Some websites for online slide guitar playing tips:
www.learningguitarnow.com
(1) Use the heel of your right hand to help deaden strings now and then as you play -- it helps build up the percussive effect that sounds so good with slide. You'll be able to chop out chords and such with authority and power. Work this with dampening the strings with the fingers behind the slide.
(2) This next one may seem a bit odd, but it'll make sense when you've played a while. If you lean to play in G, let's say, and then switch over to D (or E) you'll discover that all the licks you learned in G can be played in D or E, only move everything one string lower. The relationship between strings is the same. Of course, when you're in D or E you'll have that extra high string to deal with and you'll soon find out it's value as a way to play melody.
(3) You will rarely (ok, almost never) get a "true" note if you just rigidly slide the slide up the neck into position over the fret wire and then STOP. As a matter of fact, even if you do hit the note it'll tend to sound terrible and lifeless. Instead, it is essential to keep a slight trill by moving the hand back and forth gently but quickly from the writst to gave the note a slightly wavering sound and to insure what we might call pleasing intonation. The great B.B. King, for example, developed his unique style and sound by trying to capture with his hand the trill that he had heard done by others with a slide. So, although at first you might think that in B. B. King's case the trill is gone, it's really there, but in another form.
(4) Walk into any musical instrument store and listen to the heavy metal wannabes. You'll make an observation -- the tendancy amongst most guitar players is to overplay. The idea is that you have to fill those silences with something. The answer with slide is that you fill it with emotion, use the silence and breaks to their fullest. Robert Johnson was a master at that technique, as are other fine slide artists. I've played both solo gigs and with a band, and I know that when you sit down, alone, and start to play an acoustic slide guitar it sounds suddenly very bare. The urge to really pound the guitar is strong, the sense that you have to do something to fill the space. Don't. Think about the dynamics. Slam it when you need to, be delicate when you feel it. Pick up a Son House recording and you'll find enough power to light a small town, and the drama and dynamics of the playing with and using silence will become more and more comfortable as you trust yourself and find your voice.
(5) It's been said before but I'll say it again – you have to LISTEN. I've put together a page of some of my favorite players as a starting point. Even if you're desire is to be the next Duane Allman and to play in a full blues band, you have to know the basics. The only way to learn those is to seek out the most stripped down versions of slide guitar you can find so you can hear EVERYthing that's being done. Again, Robert Johnson, Son House, Furry Lewis and others will give you a feel for what's supposed to be going on, what kind of starting point you need to attain world domination. Or, at the very least, to let out a decent sounding slide solo.
(6) When you do listen, don't copy. Think of the various licks and patterns that you'll hear as colors to choose from as you work to say what you want to say. There are plenty of technically perfect slide guitar players who can play the exact notes that Robert Johnson played, but, alas, there's nothing behind the technique.
(7) Nobody can really teach you slide, at least not beyond the basics. You have to go out and find players, listen and pick up their tools and use them in your own way.
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