[happyfat]

i am always amazed by the amount of people who cannot play slide without changing their guitar settings and tunings. I have tried to show anyone who will listen that you can still play effective sllide without raising your strings more than you normally would, altho' i use heavier strings (11-52) i still lower the strings as much as i can, i have had quite a few amazed guitarists who pick up my guitars and play them and say that the action makes the guitar feel like there are 10s on the guitar, and since when i started learning slide (in 1971) i did not know that the guitar had to be retuned, i find that standard tuning can be quite satisfying using major triads and minor triads for chording and going from regular lead to slide quite quickly with the standard tuning-thanx for your patience and i would like to hear from slide guitarists on any subject-happy

[Kirk Lorange]

Hey happy.

I'm with you. I tried open tunings but reverted to standard tuning when I couldn't NOT sound like everyone else. I also love dropped D, and that's the tuning I used exclusively now... just the bass string down to D.

I agree: you can get any flavor you want in standard ... there's always some little snippet that fits, if not a full chord.

Glad to see you here, let's try and get this forum pumping!

Kirk

[Terje]

I like sliding in standard. Mostly cause I'm a lazy bastard who can't be boithered with too many tunings and going back and forth between them. Guitar is a rhythm instrument for me and I use it to accompany my voice. I need to find thje right key to sing in and this is so much easier in standard tuning I think.

And yes, you can slide, play Freddie Green chords and have fun in any key in standard. That's pretty cool too. But I love the sound of open tunings, especially open D.

[Slacker]

I'd love to be able to slide in std, but I get all these dissonnant notes sounding when I do. But I'm a beginner, and I haven't yet mastered the proper muting techniques. I use my strat for sliding (equipped with 9-42's). Now you are all prolly gaping "how can you slide with those puny strings?!?", but I'm primarily a picker who loves bending more than life itself. Plus I only have one axe I really use. I'm working on getting a resonator, though, eventually, sometime, when I have the ca$h...

Anyway, this is the reason I'd like to learn to slide in std--because of the insufficient axe factor, and because retuning is really a pain, even though alternate tunings sound awesome. I can play the slide solo to Zepp's "Tangerine", and Jeff Beck's "Beck's Bolero", which are in std tuning, but I can't really do much else.

[pbradt]

There's no "right" way or "wrong" way, just your way. yours is different than mine. I don't like sliding in standard tuning, I can't do a lot of the things I want to do when sliding in standard tuning.

If Standard tuning floats your boat, that's great, but I see no reason to try to ridicule others who see and play things different than you do.

If everyone did things the same, it'd get boring quickly, no?

I had the money to buy a guitar devoted to slide, so I bought one. Had it set up for slide and it's perfect to the task I set for myself. I don't mind swapping guitars, I have a system worked out and it gives me what I want.

[Ricochet]

I periodically try sliding in standard, and pretty soon I get frustrated and leave it alone because I really don't know how to PLAY in standard tuning. Open tunings are very intuitive to me, and modal tunings like standard aren't. It just takes massive amounts of practice and memorization.

The dissonant string problem, though, is a lot easier to cope with if you're picking with bare fingers. The unused fingers can readily mute the strings that aren't being played.

And one little trick is that strings 2-4 of standard are the same as Open G, which I am fairly familiar with. You can rest your picking thumb between the 5th and 6th strings, rest your pinky against the first string, and play the remaining strings with the other fingers to get partial Open G. It's easily possible to play all of the main riffs of "Freebird," for example, in this way so it's identical in standard or Open G.

[manwithaplan]

Standard seems pretty dark sounding wiht a slide, its not bad though.

[allthumbs]

I like the dark sound playing in standard. In fact I walked away from slide for years because I couln't stand the fingernails on blackboard trebbly quealing.Fat strings and standard tuning brought me back. Its' just a matter of taste I guess.
allthumbs

[OaklandA]

am working with Kirk's DVD's to help. It's just so much easier in open G or E. Standard requires a much more precise right hand technique.
But I'll concede that open tunings have a "sameness" about them. The possibilities with standard seem wider.

[Skibumdog]

So how do you practice?????

Try to do clean pentatonic scales with the slide?????

[allthumbs]

hi again skibumdog. I don't personaly practice scales or box patterns. I prefer to play music so I play over simple chord progressions and use chord fragments and I guess you could call them scale fragments,though they are just the right notes to fit around the chord tones, if you needed to name it. Kirk has some free dropped D lessons on his site Plane Talk you might find helpful. His plane talk method really helps me find my way around the neck so I can get to notes I want. Don't mean to sound like an add, it just worked really well for me. I am sure other players here have practice methods that work equaly for them.
allthumbs

[Bluesman_s]

Hi Bluesman here
I have just started to learn bottleneck after a year of playing electric guitar
Can anyone give me a run down of the different kinds of slides and there pro's and con's?
By the way anyone else from a land down under?

[allthumbs]

hi bluesman. A dropped D slide is the best choice if thats the tuning you have chosen. Heavy glass or heavy brass would be my choice. I custom ordered a leaded glass dropped D slide that works very well for accustic and electric. Glass has a smooth. bright sound. I am waiting for Kirk to go back to Oz so he can start making his brass dropped D slides again. Brass has a darker sound and would fit better with the bluesguys you want to play. It should be happening in May. The heavier the slide, the more sustain you have and the easier it is to keep the slide on the strings. Read some of the posts here about slides for other options.
I think Diamond glass slides for dropped D go into mass production in May also. There is a link to their site here somewhere. Till then you could allways take a full length brass slide and cut it down to dropped D size. By the way, Kirk is working on a dropped D slide "how to" paid lessons course that will show you all aspects of playing in dropped D.
allthumbs

[Bluesman_s]

Hey guys
i got me a dunlop heavy glass slide to work with for now.
I have just started working on playing finger style, at the moment i am working with my thumb, index and middle finger and seem to be going fine. having a little trouble stoping notes when i want then to stop, im just not used to the sustain, but i should get that down in a few days or so.
so far im just playing regular slide in standard, cause im having trouble switching between slide and normal.
I am playing in rock slide position, hand straight tumb in middle of neck with my thumb lined up with middle finger "choking the neck". wheras my lead riffing position is more of a gripping, hand bent around neck thumb just poking out over the neck, which makes bends easier with thicker strings and higher action.
tell me if im doing this wrong or if i just need practice
oh and i put 10-46 strings on my strat copy sounds and feels better that before but i still need to raise the action a bit, cause the fretboard is rounded slightly.

[allthumbs]

if you use heavier strings the action will be higher without having to do anything else to your guitar. I find I can go as high as 13s before bends get away from me. I don't think there is a right or wrong way for slide hand position. If it works and isn't hurting your hand then it's right for you. When you get a dropped D slide, your slide hand positioning will return closer to your normal non slide hand position due to its' shorter length and not having to damp behind the slide as thoroughly. Just my opinion.
allthumbs