Learning how to play slide. Tips, tricks and tunings???

[James Lugo]

I have very passively played slide over the past few years. Using it in sessions but never really being able to do it. The past year I've really wanted to learn how to jam on it and made up my mind this is the year. So I bought a slew of slides; glass, brass, ceramic. Been sitting around tonight setting up my Les Paul Special with P90s for slide. Slightly raising the action. Been watching the 2007 Crossroads concert. Derek Trucks is the absolute type of slide I wanna master. He is incredible. He does the medicine bottle on the ring finger and bends his ring finger in the bottle and it stabilizes the slide so he can take it on and off the fretboard with ease. I can't seem to do it it's like my ring finger is to short. I'm able to kind of stabilize the bottle by using my pinky and middle fingers around my ring finger kind of squishing it together a bit. Seems ok. I have a medium Corasidian Bottle maybe a small would be better. Does anyone know? Been working on a few tunings too. If anyone has any tips for getting better or video links or tunes I should learn etc. let me know whatcha think.

 

[lespaul6]

when I first started I had the same issues... takes practice, I use my ring finger to I can still fret with the first two. The key to a clean sound is your left hand muting behind the slide...

 

[kasperjensen]

I believe D Trucks is always in open E tuning. Warren Haynes swears by playing it in standard tuning though...
I tried simply learning licks in standard, so i can do them live, and wont have to worry about changing guitars and stuff.
When recording I prefer to set up a guitar for that specific song though.

I have found (not a great slide player by any stretch of the imagination) that the biggest factor for making it sound good is your left AND right hand muting. If you can get them both going, you can really dig in for that aggressive sound, which seems to make it sound a lot more credible.
And finding a slide that you keep still is also important. Want the full control over that sumbitch.

 

[skoora]

Definitely something I want to be more proficient in as well. Don't listen to any Sonny Landreth or you'll just give up before getting started. Just a matter of starting with easy stuff getting a feel for control and expression and keep at it. At least that's what I tell myself

Here's some that kills me on tone and feeling

 

[glpg80]

No more tears was my first song for learning slide. Vito bratta was a big influence as well. The setup (I found) is not as critical playing slide on a guitar versus playing slide on a lap style setup. As long as you aren't hearing fret noise or have frets to get in the way you're action should be alright.

IMHO it takes a whole different visualization perspective to register what notes on a fretboard you want to play. Sliding in and out to them with horizontal vibrato all while minimizing string noise. It's a feel thing that you need to use your ears to judge how it sounds and less about the mechanics - it's too easy to overcomplicate it.

Find the slide that fits your preference, find a few videos on youtube of your favorite artist, and use a mirror to mimic what you see in the video. Eventually you will get the feel for it.

 

[1big1]

while i want the slide parts to sound glassy and clean.. for the most part.. i also want sustain. generally speaking i do add add some gain to the input.. just not to the point that it breaks up like a crunch channel. a bit of grit is fine.
as others have mentioned.. left and right hand muting can be hard to master. i used to play more slide back in the day.. but got away from it.
now i'm getting back into it on a couple songs we're working on that are in open g tuning.. twice as hard and slow and easy. good grief.. i suck.. but i keep trying and it gets a bit better every time we try.
i used to use a brass slide.. but i misplaced it somewhere. i have since found a couple of light weight glass slides.. but i'm not sold on them and may keep looking for the right weight.

 

[WizardSouth-JP]

Couple Sonny Landreth lessons - a lot of great slide players consider him the best, and that's not a subjective term in this regard, as Sonny is unfreaking believable in his approach to slide playing. I love Derek Trucks slide playing too. In terms of mastery of the slide - Sonny Landreth lessons should keep you busy for a while. Good Luck James - interested to see what you get out of these various approaches to tuning and styles.

 

[moronmountain]

Open E is what I learned in. You basically solo by following the chord changes like in a 1,4,5 blues progression. So when in the E section of the progression you can play all the notes on the 10th and 12th frets by moving back and forth between them. In the B section you do the same but on the 5th and 7th frets. In the A section you play the 3rd and 5th frets. It's a simple and easy way to get up and running, and able to play something that sounds correct.

Another cool tuning is open G like Sykes used on Slow and Easy off of the Slide It In Whitesnake album. The tuning from low to high is as follows. D, G, D, G, B, D
What's cool about this tuning is you can also play power chords and riffs without the slide, so you can switch between the slide and fretted notes. Also notice that strings 2-4 are in their "normal" tuning, so you can solo some basic box pattern type pentatonic licks in the key of G without having to think about the tuning. You will of course have to adjust your scales/patterns down a full step on the 1st, 5th, and 6th strings if you use them fretted. If you solo with the slide in this tuning, you do it almost the same as when tuned in open E, but you will notice that it's easier to find good sounding notes on strings 2-5 than on 1 and 6. Well IMO anywho. Have fun!

 

[moronmountain]

FWIW, I tend to like the slide on my pinky, so I can switch between the slide and fretted notes w/out having to take the slide off. My disclamer in all of this is that I tend to be heavy handed, and since I don't practice much with a slide, I knock the fretboard quite alot when playing an electric.

 

[Hua and a tele]

I use Rockslides(http://www.therockslide.com/) They have a small notch cut on the bottom so you can bend your finger like normal with the slide on. I find it to be more comfortable for myself. As far as tuning I use an open d D,A,D,F#,A,D. As far as actual playing I found that watching videos confused me. I would just listen to a lot of the band Left Lane Cruiser and Bob Log the third and just sit with my guitar and figure out the licks a little at a time. Once you finally get it from screwing around it will all just click and open up.

 

[BackCrack]

Half the time with slide, I use standard tuning. The other half, I use D-G-D-G-B-E.

For slides, I too prefer the Rockslide. I have a few of Dan's brass models but will be getting some of his molded glass versions soon.

 

[Hua and a tele]

Yeah I gotta pick a glass rockslide myself. I prefer glass with my 4 string cigar box which is mainly used for slide