Introduction to Slide Guitar
Originally posted to S&R blog.
The guitar is such an expressive instrument. I would argue it is the second most expressive instrument, behind the voice. The voice is so powerful. Take away for a minute, the ability to communicate with words that we have as a society have agreed to have meaning. Even then the voice is still the most expressive instrument. The subtleties in the note held while singing a melody is the exact expressive nature I am referring to – vibrato if you will.
Sure, it is possible to emulate vibrato on the guitar – its one of the most important technique to developing your own voice. But the human voice can create suble vibratoes that even the greatest vitruousos cant come close to while playing standard guitar. However, there is a form of guitar that comes close – slide guitar.
Slide guitar, in my opinion, is the most expressive form of the instrument. The ability to move in and out of notes while allowing the overtones in between two notes that are next to one another in a scale (think B and C) creates a form of expression other instruments simply cannot. Try it on a piano or a keyboard.. Its impossible. Slide guitar goes where most instruments cannot, in between the notes which is the beauty in itself.
I, like many, compare slide guitar to the human voice. While we cannot create words and form sentences and have dialogues with one another on slide guitar (yet), we can evoke the emotional subtleties that are presence when a singer really digs in and brings out the best. Duane Allman of the Allman Brothers (my favorite slide player of all time) said he was just trying to emulate the sound of a human voice but on the guitar. And boy did he come close!
So where did slide guitar come from? Historically, you can trace the slide guitar technique back to the ‘Diddley Bow’ which was a one string african instrument. Later when conquistadors introduced the spanish style guitar (nylon-classical string guitar) to the Hawaiian people. The Hawaiian people, lacking the knowledge of chord shapes, created alternate tunings that produced a chord when strummed without fretting – known as open-tuning. They quickly discovered the ease of playing a three chord song simply by using a metal bar and sliding it up and down the neck. This technique was used by resting the guitar on the lap and playing with the frets faced upwards – the lap steel guitar.
A player named Joseph Kekuku moved to the United states (before Hawaii was a state) and brought with him this new instrument. Guitar players down in the Mississippi Delta quickly took to the method and later gave birth to the delta blues and the bottleneck slide guitar.
As the blues bottleneck movement was taking off, lap steel players needed to play songs in other keys besides the one the guitar was tuned to. To accommodate this, it was common to see guitars that had up to 4 necks – all tuned to different open tunings. This quickly proved to be expensive and a new solution was sought out. After multiple attempts by numerous inventors in 1940 the modern day pedal steel guitar was born out of a garage by a man named Paul Bigsby who also invented the bigsby tremolo arm.
The pedal steel guitar is played exactly like a steel guitar from a picking and slide handling perspective. However, a series of foot pedals and knee levers that change the pitch of strings in order to change the tuning of what is being played. This quickly took off and the country music sound was changed forever.
Now let’s dive into the three different forms of slide guitar and how to play them.
Bottleneck Slide
Bottle slide guitar is what most guitar players think of when they hear the word slide. We think of the great blues rock slide players – Duane Allman, Derek Trucks, Ry Cooder, Bonnie Rhatt, Warren Haynes. Bottle slide is traditionally used in a blues based setting and expands to rock n roll as well as country – especially the combination of all three: southern rock.
Gear Needed: All you need is your standard guitar and a bottle.
The Bottle: Slide guitar bottles come in all sorts of shapes, sizes and are built from every material under the sun from nickel or copper to glass and even bone. Each slide has a different tonality as well as advantages and disadvantages unique to its shape or material so it is important to try different slides until you find one that fits your playing personality. If you don’t have a slide, use a beer or coke bottle. Using a half drunk bottle while on stage as a slide is always a show stopper and crowds love your use of “innovation.”
I personally use a (bad wolf) red bottle that mimics the old coricidin medicine bottles that Duane Allman used. Since this slide is not open on the top, moisture can get trapped inside the bottle. It’s important to either drill tiny holes in the top of the slide or – what i did – wrap a paper towel around your finger and place it inside the slide. Remove your finger, leaving the paper towel wrapped around in a cylinder shape inside the bottle. Cut off the paper towel outside of the bottle. Now, when you play, the towel will absorb the moisture. You won’t have to worry about your calluses getting soft and damp. If you want to avoid that hassle, I recommend getting a bottle that is in the shape of a tube with a hole at both ends – therefore eliminating the possibility of moisture getting trapped inside.
How to Play: Playing slide guitar has been a journey as almost as difficult and enjoyable as learning how to first play guitar. Playing slide can be comparable to playing the blues – easy to learn, difficult to master.
In a recent post, I discussed different alternative tunings. Now you can play slide guitar in standard tuning, I would recommend using an open tuning, especially starting out. Open E, Open D and Open G are perfect places to start.
After your guitar is tuned to your desired tuning, place the slide on your finger. Now which finger you wear the slide is up to you. However, each finger has its own set of advantages and disadvantages.
Slide on your fourth finger (pinky) is by and large the most popular way to hold a slide. Having the slide on your last digit allows the other three fingers to help mute the strings behind the slide – see the techniques section below for more information. Playing this way allows the first three fingers to operate as normal as possible and allow gripping common chords with relative ease. This is prefered method of slide for those who play in standard tuning. It allows the ability to grip the standard CAGED cowboy chords and still have the benefit of playing slide. I would say the one major disadvantage is not having as much control over the slide as players who use other fingers. For the most part, guitarists’ weakest digit is the pinky, the slide guitar is no different.
Next is playing the slide with it resting on your third finger (ring finger) which is popular by players who play in open tuning – Duane Allman and Derek Trucks. I have found it has the most control over dexterity as well as proper muting. Muting fingers on each side of the slide greatly tightens the sound by eliminating the sound of unwanted open strings. The reason most open tuning slide players play with this finger is due to the advantageous muting abilities. For some reason, open tuning strings seem to want to ring out more than standard tuning strings. I personally play slide with my ring finger as well. I find it the most comfortable and natural position as well as learning from Derek and Duane, i just thought that was how it was done.
Holding the slide on your second finger (middle finger) is an interesting technique. It is often used by blues players in standard tuning. And I have a theory on why…. The pentatonic boxes. Guitarist who tote their slide on their middle finger still can comfortably play the pentatonic boxes as they require only two notes per string. This allows for muting on both sides of the slide as well as easy access to familiar scale patterns. However, grabbing common CAGED cowboy chords will be difficult, if not impossible.
Playing slide on your first finger (your pointer finger) is probably the least popular method. You are severely limited in the amount of fret hand muting you can do due to not having any fingers behind (towards the nut) the slide. While one would lack proper muting, chord shapes can be more easily fretted similar to playing slide on your fourth finger.
There are a few important slide techniques one must use to be a proficient slideplayer.
Palm Muting – most players are away of this common guitar technique. Palm muting is a technique that mutes the strings by placing the outside of the palm (closest to the pinky) on the strings near or on the bridge. This eliminates the sounds of the unwanted strings and only allows the notes being picked to ring and be played. Slide guitar is a very meticulous style of playing so it is important only the wanted notes are played. Usually when playing melodies, one or two strings are played at once. Palm muting allows for clean and crisp runs.
Fret Hand Muting – this technique helps mute strings at the other end of the neck near the nut. The hand that bears the slide then mutes the strings in between the nut and the slide by gently resting the fingers across the strings. Effective slide players use both the palm muting and fret hand muting techniques at the same time for maximum clarity.
Playing notes with the slide – playing traditional guitar, the player fretts the notes by pressing the string towards the fretboard as close to the fret as possible without pressing on the fret. With slide, there is no pressing and the slide should be directly above the fret. The toughest part of playing slide is finding the pressure sweet spot where the slide rests on the strings but also enforces enough pressure to make a sound. This is the most frustrating part but practice makes perfect.
Fretting w/ a Slide – Learning how to play normal fretted runs or chords with a slide on one of your fingers is another challenge. Its essentially playing normal guitar but without a finger. Some players take off their slide during sections it is not necessary – though i find the challenge of learning to play with it on the whole song more enjoyable. Plus, it takes away the factor of your slide dropping and shattering or rolling away then you being up shits creek without a slide during your slide solo.
Music Theory – this one related more towards those who play in open tunings. Altering the open tuning of the guitar creates a new note map across the fretboard. In open E, no longer is the fifth fret of the fifth string a D note. Learning music theory and possessing the ability to pick up quickly where new notes are located on the fretboard of a newly tuned instrument will be critical in your success playing bottleneck slide guitar.
Lap Slide (Hawaiian Style)
Hawaiian style guitar is similar to bottleneck slide with the exception of playing with the guitar’s fretboard facing upwards instead of outwards like a traditional guitar. Hawaiian originated in Hawaii in the 1800s but folk, blues, rock and country music has all implemented this style of playing. Popular hawaiian style slide guitar players include Buddy Emmons, Cindy Cashdollar, Pete Drake, Freddie Roulette and Lloyd Green.
Gear Needed: Resonator guitars and Dobros seem to be the popular choice for Hawaiian style guitars however standard guitar will work fine. Boutique luthiers such as Asher make high end guitars using quality tonewoods.
You will also need a lap tonebar as well as banjo style finger picks.
The Tonebar: The tonebar operates similarly to that of the bottleneck expect instead of putting the slide on your finger, you grip the tonebar over hand and play from the top. Jim Lill gives a fantastic demonstration in this video.
How to Play: Playing hawaiian style is similar to that of bottleneck slide, so refer to the above section on tunings. But as for playing, it differs quite a bit. With Hawaiian style, you rest the back of the guitar (usually the part touching your stomach with bottleneck) in your lap. You then pluck with your fingers in a claw like motion – using a thumb pick and finger picks is up to you. Now hold the slide with your hand in a cupping motion with palms faced down. Fret the strings like above and your on your way.
There are a few important slide techniques one must use to be a proficient slideplayer.
Palm Muting: most players are away of this common guitar technique. Palm muting is a technique that mutes the strings by placing the outside of the palm (closest to the pinky) on the strings near or on the bridge. This eliminates the sounds of the unwanted strings and only allows the notes being picked to ring and be played. Slide guitar is a very meticulous style of playing so it is important only the wanted notes are played. Usually when playing melodies, one or two strings are played at once. Palm muting allows for clean and crisp runs.
Pick Muting: this technique helps mute individual strings where the palm mute technique mutes all of them at once. To accomplish this technique, pick a string then when you are ready to mute, place a pick (or finger) on the string to stop the note. Simple enough.
Pedal Steel
The pedal steel guitar is one of the hardest instruments to learn. Even the great Jerry Garcia during his flirtatious period with the instrument found it hard to learn. But do not get discouraged, this post and another video from Jim Lill is here to help you!
Gear Needed:
A pedal steel guitar – ZumSteel and GFI are both good pedal steels for beginners
Finger picks and thumb picks (necessity on this one)
Volume pedal
Tonebar
How to Play: Playing pedal steel is very similar to playing steel guitar so I will recommend checking out the information above on basica fretting and muting techniques.
Where the differ is in the pedals and levers and the tuning. Pedal steel is tuned to the Nashville E9 tuning which is from (farthest to closest) B-D-E-F#-G#-B-E-G#-D#-F#. Using Jim’s picking technique in the video above, picking the open strings produces an E chord, placing the slide at the third fret produces a G chord and the fifth fret produces an A chord. It’s exactly like the low E string on a standard guitar. Think of it that way.
Now most pedal steel guitars have four levers and three pedals. As of now, we are only going to worry about the first two pedals. So as you are playing the chords mentioned above, pressing on the first pedal will raise the B strings up two frets to a C# and the second pedal raises the G# strings a half step up to A. Combined this will take your open E chord and make it an A chord. This then opens your possibilities of chord tones.
Now that you know basic chords, implement using your volume pedal. Volume pedal technique is critical to crisp pedal steel playing. Swells are huge in the pedal steel world and so is playing with the volume pedal cocked at 75% so when a note beings to fade, you can bump that up to 100 and it keeps its sustain.
Techniques to Implement: There are a few important slide techniques one must use to be a proficient pedal steel player.
Music theory will be the biggest hurdle in playing pedal steel followed by pedal and lever work. Learning how each pedal can alert notes on the neck will impact your ability to choose the correct notes and pedals and levers at the right time.
Like all forms of slide, muting is critical. Learn the muting techniques described above.
Volume pedal workout! Learn to use the volume pedal to sustain notes longer than normal as well as the rocking technique Jim mentioned in the video.
I know that was a ton of information on slide, but I am very passionate about slide guitar. It is unique and fun to learn. The best part, at least for me, is hardly anyone plays it so you can really stand out in a crowd or be chosen for a band if you know how to play slide and the other person doesn’t. If you have any questions, leave a comment below or send me a message on twitter, facebook or instagram.
Until next time, let the music play!
-S&R