Slide guitar
Slide guitar or
bottleneck guitar is a particular method or technique for playing the
guitar. Instead of altering the
pitch of the
strings in the normal manner (by pressing the string against
frets), a
slide is placed upon the string to vary its vibrating length, and pitch.
Slide guitar is most often played (assuming a right-handed player and guitar):
* With the guitar in the normal position, using a slide called a
bottleneck on one of the fingers of the left hand; this is known as
bottleneck guitar.
* With the guitar held horizontally, with the belly uppermost and the bass strings toward the player, and using a slide called a
steel held in the left hand; this is known as
steel guitar.
|
Resonator guitar played with a horizontal slide. |
Various smooth hard objects may be used as a slide. One of the most common is the neck of a glass
bottle, which is slipped over one of the fingers of the fretting hand. The term "bottleneck guitar" derives from this. A
glass,
stainless steel,
brass, or
chrome tube of approximately the same size (typically one to two inches long and 3/4 inch diameter) may also be used. There are also
porcelain and
ceramic slides, which are glazed on the outside but porous on the inside, so that finger moisture is absorbed, preventing slippage. An alternative method is to use a solid metal bar or rod, also about the same size as above, laid across the strings of the guitar and held by the fingers of the fretting hand being laid on it to either side, parallel to it.
One can also use a knife instead of a bar:
"As he played, he pressed a knife on the strings of the guitar in a manner popularised by Hawaiian guitarists who used steel bars. The effect was unforgettable." ―
W. C. Handy on his first hearing slide guitar, a blues player in the
Tutwiler, Mississippi train station.
An ordinary guitar, either electric or acoustic, can be used for playing slide. Often the strings are raised a little higher off the neck than they would be for ordinary guitar playing. This is done especially if the free fingers are not going to be used for fretting. An
extension nut may be used to achieve the higher string height at the peghead end of the neck. This is just a normal nut, with the slots filed less deeply, and often in a straight line rather than following the radius of the fretboard.
The
lap steel and the
pedal steel are guitars that have evolved especially for playing slide in the horizontal position. Resophonic or
resonator guitars have often been employed for slide playing, typically held horizontally. They are sometimes known as
dobros after the Dopyera brothers, whose company first made them.
National is another brand. In resonator guitars, rather than the sound being produced by the body's hollow, a special bridge transfers the vibrations from the strings to a metal cone placed inside the body.
|
A bottleneck slide on an acoustic guitar |
The slide is pressed against the strings — lightly, so as not to touch the strings to the fretboard, and parallel to the frets. The pitch of the strings can then be continuously varied by moving the slide up and down the neck. The usual limitation in fretted guitar playing of twelve pitches per octave does not apply. Indeed, in pure slide guitar playing the frets serve no purpose, other than as a visual reference. The technique lends itself to
glissandi (swoops up or down to a note); in addition it has the ability to evoke sounds of the human voice, crying, sighing or weeping, or natural noises. Another strength of the technique is its vibrato, which is easily achieved by oscillating the hand so that the slide goes quickly back and forth.
The major limitation of slide playing is of course that only one
chord shape is available: whatever the strings happen to be tuned to going straight across. Many slide guitarists will still use their free fingers to fret the strings if they want to employ that sound as well. Using the free fingers opens up the possibility of playing chord shapes other than the straight line given by the slide. One strategy is to use the free fingers for
rhythm work, and intersperse this with lead phrases played with the slide.
The guitar may be held in the normal guitar-playing position (that is, with the face of the guitar more-or-less vertical) or it may be held
flat, with the face of the guitar horizontal. In the latter case the guitar may sit flat in one's lap or on a stool, face up, or held in this position by a strap, and played standing up. If holding the guitar in the normal vertical position, it is more common to use the tube type of slide. In the horizontal approach, solid bars or "bullets" are more commonly used, and the grip is overhand: the hand is not wrapped around the neck, the index finger is nearest the bridge, the little finger nearest the nut, fingers pointing away from the chest.
Usually, a slide player will use
open tuning, although standard tuning is sometimes used. In open tuning the strings are tuned to sound a
chord when not fretted; sliding the bottleneck up and down the guitar neck gives that chord in various keys. The chord tuned to is most often major. Open tunings commonly used with slide include Open D or "Vestapol" tuning: D-A-d-f#-a-d; and Open G or "Spanish" tuning: D-G-d-g-b-d . Open E and Open A, formed by raising each of those tunings a whole tone, are also common. These tunings can be traced back to the 18th century through the banjo, predating the Hawaiian guitar. Another open D tuning is D-A-d-a-d-f#. Other tunings are used as well.
Occasionally a bottleneck is used on only the highest two strings of a guitar in standard tuning, usually in live performance to introduce just a short passage of bottleneck effect into a piece which otherwise consists mainly of guitar played in standard fashion.
Slide guitar is most often fingerpicked, with or without plastic or metal picks on the thumb and fingers. However some players use a flatpick (plectrum).
The bottleneck or tube type of slide is usually worn over the ring (3rd) or little (4th) finger. Wearing on the 4th finger has the advantage of leaving one more finger free to fret notes if desired. However some players feel that they get better control using the ring finger. Most instructors recommend letting one or more of the fingers behind the slide rest lightly on the strings to help mute unwanted vibrations.
Technical challenges
The main technical challenges with slide guitar playing are:
* Intonation (playing each note right at the desired pitch, not a little flat or a little sharp)
* Muting undesired strings.
Slide guitar places greater demands on one's ability to mute strings than standard guitar. Playing a melody with well articulated individual notes requires more skill than may at first be apparent; it is easy to get a howling mass of notes on slide guitar until muting is mastered. This is because the movement of the slide, which is usually pressing down more than one string, causes those strings to sound, but not all of those strings are necessarily intended to sound at a given time. In contrast to fretting, in which the note decays quickly after the fretting finger is lifted, unwanted notes while using a slide must be actively muted. One can touch the string with a fingertip of the picking hand, or lift the slide and damp with a fretting-hand finger. The first method is more selective, the second stops all sound.
The technique of using a slide on a string has been traced by noted blues scholar and musician Dr. David Evans to a one-string toy-instrument: the "
diddley bow," which resembles one-stringed African instruments. The tuning and
bend filled playing style resembles the
blues-harp.
The technique was made popular by African American
blues artists. Some of the blues artists who most prominently used the slide include gospel singer
Blind Willie Johnson,
Son House, and
Robert Johnson. The sound has since become commonplace in
country and
Hawaiian music. It is also used occasionally in
classic rock, mainly by bands such as
Lynyrd Skynyrd and
Led Zeppelin that have been heavily influenced by the blues.
Arguably the most influential classic electric blues slide guitarist is
Elmore James, whose riff in the song "Dust My Broom" is held in particularly high regard. Blues legend
Muddy Waters was also very influential, particularly in developing the electric Chicago blues slide guitar from the acoustic
Mississippi Delta slide guitar.
The late
Duane Allman played a key role in bringing slide guitar into rock music, through his work with the
Allman Brothers Band and with
Derek and the Dominos'
Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs album. Beginning in the 1960s, Allman used an empty glass
Coricidin medicine bottle, which he wore over his ring finger, as a slide; this was later picked up by other slide guitarists such as
Bonnie Raitt,
Rory Gallagher, and
Gary Rossington of
Lynyrd Skynyrd. Such bottles eventually went out of production in the early 1980s (although replicas have been produced since
1985).[
1][
2]
Grammy award winner and
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member
Bonnie Raitt also showcased the slide guitar, as well as studio and solo artist
Ry Cooder and the late
George Harrison (particularly in his later albums).
Jack White of the
White Stripes uses slide guitar for the solos on the album
Elephant, and can be seen doing so in the video for "
Seven Nation Army".
John Frusciante of the
Red Hot Chili Peppers also used slide on the track "
Scar Tissue".
Derek Trucks, nephew of Allman Brothers drummer
Butch Trucks, is a dedicated artist and accomplished practitioner of the technique.
Joe Walsh also uses slide guitar in his classic "Rocky Mountain Way".
Though more rarely than with guitar, some musicians have used slides with
bass guitar —
slide bass.
Mark Sandman of
Morphine was probably the best known proponent (with Morphine, he performed primarily on a custom two-string slide bass guitar), though
Bill Laswell,
Kevin Rutmanis and
Marc Sloan have also played slide bass.
John Paul Jones of
Led Zeppelin has performed on a custom-made bass
lap steel.
The following samples give an impression of the various styles of slide guitar. First is Robert Johnson's "Traveling Riverside Blues", one of the best-known examples of
Delta blues slide guitar. Second is Elmore James' famous riff from "Dust My Broom" (incidentally, a cover of one of Johnson's songs), a textbook example of slide guitar in electric blues. Finally, a part of Duane Allman's solo from Eric Clapton's "
Layla" is included, to give an impression of highly acclaimed slide work in rock music.
*
*
Guitar*
Guitarist*
Lute*
Classical guitar*
Electric guitar*
Teaspoon Slide Guitar Video clip
