger and chord with the rest of them. I know some guys who use the ring finger and can still chord with the remaining ones - including the little finger - keeping the slide out of the way. There's a guy I used to watch who used a socket from a socket set, padded inside with gaffa, on his ring finger. He got a sublime Lowell George slide sound/technique going, and that was on standard tuning.

You're right, 2nd, 3rd, 4th is where your best major chord is - and the band/bass provides the root note. Sometimes the Major 3rd on the 2nd string is unwelcome, depending on the type of key/scales involved. So most of the time, it's 3rd and 4th string - making a two note "power" chord (inverted).

You also have others: 1st and 2nd string, and 4th and 5th.

Notice these are power chords too (no third). I've noticed recently (eg playing along to Duane Allman) that a lot of guys avoid playing any thirds at all until they want to strongly emphasise major or minor key.

Minor chord: 1st, 2nd, 3rd.

If you can mute, you've got some cute major chords with no root on 1st and 3rd (NO 2nd!), and on 2nd and 4th (NO 3rd). I don't do this too often...

Basically whatever you can manage/reach - it'll work.

Muting - it's whatever gets the job done! It's a mixture of left-hand behind the slide, and right-hand. I found (this is years ago) you need to get more accurate with picking, and you have to start using your right-hand fingers independently, initially for damping (but eventually it caused me to start picking with fingers and plectrum, then when I picked up a bass I ended up being happy with fingers or pick or a combination on anything).

I suspect, but don't know for certain, that some of my damping comes from the left hand behind the slide - if you fingers push the strings down, the slide ain't touching them no more (I've read that some folks can even fret behind the slide and get the note sounding while sliding on adjacent strings).

Some advice someone gave me long ago - and it seemed to work: yeah you need to mute, but don't worry about it - you need to focus on the tone of the notes you're actually playing, "how do you get that sound ma-an?" ... then the muting will take care of itself...

Looking back, this was true. For most of us, the tone of the actual note(s) needs some work - how you pick it, and then how you move the slide to keep it going. For some reason, we just lay something on the strings and expect that that's it. It's not, the way you slide and pick is as important as the way you fret and pick - and most of us picked that up instinctively.

And that's why it's all down to what style you want to play - some players just hit the note (in tune!) and keep the slide still. That's essential for some styles, but not the ones I want to play. I want organic, "talking" notes, otherwise I'd use the frets - so I had to to learn to wobble that slide on the string(s) to get the slide vibrato that fretting just cannot do. It's at that point you start incorporating the extra noises from other strings and embracing them - the only stuff you really need to mute is the stuff that's actually out of tune... I think that's why that old advice works/worked for me - if you concentrate on the tone rather than the tuning of the note(s), you sort of get the right amount of muting etc instinctively.

Hope that makes sense .

I started playing slide because my drummer wanted me to - I wasn't that fussed, except it looked cool and not many could do it. That got me through several years. But it really didn't turn me on. I mostly used open G.

Then one day I started hearing some sounds that made me think "WOW! How'd they do that??!" - that's when I started getting better at it myself, when I found some actual sounds I wanted to copy and I spent ages sliding around guitars in my bedsit trying to get it. For ages I thought it was amp and pickup selection - and it is to some extent, but most important is the tone coming out of the strings, fingers, and slide. It helped that there was a blues guy we were going to see regularly - so I could watch how he did it, chat to him, etc.

================
I'd say to ANYONE who's tempted by slide - give it a go, don't give up, sooner or later you'll find something that works. But do concentrate on the tone you want, that's what most people hear with slide. Yeah, the notes are important, but it's those slide tones that make us all go "wow!"

[Johnny Robbo]

Nice advice, Andy... You & I were both typing our replies at the same time & you beat me to it, mate  

Thanks Johnny,

I've had a play with slides over the years but I'm still not very good.

I like to tune the guitar to open G tuning so that I can play arpeggios. It sounds great for providing colour in recordings.

Ian

Yeah... I agree. Many years ago I did an arrangement of Glenn Miller's "In The Mood" on guitar and used slide for all the trombone parts. You can also use it to create a convincing cello or viola sound. A slide is great for adding a different texture to a part for sure

Thanks Johnny. Excellent advice.

How about playing chords? In standard tuning, the only obvious option is to play the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th strings together while muting the others. At the 2nd fret, for example, they form an A major triad. If you move the slide to the 4th fret you get a B, 5th fret C, and so on. But are there any other chords or double stops that are useful with a slide in standard tuning? How about when you're playing something in a minor key?

Chords can be a bit tricky in standard tuning, but the one advantage it gives you is that it's easier to play both major AND minor chords. If you're in an open G tuning (for example), major chords are easy... minor chords, not so much.

How I play chords is to use (as you say) the major chord already present on the 2nd 3rd & 4th strings. You can also use that for minor chords too, after a fashion. If the song you're playing will work with minor7th chords, then a little chord substitution can work: Am7 is basically a C major chord over an A bass note. If you're playing with a bass player, then let him worry about the A in the bass & if you play a C major triad at the 5th fret on the 2nd 3rd & 4th strings, the overall sound will be Am7.

Here's a minor key 12 bar blues where I apply this principle to the following chord sequence:

|Am7 / / / |Dm7 / / / |Am7 / / / |    %    |Dm7 / / / |    %    |Am7 / / / |    %    |Em7 / / / |Dm7 / / / |Am7 / / / |Em7 / / / |

If you prefer the sound of a straight minor chord, instead of minor7ths, you can find a "pre-made" minor chord on the 1st 2nd & 3rd strings. At the 5th fret, you'll get an Am chord; 10th fret = Dm, and 12th fret = Em. You'll be playing at the same frets as the previous example, but just one string across. With a little practice, you can navigate your way through most chord progressions that use a mixture of major & minor chords by using these two shapes. Here's an example of that:

|C / / / |Am / / / |Dm7 / / / |G11 / G / |

The G11 chord came about by accident when I was recording the example. G11 is simply an F major chord (which I was playing at the 10th fret in the 2nd 3rd & 4th strings) over a G bass note.

And how do you mute only certain strings? For example, if you wanted to play just the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th strings, I suppose you could mute the 5th and 6th strings with the palm of your picking hand, but then the first string would be left unmuted and even if you didn't pick that string, moving the slide would still cause it to vibrate and make an unwanted sound. I guess you could try muting it with a finger of your picking hand but that could be tricky. Or maybe the pinky of the left hand could be used to mute the first string?

You make a good point. I try (where possible) to avoid putting the slide onto the strings I'm not playing on - this is relatively easy for the 5th & 6th strings, if you're only playing on the top 4 strings.



For keeping the 1st string quiet (if I'm playing on the 2nd 3rd & 4th strings), and for similar muting situations, I adopt a "hybrid" picking technique. I'll be playing the strings I want with the pick, and rest my right-hand fingers on the strings I want to keep quiet. Or vice versa - I can use the pick to mute an unwanted string, and use the fingers of my right (picking) hand to play the strings I want to hear...



It's also worth bearing in mind what type of guitar it's best to play slide on. If you're playing a guitar with a modern, fairly flat, fingerboard radius (10-12"), then your slide is going to be in contact with all the strings you're covering. However, a more "vintage" fretboard radius (around 7.5"), then the slide will not be in contact with as many strings, so the damping/muting problem is lesson an issue...



Hope this sheds a little more light on matters, chaps

Cheers,

John.