Slide Technique : 3 Tips published at Music Radar
Jamie Dickson : "When Guitarist magazine was granted a rare interview with slide guitar supremo Ry Cooder recently, we couldn't resist asking for his tips for slide guitarists. Ry's new album 'Election Special' is a masterclass in gritty yet exquisitely phrased slide guitar. But despite being responsible for some of the finest slide work on record, including the legendary Rolling Stones track 'Sister Morphine', Ry denied having any rules of thumb to pass onto other players. He did have this to offer, though ..."
#1: Get the right weight
"All I know about bottleneck is, what you really want to do is get you one, but get the right weight. People use 'em too light and I don't see why they do that. But they do, and you don't get any tone that way."
"Everybody goes too far too soon. They turn up too loud and then they don't have control."
#2: Learn to play a good note
"You [also] have to learn to play a good note. You have to get a nice note that you can control that's in tune. You get your instrument, you sit there and start practising [one note]- and learn how to get a really good note out of the deal. Get you some control."
#3: Turn it down
"Everybody goes too far too soon. They turn up too loud and then they don't have control over the harmonics and then they play and it sounds to me, a lot of times, like the emergency entrance to a veterinary hospital. Like all these poor sick cats crying out…"
Ry Cooder - 'Cold Cold Feeling'
"In American music, slide guitar (also known as bottleneck guitar) is a technique employed primarily by blues guitarists. It involves the use of a smooth cylinder that can fit over a player's finger, which is then moved up and down the neck of the guitar, raising and lowering the pitch of the strings without ever putting the strings in contact with the fretboard.
Slide guitar was fairly common among the solo acoustic guitarists of the 1920s through the mid-'40s. In the late '40s, when blues guitarists in bands found that they had to resort to amplification to be heard in noisy Chicago dance halls, the technique became somewhat less prevalent. A resurgence of slide guitar occurred in the late 1960s, when many young blues-rock guitarists began employing the technique.
In the following list, you'll hear examples of slide guitar that range from 1927 to 2002. As always, in a list of only five songs, it's hard to choose whom to include and whom to leave out. So, as always, we encourage you to use this list as a springboard and a way to suggest more guitarists. If you like what you hear, be sure to seek out the delights of other great slide players, such as Willie McTell, Robert Johnson, Sylvester Weaver, Fred McDowell, Johnny Shines, Son House, Ry Cooder, Bob Brozman, Hound Dog Taylor, Taj Mahal, Lowell George, Keb' Mo', Sonny Landreth and Derek Trucks, to name just a few.
1# Blind Willie Johnson - 'Dark Was the Night (Cold Was the Ground)' from Dark Was the Night
2# Muddy Waters - 'I Can't Be Satisfied' from Anthology: 1947-1972
3# Elmore James - 'Something Inside Me' from Shake Your Money Maker: The Best of the Fire Sessions
4# Duane Allman of The Allman Brothers Band - 'Statesboro Blues' from At Fillmore East [Deluxe Edition]
5# Bonnie Raitt with Roy Rogers - 'Gnawin' on It' from Silver Lining
- Nick Morrison, 'Greasing Strings : Slide Guitar, Past And Present'
"Elmore James is the most important electric slide guitarist of all time. On August 5, 1951, he decided to play in a recording session Dust My Broom, one of the songs from Robert Johnson's repertoire. The owner of the company decided to record it and the blues was changed forever. To the fierceness of his voice he added his aggressive use of the slide with the famous riff that would give him a place in posterity. It was recorded live through a single microphone and there were no more takes or songs. It did not matter, the rural blues had turned into an electric thunderstorm and the direction of popular music had changed forever. If you want to make the parallelism, this is the Johnny B. Goode of the slide guitar. There is a 99.9% chance that if you put a slide on one of your fingers you will play this riff ..."
- Sergio Ariza, Guitars Exchange
"Jackie DeShannon said to me one time 'could you drop me off at a house' and I said 'sure' so I gave her a ride. And she pointed this house out and said 'just here, that's fine' and I asked her whose place it was and she said 'oh, it's Elvis's' - you know, just like that. I asked if I could go in - but she said no."
- Ry Cooder, Stuff
'UFO Has Landed In The Ghetto' - Ry Cooder
"Ry Cooder is one of the best slide guitarists of all time. His unique, inimitable style makes him, arguably one of the four absolute pillars of this style together with Blind Willie Johnson (his biggest inspiration), Elmore James and Duane Allman. His work is linked to grassroots music, be it blues, folk, country, Tex-Mex, or Caribbean, with some important work on his own, but also he is one of the most important session players in history."
- Sergio Ariza, Guitars Exchange
"Duane Allman possessed an instantly recognizable sound on electric slide, earmarked by masterful phrasing and smooth, “singing” vibrato. Great examples of his slide guitar prowess include “Trouble No More” and “Dreams” from the band’s debut release, The Allman Brothers Band; “Don’t Keep Me Wonderin’,” from Idlewild South; “Statesboro Blues” and “Done Somebody Wrong” from At Fillmore East; and “One Way Out” from Eat a Peach. He also lent inspired slide work to the title track and many others on the Derek and the Dominoes album Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs.
Incredibly, Duane had been playing slide guitar for only about a year at the time of the band’s debut release. He recalled, “I heard Ry Cooder playing slide on Taj Mahal’s debut album, and I said, ‘Man, that’s for me.’ ” Brother Gregg Allman concurs. “He just picked it up and started burnin’. He was a natural.”
For slide playing, Duane wore a small glass Coricidin bottle (Coricidin was a cold medication) on his ring finger. He usually played slide in open tunings, most often open E (low to high, E B E G# B E) and occasionally open A (E A E A C# E). He also played slide in standard tuning on songs such as “Dreams” and “Mountain Jam.”
In the early days, Duane would re-tune his gold-top Gibson Les Paul between songs in order to play slide. Later, co-guitarist Dickey Betts gave Duane a two-pickup 1961 Gibson SG/Les Paul Standard that was used solely for slide playing. The design of the SG, with its double-cutaway body, is well suited to slide work, allowing easy access to the upper regions of the fretboard."
- Andy Aledort, 'Slidedog : The Slide Guitar Mastery Of Duane Allman'
"Not only is Ry Cooder the greatest slide guitarist in the history of the world, he's also the funkiest mandolin player."
- Steve Van Zandt, Twitter
'Down In Hollywood' - Ry Cooder & The Moula Banda Rhythm Aces (live at The Catalyst in Santa Cruz, California, 1987 - filmed by Les Blank)
