ELDERLY SLIDE WORKSHOP 7/11
INTRO: Slide guitar comes from the Didley stick and the Mississippi Delta late 188090’s up Mississippi River. Scott Ainsley on his Terraplane album plays this ( TR. 2 ,
Parchmans Farm Blues) It spread around the world.
I’m self taught. I use three fingers and a thumb. Basically I do everything wrong but as
John Hartford once said “your limitations are what creates your own personal style”.
Influences: Mississippi John Hurt, John Fahey, Doc Watson Oak Publications book,
no recordings, learned from Tab without sound. Year’s later I would realize I had it ALL
wrong.
INSTRUMENT AND SET UP:
Any guitar with high action will do. I prefer a flat fingerboard, but it’s not necessary.
Good starter guitars, Garage sale specials, Ebay, Regal for new reso’s. Elderly
has lots of great stuff.
OPEN TUNING: I primarily use Open E and Open A One step higher than Open D
andG, better for singing.
OPEN E: Low to high; E B E G# B E
OPEN A: Low to high; E A E A C# E
SLIDE: I cut my own, but there are lots of choices these days.
Started out with copper pipe, made my own. tried em all and like mine best. There are
MANY to choose from today, find one that works for you and go with it. Most any will
work to start, You’ll need to fine tune your slide selection as your technique develops.
I like glass, prefer a heavier slide for cleaner tone, prefer real bottle for the funk factor.
As a pro player, there are times I use different slides for different reasons; tighter on a
hot day outdoors. heavier for recording. Fiddle rosin on extremely hot days to make it
stay on.
TECHNIQUES: I’m self Taught, 3 fingers and thumb. think of the slide as a
“MOVEABLE FRET” Instead of being a percussive, staccato instrument, it become a
more fluid, legato instrument. Think of your lead lines more like a fiddle or horn OR
VOICE. Very important to understand that. It opens the door to all sorts of variations
you can’t do on a standard guitar.
Start by chording the slide on the 5th fret. The slide needs to be perfectly flat on top of
the strings with light to moderate pressure. DON’T OVERDUE IT! Use as little as you
can to get the strings to fret against the slide.
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ELDERLY SLIDE WORKSHOP 7/11
Try to aim to put the slide directly over the fret. this is especially important for chording.
If you angle the slide. the chord will be out of tune.
Double thumb style makes for bigger sound, good for solo work. Thumb plays the bass
notes of the chord on the beat to set the rhythm. In open E, these are octave E notes.
See TAB #1.
To fill out the sound, I use pattern picking. A simple version is alternating the 2nd and
1st strings between the bass notes. See TAB#2.
Once you get the basic pattern picking down, begin to vary it for more interest and to
support the song rhythmically. Show a couple examples, Pinch, pattern, Pinch pattern.
TAB #3
Combination See TAB #4
Pattern picking under singing. Full Bar slides as accompaniment. In open E it’s just like
standard bar chords.
VARIATIONS; WHAT DO I DO?
Simple is always a good place to start. Slide is a unique sound that doesn’t have to be
complicated to sound great. It’s the way you play the right note, not how many notes
that counts! Listen to Bo Ramsey as he backs up Greg Brown, very simple parts that
add tremendous texture and emotion to a song.
Lead Playing: Playing lead takes a different position with the slide. Angle slide to “fret”
only the first string at about a 45 degree angle. It needs to be angled so that only the
string you are playing (usually the first string) is ‘fretted” while the remaining strings are
open. Avoid hitting the frets! Guitars with high action are more forgiving here.
Combine slide and fingered notes to get your lead line.
Now, get the double thumb going as bass and rhythm. Most lead work is off the first
and second string. Play lead notes WHILE KEEPING THE DOUBLE THUMB RYTHM
GOING.
PHRASING: The #1 most important tool for slide players!!!!!! This will define your
personal style and make the playing your own.
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ELDERLY SLIDE WORKSHOP 7/11
Create it by varying the patterns of your playing with a number of tools/techniques. This
is the pallet you’ll draw from to create or arrange a piece of music and will define your
personal sound.
Among these:
SLIDES UP/DOWN Sliding up to or down from a note can make a note have a stronger
emotional impact. Think in terms of a voice and how a singer phrases notes for
emotion. You can do that with slide. I tend to let my gut instincts determine the slides
up to and down from a note. I look for the natural rhythm to a song and re-enforce it
with the playing. Sometimes I can be quite literal (Hot Day, Titanic), but usually I’m
looking for something more musical or inventive.
Tremelo. sliding back and forth above and below a note or chord. This adds character
and sustain to a note plus a strong sense of emotion. Use the speed of the tremolo to
reflect the emotion of the song. It’s also very effective on a chords.
Muting: Behind the slide cleans up the sound. Use your index finger, full across the
strings behind a chord, particularly on slides! DEMO
For lead work, let the flat of the finger tip lay behind a single string for lead work. Makes
it MUCH cleaner!
Also as a rhythmic and syncopation tool. Full across the strings drop of the first finger.
CREATES A TIGHT, SYNCOPATED RYTHM TO INTENSIFY OR SEPARATE THE
SECTION.
LEAD AND RHYTHM INTERPLAY: Call and answer Since I’m primarily a soloist, I
use the interplay of slide guitar and singing to create more interest musically.
Frequently filling in the measures between vocals with short lead fills. I refer to this as
call and answer where the lead line answers the lyric with a musical interpretation or
response.
By combining these elements, you can create a unique and powerful guitar part. As
with anything, variations keep it interesting to the ear. Listen to Duane Allman, though I
don’t do electric slide, I listened to him a lot and picked up a great deal from his
excellent phrasing.
TAB, A QUICK PRIMER: I use standard music paper, spaces represent the guitar
strings, #’s are the frets you finger, standard musical note tails represent the length of
any given note, 1/2 and whole notes look the same so you have to look at the music to
see what it is.
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ELDERLY SLIDE WORKSHOP 7/11
MORE ADVANCED TECHNIQUES:
Playing behind the slide: Minor chords (3rd string, 1 fret behind) Demo: Lorena,
Last Letter, Last Day of winter on 9 string 7th chords (1st, 2 frets behind)
More precision in set up. Nut needs to be about 1/16th high.
Doubling your melody note with open 2nd string. Adds depth and richness to the
note, more volume too.
HAMMER ONS AND PULL OFFS As with standard guitar playing, there increase
speed and flash.
CHORD FRAGMENTS: Sometimes to follow the melody, you need notes that are
outside Of the usual chord formation. For instance, a High A chord in HARD TIMES,
and in The Water is Wide , a 3m chord or G#m. There isn’t the proper melody note in
standard full neck chord. What I do is find the note you need and tie it to a bass note for
the chord to it. the 2 notes suggest the chord.
PLAYING SLOW: Harder than fast to be clean, but can be extremely expressive.
BREAKING UP THE RHYTHM Sometimes to get the melody in, I’ll simplify the bass to
a single note per measure as in “OLD FOLKS AT HOME”
Sometimes it get’s quite radical and I create a balance through imbalance, especially
when singing. More open spaces, chord fragments instead of full chords.. Here timing
is critical. Sometimes you can use percussive, muted notes to fill a time. LET THEM
IN PETER,
Shanandoah. Foster, Jeanie, Old Folks.
Go with the melody, you can’t go wrong!
OTHER TUNINGS:
minor tuning BLUES STYLE, doubling the melody
E MINOR WADE IN THE WATER
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ELDERLY SLIDE WORKSHOP 7/11
OPEN A/G: Low to high; E A E A C# E
Also has minor chord by fingering behind the slide.
fret behind the bottle on the second string.
To make the minor chord, finger 1
Tonic bass note (the name of the chord) is now the 5th string with alternating note on
the 4th string but now you can also “double” alternate between the 5th and the 4th and
the 5th and the 6th.
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