Want to try my hand at slide. It's harder than it looks unfortunately...

crunchman

I'm not great at it but I normally (try to) play slide in standard tuning.





As @richardhomer said, a heavy slide definitely seems to work better.

slacker

So to repeat, copy or paraphrase other good advice...

Damp behind the slide
Try to be accurate as possible.
You can slide into the note and wobble it but if you watch Derek Trucks he hits the note clean and adds wobble later
Use brass at first
Try DADFAD the F is F sharp stupid keyboard
THe Govt Mule vid is great for explaining how to play in standard, I play guitar with someone who reguarly changes keys with a capo. so it's easier to copy his tuning use open chords and solo on the slide
You can fret behind the slide, so in standard playing an A shape D, fret the A string behind the slide. 
IN open maj tunings you can frt the minor third note behind the slide for a minor chord
Alternatively play a little melody instead of a minor chord like Duane in Midnight Rider. 
Dont dismiss some of the non obvious choices such as George Harrison or the Edge. 
Use your fingers
Roll down the treble 

richardhomer

The advantage of Open G, is that the D, G & B strings are in 'normal' tuning - which allows some flexibility melodically - but you have 'traditional' slide intervals to play around with as well.

The solo at the end of this (with a capo on the second fret) has examples of both:

https://m.soundcloud.com/richard-homer/in-a-quiet-place

BoopDeWoop

I found I was useless with a glass slide, gave it a few weeks then threw it in a drawer. Bought a hefty brass slide and almost immediately could play a passible slide solo after a little practice. 

Get the techniques down but don't be afraid to try different materials and weights. 

uncledick

I'm gonna get grief on here by saying I can't actually get to like Derek Trucks' style.  There are far more subtle and melodic players.  I was fortunate enough to do a blues workshop with this guy a few months ago.  He has some tutorials on his website too:

BGG

Light touch is needed too.

Parker

In my 'youff (when I was in a band that was gonna make it big off the back of Britpop....) we did a demo where I stupidly whipped out a slide for the dry run. The producer loved my shinanigans and insisted in a
slide solo. It took around 40 takes to recapture my
note perfect dry run of a total of around 12 notes - the pressure was immense as our hungry drummer lost his shit with me. A 17 year old doesn't know anymore of what to do to deliver a good slide performance, anymore than I knew how to please my 16 year old girlfriend with my wang - in both instances I was keen, but left the room with one of the parties being unsatisfied with the final take! Still, local news came and did a piece on me for one of the performances....!

jonnyburgo

JOBO uses open E most often. If I may offer my own effort as some inspiration, I've been practicing slide for about 3 weeks, at first my slide hand was wobbling all over the place, adding vibrato to every note but I'm learning to control it a bit now. I need to work on my damping technique though.

 I've set up my self built Esquire exclusively for slide and I've lent out my other guitar to a mates son specifically so that I only play slide until I'm happy with it. 
This is in open E. I think it helps to learn  a fairly simple song at first, I'm really enjoying it now as I feel my standard playing was getting a little stale.

Anyway, heres my little video, and best of luck!

ToneControl

have you made the decision that the slide playing MUST be done as part of your normal playing on a normal, EADGBE guitar with normal action and not laid flat on your lap?

Many prefer to divide the 2, and use dedicated high-action guitars to play slide, e.g. Dave Gilmour
the tone is much better, and you can use a different tuning to open up amazing opportunities for slide solos that are simply not possible in EADGBE 

rlw

jonnyburgo said:

JOBO uses open E most often. If I may offer my own effort as some inspiration, I've been practicing slide for about 3 weeks, at first my slide hand was wobbling all over the place, adding vibrato to every note but I'm learning to control it a bit now. I need to work on my damping technique though.

 I've set up my self built Esquire exclusively for slide and I've lent out my other guitar to a mates son specifically so that I only play slide until I'm happy with it. 
This is in open E. I think it helps to learn  a fairly simple song at first, I'm really enjoying it now as I feel my standard playing was getting a little stale.

Anyway, heres my little video, and best of luck!

My hero.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9UOweeSdI2k

slacker

I'll raise you 

english_bob

Xandoor said:

I have it on my pinky finger, so i can use the others for non slide and try to incorporate both methods for some cool bluseyness. 

Like @JDE says, trying to move between slide and fretted playing isn't a great idea when you're just starting out learning slide. That's fairly advanced stuff. 

Also, try the slide on other fingers. Pinky is common, but you'll also see plenty of ring finger slide wearers.

You may already know this, but since nobody's mentioned it- the correct position for the slide is directly over the fret that corresponds with the note you want, not in the middle of the two like you'd do if you were fretting, and the string shouldn't come in to contact with the frets, only the slide. Make light contact with the string and make sure you mute the strings with both hands- behind the slide and at the bridge. 

IMO, slide sounds better (and muting is easier) using picking hand fingers rather than a plectrum.

Lozboy

I am sure this has already been mentioned but trying to play slide on a low action guitar with a heavy slide is very,very difficult.
   No doubt some players do it.But if your just starting on a slide I would try and get a guitar specific for it.
 Heres the slide guys forum .http://michaelmesser.proboards.com/

crunchman

english_bob said:

Also, try the slide on other fingers. Pinky is common, but you'll also see plenty of ring finger slide wearers.

And middle finger.  Bonnie Raitt and Billy Gibbons come to mind.

Voxman

Bridgehouse said:

Are you trying on something with a decently high action and making sure the slide is directly over the frets?

Misconception..you don't need a high action. All my guitars have low actions and I can play slide on any of them just fine. 

I have 4 slides. Glass, chrome, heavy brass and a real, thick homemade bottleneck (my fav). I play with the slides on my little finger. It is just practice, and a very different technique to ' normal' playing. Re tuning, I play various tunings ranging from open G, D abd E, double drop D, dropping just the top E to D, and standard tuning. 



https://m.soundcloud.com/richard-birch-1/slide-rock

Basher

I'm absolutely no expert but I have a lot of fun just mucking about in standard tuning with a light slide. It's a Dunlop "blues bottle" (272 Med) and, I believe, it's based on the Coricidin pill bottle used to devastating effect by Duane Allman.

I think that the "Duane" school of playing (think him, then people like Warren Haynes leading up to Derek Trucks as a freakishly skilled version) relies much less on needing heavy strings or a high action.It's more about note accuracy and damping than needing some thunderously full tone or smashing out six-string chords in open tunings. The damping is massively important and using the fingers to pick means you have the others to lightly rest against the strings to damp them.

I honestly think the tone is secondary as unless you can get the notes right the best tone in the world won't help you. On the other hand, a great solo with a reasonable tone is still a great solo to my ears, particularly as when you add a full electric band, it's pretty hard to hear any subtle differences.

Although the Duane and Derek stuff is nearly all in open E, I think that there's plenty of great stuff that can be played in standard tuning. Slide is a very different way of going about things and I found that thinking in terms of a home chord shape and adding extra notes was more helpful than thinking in terms of scales.

To get started, just base yourself around the triad that falls at the same fret on the D, G and B strings (e.g. to play in D, play these strings at the seventh fret). Practice sliding in and out of the notes and then start to add other notes in (e.g. the G string at the 5th fret gives you the bluesy flattened-seventh, the B at fret 10 is a nice slide from major 3rd to the 5th etc.) 

Oh, and the best advice I ever read was something along the lines of "in order to play good slide, you've got to play plenty of bad slide". 
Blindingly obvious really but IMO slide guitar is a bit more like the violin in that it can be a right bloody effort at first to even play the notes in-tune. (Have you ever had to listen to a beginner on violin?) While not quite as tricky as the fiddle, learning slide is similarly "front loaded" and not as instantly gratifying as, say, regular guitar or piano where the chords and notes at least all sound harmonious and in tune.

Anyway - take this with a pinch of salt. It's just an opinion and not definitive.

Corvus

Playing thin strings low action and being delicate is just zero fun to me. Slightly higher with heftier strings is also easier to get going with. If you play with lots of gain you'll get racket from undamped strings, that mess can make you feel bad, so back off the gain a bit to start with. If bone clean, it can be weedy, a good dose of compressor helps out and sounds great with slide.
Everyone I know inc me made noise like an injured tomcat, so don't be too hard on yourself.

mburekenge

Very much a beginner... however.

What i do is pick up the slide and have a crack at it when ive just washed my hands and playing normally would rip my finger tips to shreds.  

Then i get a few sneaky bits of practice in several times a day and there is a very slow creep in ability.

kswilson89

Slide certainly takes some practice! The best advice I can give is to make sure you're using the fingers that don't have the slide on to mute the strings. Also, make sure when you slide into a note you are sliding right on top of the fret, rather than just behind it like you'd normally do, this will help with any intonation issues you're having.

Chalky

Enjoy these short Matt Smith videos for acoustic...





Or Sonny Landreth for electric...