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Slide Guitar How to Play

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  • 15-11-2011 7:42pm
    #1
    thesultan
    Registered Users Posts: 2,692 ✭✭✭


    Ok have a slide with a while and need to know the proper technique on how to use it. Should one bar a fret play a single not etc...


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    #2
    ciaranmac
    Registered Users Posts: 495 ✭✭ciaranmac


    I found this useful site a month or two ago when I was trying to learn slide. I must give it another go...

    http://www.12bar.de/slide.php

    There are also a few videos on YouTube.


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    #3
    clonmahon
    Registered Users Posts: 261 ✭✭clonmahon


    thesultan wrote: »
    Ok have a slide with a while and need to know the proper technique on how to use it. Should one bar a fret play a single not etc...

    A crap guitar with a dull tone and a high action is best for slide and never change the strings.

    Typical tunings for slide are open G or open D

    Barr a whole fret to get a chord or strike a single string for a melody or harmony note.

    Main thing is that the slide stops right over the fret not below it. The difficult thing in learning is getting the tone right, but that's just practice.

    Lots of good websites and youtube videos out there. Slide is great to play because it's so simple to do but it sounds so complicated.

    I put a sample of my slide playing on youtube at
    http://www.youtube.com/user/kevinbluessweeney#p/a/u/1/9mMWtdiru0k

    This tune is in open G


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    #4
    dfkorg
    Closed Accounts Posts: 38 ✭dfkorg


    Slide should be over the fret, but not pressed down, this is why heavier gauge strings are better. High action is ok, but heavy strings are the important thing. Lightly place a finger behind the slide to stop rattles and make the note cleanier


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    #5
    clonmahon
    Registered Users Posts: 261 ✭✭clonmahon


    dfkorg wrote: »
    Slide should be over the fret, but not pressed down, this is why heavier gauge strings are better. High action is ok, but heavy strings are the important thing. Lightly place a finger behind the slide to stop rattles and make the note cleanier

    Can I endorse all of this and thank dfkorg, you clarified my idea, it is not that a high action is needed to play slide but a very low action is bad. Also a very good point on the finger behind the slide giving a clear note, but a good slide player can mix this with no finger behind the slide to create a dirty sound. And then mix the clean sound with the dirty sound and let it all rip. The most important thing about good slide is the emotional impact not the technical part.

    When you open tune your guitar the melody notes are all in a line on the fretboard, once you master the scale the melody or harmony is easy to get, what takes practice is milking emotion out of it.


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