Slide Guitar Part One
The Basics by Phil Gates

Hey there,
This is going to be a three part series about yep, you guessed it, Slide Guitar. I think slide guitar is one of the most timeless, and expression filled types of playing. There have been some amazing slide players over the years, from early Bluesman such as Elmore James, Robert Johnson, Son House, and J.B. Hutto. Later with Rory Gallagher, Johnny Winter, and Duane Allman, and Bonnie Raitt. There are plenty of great players of slide guitar.

Broken down into parts, the first section will be about the craft itself when one first approaches it: types of slides, where to place it, which finger, etc, and some basic techniques. Later, we'll get into playing styles, alternate tunings, and right hand picking techniques. But first, I wanted to start with scales you probably already know (Minor Penatatonic) or Blues scales, and move from there to more difficult items.
So let's start. Roll up your sleeves...

Types of slides:

For myself and many other slide players, there are three main types of slides. And this has to do with what the slide is made of. Each material is going to have a distinct tone to it. It's not a matter of better or worse, it's a matter of which works best for you.

The three are glass, metal or brass, and ceramic slides. All three can work very well. I use different slides for different tones. For myself, the brass slide I have for when I really want the slide to cut though with a bright metallic sound. That metal or brass against the steel strings is a great sound.

Audio Example 1 Brass Slide

The glass slide has a warmer tone depending on the thickness of the glass. Thinner glass will produce a brighter tone, and thicker glass will produce warmer, fuller tone. The very term "Bottle Neck Slide" comes from using an actual bottleneck for a slide. There are some great sounding bottles out there!

Audio Example 2 Glass Slide

My favorite is a porcelain slide with a hard glaze called a Mudslide. This is between the two others in tone, and I find it the most universal. It's brighter than glass, but darker than metal, just like the manufacturer claims.

Audio Example 3 Porcelain Slide

You may find yourself in a bind at a gig however, and find the most odd slides. Beer bottles, pocket knives, microphones, Harmonicas, mic stands, you name it - have been used as temporary slides. I even used a metal tube cover from my amp in one dire situation!

Which Finger?
Which finger do you wear the slide on? This can be best answered by what role you have as a slide player. If you need to do fretting for chords perhaps, or for playing a combination of regular single finger playing, and slide mixed in, you may want to use the slide on your pinky finger.

If you're playing more lead slide guitar than anything else, I've often seen the third finger (ring finger) used. Some have used the middle finger for slide though. I tend to use the third finger for most applications.

The mechanics of slide guitar (Pitch) Typically, when you fret a note on a guitar, the pitch of the note being played is determined by the length of the string from the fret, to the bridge saddle. So if your finger is closer to the fret, or in-between frets, it doesn't really matter.

With slide guitar, position is very important. The slide is now your moving fret. Make sure when playing slide the when you want to be in pitch (not sliding to, or away from a note) that you are directly over the fret wire for the note you want to sound. Otherwise you'll be flat or sharp. In Fig 5, I'm behind the 12^th fret, which is incorrect.

Audio Example 4 Incorrect Slide Position

In Fig 6, I'm directly over the 12^th fret, now having a correct slide position to be in pitch.

Audio Example 5 Correct Slide Position

Pressure
When fretting a regular guitar by hand, it's necessary to press down on the string to make it sound, forcing the fret into action. With slide, there's mostly just the slide resting on the string. There's no need to press down onto thee strings with the slide. This will cause both intonation, and fret noise, as you scrape the slide over the frets. Fig 7 shows too much pressure on the strings, Fig 8 Shows the slide just resting on the strings correctly.

Audio Example 6 Incorrect Slide Pressure


Audio Example 7 Correct Slide Pressure

Resonance
Normally, when playing guitar, your left-hand position is either, resting on strings to dampen the ones you don't want to sound, or you're only having your hands directly on the string you want to play. There's a tendency with slide guitar to have too many strings being hit, or just resonating as the slide passes over them, even if you're not trying to play those strings. This is because the slide is everywhere, rubbing against all the strings. This makes your slide playing sound too sloppy. You can use it as an effect, but not for a good sound. The solution for this is to use the fingers behind the slide to dampen the string noise of the strings you don't want to hear. This way only the notes you actually pick will sound, and all of that extra sound will be cut off.

Audio Example 8 Loose Slide sound


Audio Example 9 Tight Slide sound

This is the tip of the iceberg, but these are the absolute basics of slide guitar. Try these when starting out over any scales you may already know. And if you haven't gotten to scales yet, just play! Grab a Blues record of choice (any one of the people mentioned above are great) and listen to what they're doing, and then try to emulate it on your guitar with your slide.

Get this stuff under your hands, because next month we go deeper...

Have Fun!


Phil Gates
http://www.philgates.com
http://www.myspace.com/philgatesmusic