Slide guitar tips

suspiciousminds

Anybody got any tips for playing slide guitar or know of any good rescources on the web?
I'm finding it quite frustating so far and seem to have some crappy "warbling" sound which i assume is my bad technique?

ToneControl

horizontal or vertical guitar?

suspiciousminds

Normal guitar, vertical?

Deijavoo

make sure you're muting behind the slide to avoid lots of rattle, unless you want that sound. I personally try to mute neighbouring strings with my spare right hand fingers too which helps if I want a really clean technique.

Deijavoo

I'll never forget the day when I discovered that you weren't supposed to push it all the way down onto the frets, I think I even wrote a letter to Guitar Techniques as to how I could avoid that clunking sound when sliding up frets.

needless to say, if I did write it they thankfully didn't print it to brutally rip the piss out of Mr Deijavoo (aged 12 and a 1/2).

ToneControl

my tip is to buy a nut riser and play it on your lap

It sounds a lot better I think, especially with a heavy tone bar

but vertical, it's hard with a normal action, I think you end up with a trade off between normal action and rattling (or sticking to just the top string for slide like Martin Simpson mostly does), or raising the action and polishing your technique. Still sounds better played like a Weissenborn though I reckon 

Deijavoo

High action, big strings.

It's the only way on Gibson/Fender-esque guitars for me. 

You never really see a Floyd Rose with a slide at the same time really and long may that continue as the domain of the low action player. 

Tunez

ToneControl said:

my tip is to buy a nut riser and play it on your lap...

With the advent of the internet there are now pages and pages of  'Nut risers' to choose from.

Fnarrrrr!

Cirrus

I play slide on medium action guitars, I find you need to keep your vibrato slow, if you want it clean it's frequently better to pick with your fingers, and I find really heavy glass and metal slides easier to control than the typical thin metal ones.

Lewy

You don't need a high action or heavy strings if you're willing to practice.

You just need a medium weight slide and some respect for the fact that it's not something that's going to sound good quickly. It needs a) technique which you have to practice hard and b) critical listening on your part to hear whether you're playing in tune.

I've taught slide to a few people over the years and in every case they start off assuming that the reason they're clattering the slide against the frets or have bad intonation is down to action, or strings or slide, or finger picks or blah blah blah. It very rarely is.

My tip is to pick a simple melody (I started with "Danny Boy") and play it on each string individually (change key to be that of the open string). Do it in standard tuning so it will sound horrid if you sound adjacent strings. Work on slide positioning and damping so you can play it cleanly on each string. The fact that it's a really familiar tune will help with your intonation. The fact that you're sticking to one string will force you to damp well and also get your slide mobility working.

IanSavage

Lewy is the resident slide maestro, pay close heed to all he says

 

That said, if you DO have a spare guitar to dedicate to slide duties (Teles and Danelectros lend themselves to it very well), having one with a higher action in an open tuning will get you up-and-running quicker. Try it fingerstyle as well - and also, listen to Ian Siegal

Lewy

IanSavage said:

 - and also, listen to Ian Siegal

Do that even if you're not learning slide

ToneControl

Just a note that using a nut riser or a replacement high nut is not a cop out, playing dedicated ultra-high action lap steels and Weissenborns (and pedal steels) is a different style to playing an upright guitar with a bottleneck.

You can play a normal action guitar with a bottleneck, but it takes practice, and there is a limit to what you can do and the sounds you can achieve. It is not the same technique as playing lap steel with a bar. You can mix in fretted playing too, which is a good option.

Personally I either play properly fretted guitar style - on a normal guitar, OR lap steel slide-style on a dedicated guitar. To me the tone and harmonic possibilities are far better with lap steel than using bottleneck on a normal guitar

digitalkettle

IanSavage said:

That said, if you DO have a spare guitar to dedicate to slide duties (Teles and Danelectros lend themselves to it very well), having one with a higher action in an open tuning will get you up-and-running quicker. Try it fingerstyle as well - and also, listen to Ian Siegal

If you're dedicating a guitar to it, you could opt to string your top-E a couple of gauges heavier as well.

I've recently started adding slide bits & bobs when I'm gigging: standard tuning, standard setup. It's nice when it works out...really cuts through...and people think you know what you're doing

digitalkettle

Lewy said:

My tip is to pick a simple melody (I started with "Danny Boy") and play it on each string individually (change key to be that of the open string). Do it in standard tuning so it will sound horrid if you sound adjacent strings. Work on slide positioning and damping so you can play it cleanly on each string. The fact that it's a really familiar tune will help with your intonation. The fact that you're sticking to one string will force you to damp well and also get your slide mobility working.

Maybe good to do this over a drone to keep your pitching honest.

Other advice that I've gleaned: always be on the move...slide into a note...slide out of a note...if you sit still: get wobbling.

Going across strings fingerstyle, practice stopping the string that you're leaving (this doesn't just apply to slide), e.g. you're fretting a chord, right-hand fingers p,i,m,a are sat on strings...thumb plays...index plays while thumb lands on its string...etc. If you're sounding more than one note at a time, it's nice to have intended it

frankus

trick I learnt from Lewy was fret notes behind the slide... the string will drop below the slide and sound a semitone below ... triffic.

IanSavage

frankus said:

trick I learnt from Lewy was fret notes behind the slide... the string will drop below the slide and sound a semitone below ... triffic.

This is a good call - also, if you wear your slide on your ring finger there's some nice 'blue notes' a fret above the slide in certain tunings that you can reach with your pinky.

benmurray85

These are all great tips. I've been struggling with slide recently and was coming on to post of blog like this asking for help. I use a tele in open g. Thick strings and high-ish action. I like using a tremolo and reverb pedal and even a really dark fuzz for some broody blues. The main issue I have and would like help with is I can't stop thinking of the guitar as being in standard tuning and trying to play "safe" licks. It's something I ALWAYS struggle with. They just sound so out of place in the context of slide. Maybe I just need to learn some more licks and go from there but does anyone have any more tips?

Gulliver

benmurray85 said:

These are all great tips. I've been struggling with slide recently and was coming on to post of blog like this asking for help. I use a tele in open g. Thick strings and high-ish action. I like using a tremolo and reverb pedal and even a really dark fuzz for some broody blues. The main issue I have and would like help with is I can't stop thinking of the guitar as being in standard tuning and trying to play "safe" licks. It's something I ALWAYS struggle with. They just sound so out of place in the context of slide. Maybe I just need to learn some more licks and go from there but does anyone have any more tips?

When I was teach slide - I start by getting them to play licks they already know, but with the slide - whether it's in standard tuning or an open tuning. If they're familiar enough, you can tell when you're playing them right/wrong - and you can then start creating your own once you're used to the slide/new tuning.  

Also - slide vibrato is fucking lovely, but hard to get your head around initially... Quality vibrato is the best way to make even simple slide sound impressive!!

benmurray85

I'm reasonably comfortable with the slide technique. It's just a case of expanding my repertoire I reckon. I will try working on my current stock and tarting them up. Also I always thought open g was the only way to go but everything on YouTube seems to be in open d. Is there any benefit of either? I've just got comfy in g. Don't fancy switching!