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How can I improve slide?


ClassicRocker23

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A few personal pointers if you will....

 

Experiment with open tunings like 'D' and 'G'...ie detuned 'E' and 'A' chord forms

 

Navigate blues scales etc in standard tuning as well as triads across 2nd,3rd,4th strings etc

 

Try the slide on pinky as well as 2nd and 3rd fingers

 

Try glass and metal slides of various lengths

 

Draw inspiration from Robert Johnson, Elmore James, Lowell George, George Harrison and many more...

 

V

 

:-({|=

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Guest Farnsbarns Wunterslausche

Make sure to damp the strings behind the slide with your other fingers.

 

Yes, this is important and its what I am working on now.

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Warren Haynes has a couple of pretty good DVD's on slide Guitar for both electric and acoustic guitar, I found them on Netflix along with quite a few others.

 

 

+1. I learned a good bit from his Hot Licks DVD's. The Mick Taylor and Lee Roy Parnell ones are great too!!

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  • 1 year later...

I know this old but I just found my name in this thread so I thought I'd comment.

 

To the original poster: yes, try all the open tunings but don't discount standard tuning. I reverted back to standard after years of playing in open tunings. I really do like to know exactly what it is I'm playing and I find it much easier to keep track of it all in standard. Also, put some time into practising behind the slide with those spare fingers. It gets to be a real lot of fun when you get it down. Here's an example:

 

 

Also DAMPING! Very important. Watch my right hand in the video and you'll see how the thumb and finger tips damp out any string not in play.

 

Sorry about the Fender Strat!

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Guest Farnsbarns

I know this old but I just found my name in this thread so I thought I'd comment.

 

To the original poster: yes, try all the open tunings but don't discount standard tuning. I reverted back to standard after years of playing in open tunings. I really do like to know exactly what it is I'm playing and I find it much easier to keep track of it all in standard. Also, put some time into practising behind the slide with those spare fingers. It gets to be a real lot of fun when you get it down. Here's an example:

 

 

Also DAMPING! Very important. Watch my right hand in the video and you'll see how the thumb and finger tips damp out any string not in play.

 

Sorry about the Fender Strat!

 

Whoa! Hello kirk, it was me that added your name to this thread. I can't believe you popped up here. I must say a huge thank you for your youtube videos.

 

Chaps, this guy is the man to listen too, a slide master extraordinaire. He is the reason I bought a resonator and started my journey in to slide.

 

Check this out...

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Hello! Let me ask a question too. I have had very tough times trying to learn how to play slide - never really achieved any gain. My problem is the articulation. I can't play a melody line without having a couple of dead notes in it. How much would You raise the action? Beyond the level that it makes the instrument unplayable without slide? (So shall I dedicate a "separate" guitar for slide playing?). Thanks in advance... Cheers... Bence

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Guest Farnsbarns

Hello! Let me ask a question too. I have had very tough times trying to learn how to play slide - never really achieved any gain. My problem is the articulation. I can't play a melody line without having a couple of dead notes in it. How much would You raise the action? Beyond the level that it makes the instrument unplayable without slide? (So shall I dedicate a "separate" guitar for slide playing?). Thanks in advance... Cheers... Bence

 

You should definitely wait for a reply from Kirk but I found that starting out and practising on a guitar with the action really high, just about fretable but still very high, meant that after a fairly short time practising I found I could play on a much lower action.

 

Here's a video I made after a fairly short time practicing slide. It's not good but I was pleased after just a couple of weeks on slide. It's the damping of the strings behind the slide that is trickiest but most important. As you'll see, I hadn't mastered it in this video but I was trying and it improved my slide playing a lot.

 

 

(I'm almost embarrassed to post this in Kirk's presence!)

 

This is in an open tuning where as Kirk's methodology is based around standard tuning, it's a clever system where you make use of the fact that there are several open chords available in standard tuning if you are selective with your strings.

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You should definitely wait for a reply from Kirk but I found that starting out and practising on a guitar with the action really high, just about fretable but still very high, meant that after a fairly short time practising I found I could play on a much lower action.

 

Here's a video I made after a fairly short time practicing slide. It's not good but I was pleased after just a couple of weeks on slide.

 

 

This is in an open tuning where as Kirk's methodology is based around standard tuning, it's a clever system where you make use of the fact that there are several open chords available in standard tuning if you are selective with your strings.

Hello! Thanks for Your reply! I have to say Your playing is very impressive! Congratulations! Cheers... Bence

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Bence: I think the main thing is to put some heavier strings on your guitar. I went right over top not long ago and put a 016 as my top E string. I love it, but it's probably not recommended for all guitars. It's a B string tuned up a fourth to E, so there's a lot of tension there, but it gives me a big fat note on that top string. But if you were to just go up a couple of notches to a medium set you'll find that you have a much better platform to play on. The extra weight will naturally pull the action up a tad too, I have found.

 

The other thing, and this is for you too, farnsbarns ... get yourself a HEAVY slide. Much better! You get a good solid contact with the string, meaning longer sustain. When you use a lightweight slide, the vibrations of the string loosen the contact with the slide and once it's gone, so is the note. To compensate (using a thin, lightweight slide), you will tend to push down on the slide onto the strings to keep the note going, but that will just result in you pushing them right back down onto the fretwires, which will damage them. With a heavy slide, you just let the weight of the slide do all the work ... no pushing involved, and good contact with the strings. Also, the MASS of a heavy slide has a lot to do with the tone. I'm not sure why, but you can kind of feel the slide holding onto the sound waves rather than them dissipating through thin, lightweight metal. That's why I don't like thin glass, either. I don't want to come across as a spammer, but if you're looking for a heavy brass slide like the ones I use, PM me.

 

Bottom line: heavier strings, heavier slide. If that means having a separate guitar, so be it. I don't, I just play the Strat which is strung 16-18-24-34-44-54 and I never bend, I just use the slide. I do have normal guitars, but I rarely play them and never at gigs. I have developed a sort of hybrid style of playing that I enjoy.

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Hello Kirk! Thank You very much for Your great advices! I will setup a guitar the way You recommended. As for the slide, yes I have a light glass one, which seems to be very hard to control. I will make one from a thick neck of a beer bottle. (A good excuse to have one :)). Thank You again! Cheers... Bence

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