Can someone teach me how to play slide?

[GibsonMan]

Can someone teach me how to play slide? I don't play slide at all and I know literaly nothing about it. It doesn't make any sense to me.

 

[toneguy86]

Can someone teach me how to play slide? I don't play slide at all and I know literaly nothing about it. It doesn't make any sense to me.

Have you tried in open tunings or standard? I started in open and then moved back to standard. When I first tried slide years ago in standard it didn't make sense at all and I think I got as frustrated as you. It really did help to learn all the classic licks in open tunings (where they were, for the most part, originally played). I started in E. (E,B,E,Gsharp,B,E)

I play with the slide on my little finger which frees up my other fingers for fretting chords OR (more importantly) muting behind the slide. There are players like Derek Trucks who supposedly don't mute at all. I'm not sure how they do what they do then. I need to in order to control the notes that sound. I also do fret notes behind the slide, especially in standard tuning, because there are a few things I can't do exactly that I need that little advantage to be able to make happen. For me that was the first big challenge...being able to play single notes and have them play clean and not messy, and then to find all the notes that can ring out on adjacent strings along the way.

In standard tuning, the first thing I also started with is figuring out where all the A based triads (the standard A chord in the second fret E,A,Csharp) were on the guitar in all keys. Recognizing this helps you have an anchor tonally in all keys. This helps you find the 5th, root and major third (low to high). From there I learned some licks where, starting on the root note in this position for whatever key I was playing in (always on the G string), I dropped down to the flated 7th (always a whole tone lower) and then back up, sometimes catching the minor 3rd and then sliding back into the major 3rd. In this position, there is also another root three frets up on the E string too. The fifth is also on the adjacent note on the B string. You can start here practicing all those old Elmore James licks and then dropping down to that A position triad and sliding into the end of those licks on the major third by sliding into it from the minor third a half step lower. The lick I am talking about is the "Dust My Broom" lick. You can do it in standard tuning although you have to move quickly to catch the last part. This gives you something to start with anyway. I hope this helps. E-mail me if you have questions.

Mark

 

[SamsDaddy]

I have tried to learn slide off and on for a little while now and always became really frustrated because I just could not play it clean at all. I ways always using a pick and thinking I could get by like that.

But then I started to watch Derek Trucks play a lot more, and I saw the way he uses his right hand - incredible! His right-hand muting technique is a thing of beauty.

I have started working on open E tuning and I have really been focusing on my right hand technique. I am taking things slow and concentrating on getting my thumb to mute the bass strings and my pinkie and ring finger to mute the high strings, and just picking with my index and middle fingers. Focusing on my right hand for the last couple of weeks has REALLY helped me get a little more satisfaction out of slide and has ended the frustration.

The other thing that helped me a lot was to go up in string guage from 10s to 11s. The high E string with 10s was really hard to get any feel with the slide. Having an 11 for the high E helps that a lot.

This guy has some really nice videos that have helped me quite a bit. I have not bought any of his DVD's, but his free Youtube videos are really good. Here is a link to one general video on Slide in Open E:

YouTube - Learning slide guitar: A slide guitar lesson about Open E

 

[GibsonMan]

Have you tried in open tunings or standard? I started in open and then moved back to standard. When I first tried slide years ago in standard it didn't make sense at all and I think I got as frustrated as you. It really did help to learn all the classic licks in open tunings (where they were, for the most part, originally played). I started in E. (E,B,E,Gsharp,B,E)

I play with the slide on my little finger which frees up my other fingers for fretting chords OR (more importantly) muting behind the slide. There are players like Derek Trucks who supposedly don't mute at all. I'm not sure how they do what they do then. I need to in order to control the notes that sound. I also do fret notes behind the slide, especially in standard tuning, because there are a few things I can't do exactly that I need that little advantage to be able to make happen. For me that was the first big challenge...being able to play single notes and have them play clean and not messy, and then to find all the notes that can ring out on adjacent strings along the way.

In standard tuning, the first thing I also started with is figuring out where all the A based triads (the standard A chord in the second fret E,A,Csharp) were on the guitar in all keys. Recognizing this helps you have an anchor tonally in all keys. This helps you find the 5th, root and major third (low to high). From there I learned some licks where, starting on the root note in this position for whatever key I was playing in (always on the G string), I dropped down to the flated 7th (always a whole tone lower) and then back up, sometimes catching the minor 3rd and then sliding back into the major 3rd. In this position, there is also another root three frets up on the E string too. The fifth is also on the adjacent note on the B string. You can start here practicing all those old Elmore James licks and then dropping down to that A position triad and sliding into the end of those licks on the major third by sliding into it from the minor third a half step lower. The lick I am talking about is the "Dust My Broom" lick. You can do it in standard tuning although you have to move quickly to catch the last part. This gives you something to start with anyway. I hope this helps. E-mail me if you have questions.

Mark

I always played in standerd tuning.

 

[toneguy86]

I have tried to learn slide off and on for a little while now and always became really frustrated because I just could not play it clean at all. I ways always using a pick and thinking I could get by like that.

But then I started to watch Derek Trucks play a lot more, and I saw the way he uses his right hand - incredible! His right-hand muting technique is a thing of beauty.

I have started working on open E tuning and I have really been focusing on my right hand technique. I am taking things slow and concentrating on getting my thumb to mute the bass strings and my pinkie and ring finger to mute the high strings, and just picking with my index and middle fingers. Focusing on my right hand for the last couple of weeks has REALLY helped me get a little more satisfaction out of slide and has ended the frustration.

The other thing that helped me a lot was to go up in string guage from 10s to 11s. The high E string with 10s was really hard to get any feel with the slide. Having an 11 for the high E helps that a lot.

This guy has some really nice videos that have helped me quite a bit. I have not bought any of his DVD's, but his free Youtube videos are really good. Here is a link to one general video on Slide in Open E:

YouTube - Learning slide guitar: A slide guitar lesson about Open E

That works and Derek does have an amazing right hand. It may also help though to practice muting behind the slide using the palm of your hand. It may be that we can over think and over analyze this too. I have to really stop and look at how exactly I get single notes to sound without the sound of unwanted adjacent strings. I mostly do it uncounciously, which makes it harder to teach. Oh BTW there are slide players that use a pick. Roy Rogers is one example. He uses a hybrid picking method with a flat pick and other fingers. It is very similar to what I do, but I do also drop the pick frequently. I actually don't do a ton of muting with my right hand--or at least I don't think I do. I will have check.

Mark