slide guitar
hey i am a brand new user (just signed up today) i have been working on slide guitar for a few weeks now and i feel that i am making some progress, but EVERYTHING that i play sounds bluesy, not that i don't love the blues, but i really want to figure out how to play better country slide licks, any advice?
# 1
I see this is an old posting, but nobody seems to have replied, i just found this site, so i'll put in my 2cents. Don't know what tuning you use, but if i want to sound country i use a G (or A) tuning; for blues i always use D (or E). I spend a lot of time on the 1st & 3rd strings in D tuning and it's easy to slant back on the 3rd string for the blues flat3, not so easy in G. I know a lot of blues players (incl. Robert Johnson) use/used the G tuning a lot, but this is just what works for me. In fact i taught myself 'Come on in my Kitchen' from memory in E tuning, played it that way for yrs. & thought i was exactly copying Johnson until somebody informed me that he used a G tuning on it. Oh well.
# 2
Slide guitar is about all I play anymore.
I use glass and metal. Finger picks and finger nails.
For the most part, I play in Open G. Depending on the song I switch to Open D or E. Ry Cooder goes into Open F on a few, Vigilanti Man come to mind at the moment.
Best think I can tell Travis is to submerge himself into Country Slide Music. Listen closely to it, play along with it. Shove the blues into the background, forget about it for the time being. Soon you'll be hearing nothing but country slide in your head.
I also play 'Come On In My Kitchen' and everything else Mr. Johnson played.
I was first taught to play it in Open Gb with a capo on the second fret. But that's way to high for me to sing in, unless someone has even a gentle hold of me. The open Gb with the capo lays right over his recording.
I now play it in open G and ain't strainin' none to sing it.
Ya shouldn't really let it matter what key your in, as long as your comfortable and your voice is too.
I also do stuff by Sleepy John Estes, Son House, Ry Cooder, and other old time blues players.
Yeah, yeah, I know Ry ain't old time, but some of his stuff is good and I respect the man's talent.
Blind Lemon Jefferson and Fred McDowell are some other I emmulate.
You might want to try and learn to 'fret behind the bar', JoeKing. Works wonders if you slide with your pinkie.
Lay the slide across the any fret and fret behind it with your middle or ring finger while dampening the strings with your index finger. If your action is high, it works and sounds great. The string you fret will drop below the steel and you can get all kinds of combinations of chords and extend the tonal quality. If you've low action, well, I ain't got no help fer ya there, except to raise the saddle a might. But if ya use it for standard playin also, ya don't wanna raise it none.
If your a blues player, JoeKing, comeon over to a blues board once in a while, if your intersted.
http://www.bigroadblues.com/cgi/dcforum/dcboard.cgi
There are some real heavy blues people over there and can answer any question you might have. Even if the answer doesn't pretain to your question. Hee, hee. It's small and everyone gets pleanty of help. Contribute all ya want too. It works both ways. Just like here.
I use glass and metal. Finger picks and finger nails.
For the most part, I play in Open G. Depending on the song I switch to Open D or E. Ry Cooder goes into Open F on a few, Vigilanti Man come to mind at the moment.
Best think I can tell Travis is to submerge himself into Country Slide Music. Listen closely to it, play along with it. Shove the blues into the background, forget about it for the time being. Soon you'll be hearing nothing but country slide in your head.
I also play 'Come On In My Kitchen' and everything else Mr. Johnson played.
I was first taught to play it in Open Gb with a capo on the second fret. But that's way to high for me to sing in, unless someone has even a gentle hold of me. The open Gb with the capo lays right over his recording.
I now play it in open G and ain't strainin' none to sing it.
Ya shouldn't really let it matter what key your in, as long as your comfortable and your voice is too.
I also do stuff by Sleepy John Estes, Son House, Ry Cooder, and other old time blues players.
Yeah, yeah, I know Ry ain't old time, but some of his stuff is good and I respect the man's talent.
Blind Lemon Jefferson and Fred McDowell are some other I emmulate.
You might want to try and learn to 'fret behind the bar', JoeKing. Works wonders if you slide with your pinkie.
Lay the slide across the any fret and fret behind it with your middle or ring finger while dampening the strings with your index finger. If your action is high, it works and sounds great. The string you fret will drop below the steel and you can get all kinds of combinations of chords and extend the tonal quality. If you've low action, well, I ain't got no help fer ya there, except to raise the saddle a might. But if ya use it for standard playin also, ya don't wanna raise it none.
If your a blues player, JoeKing, comeon over to a blues board once in a while, if your intersted.
http://www.bigroadblues.com/cgi/dcforum/dcboard.cgi
There are some real heavy blues people over there and can answer any question you might have. Even if the answer doesn't pretain to your question. Hee, hee. It's small and everyone gets pleanty of help. Contribute all ya want too. It works both ways. Just like here.
Slidin' on.
# 3
i use the fingers behind the slide for selective damping (i.e. choosing which strings to let ring as i slide and which to dampen immediately), with of course the slide on the pinky. I use a fairly heavy glass slide (Dunlop 210) as metal ones get scratched and that ruins the sound for me. Finger picks have never worked for me. I painted my fingernails and checked the wear patterns and realized that i sweep the backs, the nail sides of my fingers across the strings pretty far up the first joint, which explains why the picks kept catching on the strings. Sometimes i have my nails sculpted, but i think in the long run those chemicals can't be good for he system. Ry Cooder, besides being for my money the best living slide guitarist, is a model for mixing styles of music to create something new. My current cd project is Robert Johnson and RJ-derived songs with female vocalists. If you want to check it out, it's at http://www.joekingblues.com with sound samples. Thanks, i'll check the blues board you mentioned.
# 4
