# AI Wiki - Music - Slide Guitar ## Overview In slide guitar, a hard object (the **slide**) rests on the strings instead of a finger pressing them to the frets. The pitch changes continuously as the slide moves, so you get glissandos, vocal-like vibrato and notes between the frets. Guitar teacher Keith Wyatt, quoted by Wikipedia, calls it a "one-finger fretless guitar". It's the sound of Delta blues, Chicago electric blues, Southern rock, Hawaiian music and much country (through lap steel, Dobro and pedal steel). For a returning player who already knows [[AI Wiki - Music - Guitar Open Chords|open chords]], it's an approachable new colour: an open tuning, a slide, and three positions on the neck give a full I-IV-V. ## Two families: bottleneck and lap - **Bottleneck (Spanish-style)**: the guitar is held normally and the slide is worn on a finger of the fretting hand. The other fingers can still fret notes and chords, and the player can mix slide and normal playing. The name comes from the neck of a glass bottle, cut off and worn on the finger. - **Lap style**: the guitar lies flat on the lap, strings up, and a heavy **steel bar** (tone bar) held in the hand stops the strings. There's no fretting at all; the strings sit high (a lap steel has a raised nut and bridge, and an ordinary acoustic can be converted with a nut extender). Wikipedia traces the technique to Joseph Kekuku on Oahu around 1885; the "steel guitar" is named after his steel bar. The lap family grew into the **resonator guitar** (Dobro and National, patented by the Dopyera brothers in the late 1920s, loud enough to play acoustically with a band), the electric **lap steel**, and the **pedal steel** (1940s onward), whose pedals and knee levers retune strings while playing: the defining sound of country ballads. Lap and pedal steel are instruments of their own; this article focuses on bottleneck, the style you can play on the guitar you already own. ## Choosing a slide - **Material**: glass is warm and smooth; metal (steel, brass) is louder, brighter and sustains more; ceramic sits in between. Taylor's guide also mentions lighter wooden slides. Try more than one. - **Fit and length**: snug enough not to wobble, long enough to cover the strings you want (a short slide on the pinky covers four or five; a long one covers all six). - **Finger**: there is no rule. The **ring finger** (Duane Allman) or **pinky** (Muddy Waters, Hound Dog Taylor, Leo Kottke) leaves the index and middle free to fret and to mute; Joe Walsh wears his on the middle finger. Taylor's lesson suggests starting with the pinky. Strings and action matter: heavier strings and higher action keep the slide from clattering against the frets but make fretted playing harder. A normal setup works for standard-tuning slide with light pressure; dedicated slide guitars are often set up higher. See [[AI Wiki - Music - Guitar Setup and Maintenance]]. ## The three technical rules **1. Intonation: right over the fret wire.** With a slide, the string's length ends where the slide touches it, not at a fret. So the note is in tune when the slide sits **directly above the fret wire**, not behind it where a finger would go. Behind the wire, the note is flat. Keep the slide **parallel to the frets**, or the strings will be at different pitches. The frets become visual guides, not stops. Check yourself: play a phrase with the slide, then the same phrase fretted, and compare; half-step phrases are the hardest to play in tune. **2. Pressure: touch, don't press.** The slide rests on the strings. Too little pressure and it buzzes; too much and it clunks against the frets and the note goes sharp. **3. Muting: behind the slide and with the picking hand.** A slide makes every string it touches ring, on both sides of it. Lay the fretting-hand fingers **behind the slide** (toward the nut) lightly across the strings to kill the noise from that side; the picking hand mutes the strings you're not playing. Most slide players pluck with the fingers (or thumb and fingers) rather than a pick, so each finger can play or damp a string. See [[AI Wiki - Music - Muting Techniques]]. **Vibrato** comes from moving the slide quickly side to side, centred on the fret wire. It also hides small pitch errors, which is why beginners overuse it; Yamaha's lesson suggests saving it for the last note of a phrase at first. Muddy Waters' slide vibrato is a reference. **Slide into notes** from a half step or whole step below: it's the idiomatic sound, and it gives you time to land on pitch. Practise clean first: as Yamaha's guide puts it, if it sounds good clean, it'll sound even better with drive. ## Tunings for slide Most early blues slide was in **open tunings**, and many players still prefer them: the open strings form a chord, so laying the slide straight across the strings at any fret gives a major chord. Details for each tuning (how to tune, chord shapes) are in [[AI Wiki - Music - Alternate Tunings]]. - **Open G** (D G D G B D, low to high): the "Spanish" tuning. Robert Johnson and the early Muddy Waters used it. - **Open D** (D A D F# A D): "Vestapol". **Open E** (E B E G# B E) and **open A** (E A E A C# E) are the same tunings a whole step higher, brighter but with more string tension; Elmore James played in open E. Many players use open D or open G with a capo rather than raising strings ([[AI Wiki - Music - Capo and Transposition]]). - **Standard tuning**: Robert Nighthawk and Earl Hooker played electric slide in standard tuning, and so did Muddy Waters later, often with a capo. It lets you switch between slide and normal playing in the same song. In open G, the slide at fret 0 (open), 5 and 7 gives I, IV and V in G: G, C and D. ```chord tuning: open G --- symbol: G frets: 000000 title: G (open) --- symbol: C frets: 555555 title: C (slide at fret 5) --- symbol: D frets: 777777 title: D (slide at fret 7) ``` At fret 12 the G chord comes back an octave up. Where the [[AI Wiki - Music - Chord Tones and Improvisation|chord tones]] fall in open G, by [[AI Wiki - Music - Intervals|interval]]: across the whole neck, the root is on the 3rd and 5th strings at frets 0 and 12, the 5th on the D strings, the 3rd on the B string. A slide player thinks in these positions: fret 12 for the chord, the B string for the third, fret 10 on the G string or fret 15 on the top string for the b7. ```fretboard chord: G tuning: open G frets: 0-15 labels: intervals title: G chord tones in open G ``` In **standard tuning**, the same trick works on smaller groups of strings. Strings 2-3-4 (D G B) form a G major [[AI Wiki - Music - Triads|triad]] when open, so the slide across them at frets 5 and 7 gives C and D; strings 1-2-3 (G B E) at the same fret form a minor triad (E minor when open). That's [[AI Wiki - Music - Triads on the Fretboard]] with a one-finger grip. ```chord symbol: G/D frets: xx000x title: G (strings 2-3-4 open) --- symbol: C/G frets: xx555x title: C (slide at fret 5) --- symbol: D/A frets: xx777x title: D (slide at fret 7) ``` ## A first lick in open G A blues phrase around fret 12 in open G (strings named for open G, high D on top): slide into the G chord at fret 12 from a whole step below (fret 10 is F major, the bVII), touch the b7 (F) at fret 15 on the top string, come down through the 5, 3 and 2 to the root on the G string with vibrato, and let the open G chord ring. ```chords {title: Open G lick around fret 12} {comment: Tuning D G D G B D. Slide 10 to 12 on the top three strings; ~ = slide vibrato centred on the fret} {start_of_tab} D|-10/12---------15-----12---------------------------------0------| B|-10/12-----------------------12-----10-------------------0------| G|-10/12-------------------------------------12~-----------0------| D|---------------------------------------------------------0------| G|---------------------------------------------------------0------| D|---------------------------------------------------------0------| {end_of_tab} ``` Over a 12-bar blues in G, play it at fret 12 over the I chord; move it to fret 5 over C and fret 7 over D. See [[AI Wiki - Music - Blues Music]] and [[AI Wiki - Music - Playing with Backing Tracks]]. ## Key players - **Delta and early blues**: Sylvester Weaver (whose 1923 recordings are the first known bottleneck recordings), Charley Patton, Son House ("Death Letter", on a National resonator), Blind Willie Johnson ("Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground"), Robert Johnson, Bukka White, Mississippi Fred McDowell. - **Electric blues**: Elmore James (the triplet figure of "Dust My Broom", open E), Muddy Waters, Robert Nighthawk, Earl Hooker, Hound Dog Taylor. - **Rock and Southern rock**: Duane Allman (a Coricidin medicine bottle as slide; "One Way Out", imitating harmonica), Ry Cooder, Lowell George, Joe Walsh, George Harrison, Bonnie Raitt, Derek Trucks, Sonny Landreth. - **Lap, Dobro and steel**: Sol Hoopii and Jerry Byrd (Hawaiian lap steel; Byrd is credited with the C6 tuning), Josh Graves and Jerry Douglas (Dobro), David Lindley, Ben Harper. ## How to practise 1. **No slide movement yet.** In standard tuning, put the slide over the fret wire at frets 5 and 7 on strings 2-3-4, pick each string, and compare with a tuner. Then add muting behind the slide. 2. **Fretted versus slide.** Play a short phrase fretted, then with the slide; the two should match. 3. **Slide into targets.** From a whole step below to the I chord at fret 12, then a half step below; land and stop dead on the wire. 4. **Open G I-IV-V.** Frets 0, 5, 7 over a slow 12-bar shuffle ([[AI Wiki - Music - Swing and Shuffle Feel]]), fingerpicking each chord. 5. **Vibrato last.** Add it only to the final note of each phrase, in time with the beat. 6. **Learn one classic.** Pick one recording ("Dust My Broom" or a Muddy Waters tune) and copy the [[AI Wiki - Music - Melody and Phrasing|phrasing]] by ear ([[AI Wiki - Music - Transcription and Playing by Ear]]). ## Common mistakes - **Slide behind the fret** (where a finger would go): flat notes. - **Pressing down**: buzz, clunks and sharp notes. - **No muting**: strings behind the slide and unplayed strings ring into a wash. - **Slide at an angle** when you mean straight: each string at a different pitch. - **Vibrato everywhere** to hide intonation. - **Practising only with gain**, which hides pitch errors. ## Key Points - Slide = a hard tube or bar resting on the strings; pitch is continuous. - Bottleneck: slide on a finger, guitar held normally; lap: guitar flat, steel bar, high strings. - Intonation: centre the slide directly over the fret wire, parallel to the frets; light pressure. - Mute behind the slide with the fretting-hand fingers and with the picking hand; fingerpicking helps. - Open G, open D (and open E, open A) give a major chord at any fret: I-IV-V at frets 0, 5, 7. - In standard tuning, strings 2-3-4 at one fret make a major triad. ## Open Questions - Which slide (glass or brass, which finger) suits Sébastien's guitars and hand? - Is it worth raising the action on a second guitar dedicated to slide? - Open G or open D first, given the songs he wants to play? ## References - Slide guitar, Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slide_guitar - Lap steel guitar, Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lap_steel_guitar - "Intro to Slide Guitar", Taylor Guitars: https://www.taylorguitars.com/intro-to-slide-guitar - "How to Play Slide Guitar, Part 2", Yamaha Hub: https://hub.yamaha.com/how-to-play-slide-guitar-part-2/ - "How to play slide guitar: 6 tips for beginners", PMT: https://www.pmtonline.co.uk/blog/how-to-play-slide-guitar-6-tips-for-beginners/ ## Related - [[AI Wiki - Music - Alternate Tunings]] - [[AI Wiki - Music - Blues Music]] - [[AI Wiki - Music - Triads on the Fretboard]] - [[AI Wiki - Music - Muting Techniques]] - [[AI Wiki - Music - Guitar Lead Techniques]] - [[AI Wiki - Music - Harmonics]] - [[AI Wiki - Music - Capo and Transposition]] - [[AI Wiki - Music - Guitar Setup and Maintenance]] - [[AI Wiki - Music - Swing and Shuffle Feel]] - [[AI Wiki - Music - Country Music]] - [[AI Wiki - Music - Rock Music]] - [[AI Wiki - Music - Fingerpicking]] - [[AI Wiki - Music - Playing with Backing Tracks]] - [[AI Wiki - Music - Transcription and Playing by Ear]] - [[AI Wiki - Music - Guitar Chord Transitions]] - [[AI Wiki - Music - Guitar Effects]] - [[AI Wiki - Music - Songwriting]] - [[AI Wiki - Music - Nails, Fingerpicks and Thumbpicks]]