Beginner’s Guide To Guitar Slides
If you want more color and texture to your playing, then investing into a guitar slide is a great option! A guitar slide will help you get that down home gritty dirty sound evoking country and blues all at once. Slides will enable you to get whines and screams. You are not bound by the rigid rules of fretting 12 pitches an octave.
Sliding simply refers to pressing a cylinder tool across the strings from one fret to the other creating a flowing continuity with the notes. Using a guitar slide allows the player to change the pitch by sliding up and down the neck.
The first slides were found and homemade where basically anything smooth can be used upon the guitar strings. Slide guitar was first officially reported when famed composer W.C. handy saw a worn down musician playing a knife neck over some strings at a train station
Some players instead of using an actual guitar slide choose to use a metal rod, stones, and even shot glasses! For all conveniences, the bottle neck guitar slide is the most versatile. A slide is not going to fly out of your hands at a crucial moment! Don’t be difficult unless you have real good reason!
Sliding Around The Basics
The slide is slipped onto the hand that is not strumming (for most the left hand). Often the fret fingers are not pressing down the strings. The guitar slide is often worn on the third or fourth finger. Using the guitar slide on the fourth finger will give you the option to fret strings easier if needed.
The guitar slide conventionally is pressed lightly upon the guitar strings without pinning those strings to the frets. Often a person who plays guitar slide a lot will put the guitar into an open tuning for more versatility, while casual slide players will hover around standard tuning. Using a guitar slide is limited by the fact that it only allows one chord shape.
Guitar Slide Construction
The typical length of a slide can vary from one to two inches with ¾ in diameter. Diameter will solely rely on the player’s specifications.
Slides are made from different materials that also produce variations in sound. The type of slide should depend on the sound you desire while also keeping in mind durability. Guitar slide construction ranges from glass, metal types, ceramic and even plastic.
Metal guitar slide types are stainless steel, brass and even chrome. These metal slides produce a sharper, immediate sound while the specific metal will produce variations of sound. Metal slides are also great for durability as one could think of this type as a life investment (unless you misplace it which is very easy to do). Metal guitar slides have the disadvantage of a heavier weight.
Glass sides are often more fragile as they’ll tend to break, which can even cut your fingers! Glass guitar slides produce a more mellow sound.
Ceramic guitar slides are glazed on the outside yet porous on the inside. These have the advantage of being lighter then metal slides while being more durable then glass.
Guitar Slide Buying Time
Remember to try the slide on before buying. You don’t want to get home and realize it absolutely does not fit!
A guitar slide should not easily roll around your finger. When playing there’s a good chance you may sweat a little bit and you don’t want an ill fitting slide slip away. One also does not want to get a slide which takes hard effort to get on your finger. A balanced fit is the key to successful guitar slide technique.
Before purchasing, explore your options. Ask the opinion of a veteran player what he or she feels are the best guitar slides available. If you check out the internet as well as your local music store before deciding, then you wont’ go wrong!
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