Slide guitar
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Slide 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. Image:Slide guitar.jpg
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 upermost and the bass strings towards the player, and using a slide called a steel held in the left hand; This is known as steel guitar.
Contents |
Introduction
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 metal tube of approximately the same size (typically one to two inches long and 3/4 inch diameter) may also be used. 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.
In either case the slide is pressed against the strings (lightly, so as not to touch the strings to the fretboard), and parallell to the frets. The pitch of the strings can then be continuously varied by moving the slide up and down the neck. One is not limited to the twelve pitches per octave defined by the frets. Indeed, in pure slide guitar playing the frets serve no purpose, other than as a visual reference. The technique lends itself to stunning glissandi (swoops up or down to a note); also it has a good 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 one can just sit with the guitar flat in one's lap, face up. The horizontal position may also be achieved by placing the guitar on a stool, or, when standing up and suspending the guitar from a strap, by rotating the guitar so that its face is horizontal.
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.
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.
Usually, a slide player will use an open tuning, although standard tuning is sometimes used. In open tunings 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.
Equipment
Bottlenecks
Metal tube type slides have been made out of materials including stainless steel, brass, and chrome. 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. Items used for slides and noted in album notes or instructional books include various types of glass or metal tubing, a long 9/16 inch (14 mm) socket wrench socket, an old glass Coricidin pill bottle, and, in the case of Mississippi Fred McDowell "a beef bone, filed with a file". Each type of slide gives the sound a distinct characteristic in terms of tone, clarity and duration.
Steels
The steel which gives steel guitar its name may be made of many materials, including steel, but most popular is nickel-plated brass.
Other objects
There are many variations on this technique, and many objects and positions have been used; One of the more unusual was Jimi Hendrix famously using his teeth.
Technique
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. This is because the slide is always pressing down all, or at least several of the strings, but not all of those strings are necessarily intended to sound at a given time. In particular, on standard guitar, a fretted note stops more or less automatically, as the note is killed as soon as the fretting finger is lifted. On slide, the note keeps ringing until something is done to stop it. One can touch the string with a fingertip of the picking hand, or one can lift the slide and damp with a fretting-hand finger. The first method is more selective, the second stops all sound. Playing a melody with well-articulated individual notes requires more skill than may at first be apparent.
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.
There is also the "Knife" guitar variation:
- "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.
History
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. Template:Harvard citation
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 considered textbook. 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. 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". Derek Trucks, nephew of Allman Brothers drummer Butch Trucks, is a dedicated artist and accomplished practitioner of the technique.
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.
Samples
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.
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