Country Blues > Country Blues Licks and Lessons

Best way to go about learning slide?

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MelodiousThunk:
Hello,

I am new to this great forum, but have been lurking for a little while! 

I grew up listening to country and delta blues, and have recently been bitten by the bug again.  This time along with listening, I would like to learn how to play some delta slide!  I do have a basic knowledge of guitar (basically strumming chords).  I was wondering what is the best way to learn this music?  Is there a certain website, book, or DVD I should look into?  Is it better to learn some finger picking blues before going to slide? 

Thanks in advance, and thanks for the great forum!

-Ryan

mr mando:
There is a three DVD series on Homespun by Bob Brozman. I think the first DVD is the best thing ro get you started even if you're not a fingerpicker. Just don't try to get past the 15 minute mark for a couple of months.

Norfolk Slim:
I'd go along with that.  Michael Messer's one is also very good.

http://www.michaelmesser.co.uk/Michael%20Messer%20EUROBLUES%20DVD%20page.htm

Stuart:
Hi Ryan:

I started learning slide back in the 60's when there were no videos, books, audio recordings or teachers in the area that taught slide, so I was pretty much on my own, thus others are much better equipped to recommend teaching materials. But before you do anything, it's important to get a guitar with the proper action for learning slide. Too low won't work as you'll be hitting the frets and too high won't work as you still want to able to finger chords, etc. In addition, getting the right slide or slides is important, too. The range of music in which slide is used covers the entire neck. And I would strongly recommend that you learn with the slide on your pinky. While some people play with the slide on their ring or middle fingers, you're going to have a much easier time fingering chords if it is on your pinky. You'll hear arguments that "so-and-so plays with it on his or her ring or middle finger and he or she is great." True enough, but you're not that person, and if you're starting out, why begin by putting artificial limitations on yourself? Plus, once you learn with the slide on your pinky, you can always learn to play slide with it on your middle and ring fingers, if you really want to duplicate how some of the old masters play. Some fingerpickers do this--for example, using two fingers when playing Mississippi John Hurt songs, but just using the index when picking Rev. Gary Davis tunes.

The other thing is to familiarize yourself with the various open tunings that are used and the names by which they are referred to. We've discussed this numerous times here, and a little exploring will lead you to the appropriate threads.

You will eventually have to learn how to fingerpick if you want to learn how to use the slide to play fingerpicking slide tunes, but  that doesn't mean that you can't start by finding your way around the fretboard/neck in the various open tunings and developing a feel for slide, intonation, etc., before you get the fingerpicking part down.

Patience and perseverance are key, as is reflection and consciously monitoring your playing. No one was born knowing how to do it--everyone starts from square zero. "Majoring in hard work" is the key--but if you love what you're doing, it isn't really hard at all.

Mr.OMuck:
There is one major issue in slide playing that you might want to think about. Damping. This is a favorite beef of mine, but since the adoption of slide, or as it was once exclusively called by the only people who played it, bottleneck (so much more evocative and poetic) by the rock & roll community, an orthodoxy of playing has materialized that involves having whichever finger follows the slide act as a sort of six string damping barre chord sitting across the strings, but not pressing down. This produces a very focused and precise kind of sound because you no longer get the "sympathetic vibrations" from the other open strings. Many people including some of the old timers prefered this method but I am convinced that the majority of bottleneck players who mattered didn't do this, and let all those strings vibrate. One can also learn to do selective dampening with the heel of one's right hand which offers more selectivity as to when to damp and when not.
Another thought; According to Bukka White bottleneck playing was taken up originally in an attempt to imitate the sound of the fiddle which along with the banjo figured as the major instruments in rural black communities before the introduction of the guitar. So it might help to listen to some early Black string band music. If you want to emulate one musician though, have that person be Blind Willie Johnson the ne plus ultra of bottleneck guitar by general consensus I think.

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