Advice on playing slide guitar

[MATTY PAGE]

Hello all,

I've been playing guitar a while but have never really bothered buying a slide until today.

I'm sure to people who remember playing slide for the first time will agree it feels a bits awkward first time round.

I bought a chrome one, but I think it may be a little long so I was gonna get a hack saw and chop a bit off, I only really wanted the second half of one of my middle fingers to be covered when playing cause then I can bend it too.

This brings me to another question, what sort of slide did Page use, it looks like a chrome one to me, but was it, short, long, medium. Could he bend his slide finger whilst sliding!!

Cheers everyone

[danelectro59]

Hello all,

I've been playing guitar a while but have never really bothered buying a slide until today.

I'm sure to people who remember playing slide for the first time will agree it feels a bits awkward first time round.

I bought a chrome one, but I think it may be a little long so I was gonna get a hack saw and chop a bit off, I only really wanted the second half of one of my middle fingers to be covered when playing cause then I can bend it too.

This brings me to another question, what sort of slide did Page use, it looks like a chrome one to me, but was it, short, long, medium. Could he bend his slide finger whilst sliding!!

Cheers everyone

I'm no expert, but if I were to guess from the stinging tone he gets, I would say he's using chrome too.

[Humbucker]

Page's slide looks chrome to me, also. I use both chrome and glass slides, as they both give different sounds. It's obviously up to the individual player, but I use a slide that will cover all six strings simultaneously. I do, however, steer clear of the heavy brass slides that are available.

RB

[Evster2012]

A slide is a very personal thing. Some people won't use anything but a Coricidin bottle. In fact, some manufacturers have replicated that little medicine bottle (where's Magic Sam? He's a slide officianado). It depends on what type of slide you want to play. My favorite is a piece of a Schwinn bicycle handlebar I cut off with a hacksaw!! It's heavy, but it fits! I've had smooth glass slides, and I currently use a Dunlop chrome slide. Just use what feels best for you. BTW, Jimmy uses a chrome slide live. In the studio is anyone's guess.

[lucyinthesky]

I learned it the old school way, with an empty little whiskey bottle. But now I prefer chrome.

Another tip: use open tunings, for example DADGAD, it makes a slide blues sound like an old black man playing in the delta (of ganges, it has an Indian touch).

Finally a question: How does Jimmy manage to get rid of his slide this fast in Bron-yr-aur stomp at Earls Court 75???

I really would like to play slide solos in a picking song and i dunno how...

Can anyone help me?

[LednyrdZepnyrd]

I learned it the old school way, with an empty little whiskey bottle. But now I prefer chrome.

Another tip: use open tunings, for example DADGAD, it makes a slide blues sound like an old black man playing in the delta (of ganges, it has an Indian touch).

Finally a question: How does Jimmy manage to get rid of his slide this fast in Bron-yr-aur stomp at Earls Court 75???

I really would like to play slide solos in a picking song and i dunno how...

Can anyone help me?

If it is a chrome slide, he probably just flings it off his finger and hits some poor old lady

[Humbucker]

Finally a question: How does Jimmy manage to get rid of his slide this fast in Bron-yr-aur stomp at Earls Court 75???

I really would like to play slide solos in a picking song and i dunno how...

Can anyone help me?

I didn't see how Page rid himself of the slide during Bron-Y-Aur Stomp, but I did see him pull the slide from his finger and throw it onto the stage after the solo in Tangerine at the same gig.

RB

[jimmie ray]

I have an acoustic / electric Ovation guitar, and found a cigerette lighter works fine. I wasn't using a pick the last time (lost it?) and found blood splattered on the guitar the next day!

[Evster2012]

I have an acoustic / electric Ovation guitar, and found a cigerette lighter works fine. I wasn't using a pick the last time (lost it?) and found blood splattered on the guitar the next day!

I went to rehearsal a few weeks ago and my bass player said "Dude! Is that blood???". I have a mirror pickguard on my Strat and sure enough, blood all over it! I thought, what was our last jam like???

[Ma'at]

Playing with your fingers makes you bleed? Wow, I've gouged lumps of skin out my finger before, but never drawn blood...

[fenderguy]

Same here, but I use light strings.---Never any blood. I like a chrome slide the best, but I have only tried to play that way a few times.

[jimmie ray]

---Never any blood.

Well, I guess I'm still getting a little emotional about Bo passing - but a little Formula 409 got 'er right back all shiney!

[Evster2012]

Playing with your fingers makes you bleed? Wow, I've gouged lumps of skin out my finger before, but never drawn blood...

No, I've never bled from playing either. I think I must have caught a scab on something, or opened an existing cut.

[zepyep]

Hi all,

Ev!!!!

A slide is a very personal thing. Some people won't use anything but a Coricidin bottle. I

Question: isn't that what Dwayne Allman used?

KB

[Evster2012]

Hi all,

Ev!!!!

Question: isn't that what Dwayne Allman used?

KB

Yep, zepyep, sure was!

[Evster2012]

So what tuning do you think Duane may have used the most? Page used it in IMTOD and think something like cgcgce? I do also see tha drop d or open g listed, but I still think its in c. What say you Evster?

Duane's tunings:

Open E - Statesboro' Blues, Done Somebody Wrong, One Way Out, Trouble No More (Live), Drunken Hearted Boy, Stand Back, Don't Keep Me Wonderin', and Little Martha.

Standard Tuning - Dreams, Mountain Jam, Midnight Rider, and Trouble No More (debut album version).

Some of Page's tunings:

Rain Song: EADADE live, DGCGCD studio

White Summer/Black Mountain Side/Kashmir: DADGAD

Dancing Days: EADGBD

Black Country Woman/That's the Way/In My Time of Dying/Trvelling Riverside Blues: DGDGBD

Friends/Poor Tom: CACGCE

When the Levee Breaks: EACFAC

Ten Years Gone: DADGBE

Hey Hey What Can I Do: C#-F#-D#-E-G#-C#

[Trashbag]

Playing with your fingers makes you bleed? Wow, I've gouged lumps of skin out my finger before, but never drawn blood...

My fretting fingers don't bleed, but my picking hand gets quite a bit of damage, especially whenever I try doing one of Pete Townshend's windmills.

[zepyep]

Hi all,

Yep, zepyep, sure was!

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEvvvvvvvv!

Much thanks you master,.... of the 6-sting!

I'll answer you 2-morrow,....

Must have been the bourbon

He,heeeeeeeeeeeee!

KB

[Howlin' Wolf]

A slide is a very personal thing. Some people won't use anything but a Coricidin bottle. In fact, some manufacturers have replicated that little medicine bottle (where's Magic Sam? He's a slide officianado). It depends on what type of slide you want to play. My favorite is a piece of a Schwinn bicycle handlebar I cut off with a hacksaw!! It's heavy, but it fits! I've had smooth glass slides, and I currently use a Dunlop chrome slide. Just use what feels best for you. BTW, Jimmy uses a chrome slide live. In the studio is anyone's guess.

Yeah, whatever happened to that guy? He sure knew the blues.

I'm also a slide guy, here's my top 10 tips:

1. Glass.

2. Glass.

3. Fingerpick. Throw the pick away, you'll only end up with unwanted notes. Sloppy slide sounds great on chord type stuff like Traveling Riverside and IMTOD, but if you want to play solos, you'll need to mute to articulate clearly. Use your picking hand thumb and fingers to mute the strings that you don't want to ring. This is the ONLY way that you can make slide in standard tuning sound good, BTW.

4. Glass.

5. Listen to Duane Allman as much as possible. He is the Jimi Hendrix of slide. Everyone has their favorites, but like Jimi, Duane expanded the limits of slide to places that people never dreamed were capable of.

6. Glass.

7. Work on placing the slide directly above the fret. Standard guitar playing puts us in the habit of playing just behind the fret, but doing so playing slide will put you out of tune. Duane Allman occasionally played out of tune on purpose, such as in his amazing solo at the end of the first section of Layla. But you aren't Duane, and if you don't work on staying in tune you will sound like shit. Warren Haynes suggests imagining there is a laser in your slide finger guiding you onto the fret, something I've found quite helpful.

8. How many times do I have to say it? Glass, glass, glass. The list of great slide players who use glass is far more impressive than the list that doesn't. If sounding like Jimmy is your only ambition, by all means, stick with your chrome slide. But if you want to sound like Duane, Warren Haynes, Derek Trucks, Ry Cooder, Sonny Landreth, Mick Taylor, etc. use glass. Glass has better sustain, warmer tone, and better weight for vibrato. Metal has a raspy sound that makes a nice change, and there are few players who really make it work (Johnny Winter, Ron Wood, and especially Lowell George, who used a Craftsmen Socket(!))

But at the end of the day, if you are serious about becoming a slide player it is all about glass. And yes Ev, I own dozens of slides and nothing is as good as my official Duane Allman Coricidan bottle. In Duane we trust.

9. Work on your vibratto. Varying both speed and the width of your vibratto will give you a wider range of sounds to work with. Warren suggests jiggling your whole forearm loosely like you are wiggling a bowl of jello.

10. We all start out wanting to replicate the gear of our heroes, but I suggest being open minded and trying every slide you can get your hands on. Everyone likes to buy gear, and slides are a cheap buy that is a lot of fun. Experiment and find what works for you. Of course, if you ask me, such experimentation inevitably leads to GLASS, bitches. But don't take my word for it, find what works for you!

Here endeth the lesson.

[jimmie ray]

I'm also a slide guy, here's my top 10 tips:

3. Fingerpick. Throw the pick away

5. Listen to Duane Allman as much as possible. He is the Jimi Hendrix of slide.

8. How many times do I have to say it?

9. Work on your vibratto, bitches. Here endeth the lesson.

The great Falcon has flown across the sky - so it is written, so shall it be done...

[Slash=GNR]

hey everyone,

I've been playing guitar for a couple of years now but never really tried to play with a slide. So I bought one last week and I'm trying to figure it out. My question is, do you have to rest a finger on the strings right behind the slide? I heard you had to do this to mute strings you didn't want to hear. but for some reason when I try playing this way ( with my fingers and also with a pick sometimes) it doesn't quite sound right. What am I doing wrong?

Any pointers and tips would be really appreciated.

thanks,

Ben

[The Bomber]

hey everyone,

I've been playing guitar for a couple of years now but never really tried to play with a slide. So I bought one last week and I'm trying to figure it out. My question is, do you have to rest a finger on the strings right behind the slide? I heard you had to do this to mute strings you didn't want to hear. but for some reason when I try playing this way ( with my fingers and also with a pick sometimes) it doesn't quite sound right. What am I doing wrong?

Any pointers and tips would be really appreciated.

thanks,

Ben

You don't have to.

[Howlin' Wolf]

I do recommend muting with the finger that's on the headstock side of the slide. Otherwise, you can sound a simultaneous unwanted note on that side of the slide which will slide up as you slide down and vice versa. Not a pleasing effect. You only need a light touch, though, no need to press down with that finger; wonder if that might be where you are going wrong . . .