Slide guitar

For the technique, see Slide (guitar technique).

Example of a bottleneck, with fingerpicks and resonator guitar.

Slide guitar or bottleneck guitar is a particular method or technique for playing the guitar. The term slide refers to the motion of the slide against the strings, while bottleneck refers to the original material of choice for such slides: the necks of glass bottles. 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. This slide can then be moved along the string without lifting, creating continuous transitions in pitch.

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 uppermost and the bass strings toward the player, and using a slide called a steel held in the left hand; this is known as lap steel guitar.

Equipment

Slides may be used on any guitar, but slides generally and steels in particular are often used on instruments specifically made to be played in this manner. These include:

• All steel guitars.
• Many (perhaps most) resonator guitars, particularly Dobros and their descendants.
• Lap slide guitars, particularly Weissenborns and their descendants.
• Conventional electric guitar.

Resonator guitar played with a horizontal slide.

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.

Approximately in 1975, glass guitar slides started appearing in Music shops across America. Clear Glass Manufacturing Company and Clayton Products supplied the majority of the market. Both companies grew, though eventually Clear Glass was sold to Dunlop Manufacturing. Borosilicate glass (Pyrex) was developed by Corning Glass Works. The glass was easier to shape, and able to withstand higher temperatures. Modern bottleneck slides are still manufactured by companies such as Dunlop Mfg., Steve Clayton, Inc., Mr. B's Bottleneck Guitar Slides, Blue Moon Bottlenecks and Diamond Bottlenecks.

A slide can be made with any type of smooth hard material that allows tones to resonate. The slide's weight (in terms of density and wall thickness) cause differences in sustain, timbre, and loudness, while the surface structure and material affect tonal clarity and timbre. Heavier bottlenecks usually can produce longer, warmer and louder tones, but they also require more mastery to play with.

With the sliding technique originating from the cut off neck of a glass bottle, bottlenecks usually still have the same tubular shape and a length of one to three inches, and glass still remains a popular material. Borosilicate glass is often found in cheaper, entry-level slides. It is easier to shape as it can withstand higher temperatures. Soda-lime glass is heavier which helps produce a better sound, while lead glass improves tonal quality. Glass coloring alters the timbre. The addition of iron oxide turns glass green and hardens it, causing a louder and sharper tone with a warmer sustain, while cobalt oxide colors it blue and produces the sharpest, loudest tones. The structural properties of colored glass promote withstanding mechanical shock, which allows for automated manufacturing.

In 1989, Terrie Lambert invented the Moonshine (ceramic) slide that produces a timbre in between that of brass and glass, and the Mudslide (porcelain) slide, which just as brass slides is quite heavy, producing richer, fuller and resonating tones with more harmonics. As a result, they are often used in blues music. The Moonshine and Mudslide slides are glazed on the outside but porous on the inside so that finger moisture is absorbed, preventing slippage. Metals such as stainless steel, chrome and aluminium cause a bright penetrating sound and are mostly used with electric guitars, among others for rock music. Less frequently used types of materials include stag antler, buffalo horn and bone, as the time and effort needed to create one is often too much when conventional slides are available.

Besides differences in material, many variations in bottlenecks exist. Square, beveled or rounded edges may allow a player to apply different techniques, while tapered rather than straight sides may help improve control and cause less damping. Pedal steel players may prefer using tonebars, which have one capped end. One recent development is the rise of hybrid slides. Glass Moonshine slides are made of glass, but have a porous ceramic interior that helps prevent slipping; other slides have been designed to reduce the weight of brass or porcelain slides by using a lightweight interior, while still others are made of glass on the front and of metal on the back to allow easy switching.

Although the use of hollow bottlenecks is preferred by many players because only one finger is required to hold it, leaving the other fingers free for normal fretting, sliding can be done in many ways. One alternative is to use a solid metal bar or rod, about the same size as a bottleneck slide, 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. Shotglasses, pipes, and stones have also been used to good effect, as have rings, spoons and even cigarette lighters. Even a knife can reportedly be used:

"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.

Technique

A bottleneck slide on an acoustic guitar

The slide is pressed against the strings—lightly, so as not to touch the strings to the fretboard, and parallel to the frets. The pitch of the strings can then be continuously varied by moving the slide up and down the neck. The usual limitation in fretted guitar playing of twelve pitches per octave does not apply. Indeed, in pure slide guitar playing the frets serve no purpose, other than as a visual reference. The technique lends itself to glissandi (swoops up or down to a note); in addition it has the 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 the guitar may sit flat in one's lap or on a stool, face up, or held in this position by a strap, and played standing up. 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.

Usually, a slide player will use open tuning, although standard tuning is sometimes used. In open tuning 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 19th 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.

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 it 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.

Technical challenges

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 does. Playing a melody with well articulated individual notes requires more skill than may at first be apparent; it is easy to get a howling mass of notes on slide guitar until muting is mastered. This is because the movement of the slide, which is usually pressing down more than one string, causes those strings to sound, but not all of those strings are necessarily intended to sound at a given time. In contrast to fretting, in which the note decays quickly after the fretting finger is lifted, unwanted notes while using a slide must be actively muted. One can touch the string with a fingertip of the picking hand, or lift the slide and damp with a fretting-hand finger. The first method is more selective, the second stops all sound.

• 
  Correct position of the bottleneck. There is no contact between the strings and the fret, thus avoiding a metallic buzz sound. Muting the strings with the fingers between the bottleneck and the guitar neck helps to produce a clean sound.
• 
  Wrong position of the bottleneck. Applying too much pressure will produce a contact between the strings, the fret and the bottleneck. This will produce an unwanted buzz sound.

Double slide guitar system

Brian Cober's double slide technique in action

A relatively new technique, expanding the musical range and sonic capabilities of slide guitar, is the system of double slide guitar. It was invented by Brian Cober, a Canadian blues musician. In double slide, the first slide is placed on the middle finger (usually a modified steel bar that can be put on the finger), and a modified thumb slide is put on the thumb that is able to cover two strings. Double slide is meant to be played on a six-string lap guitar (or a regular six-string guitar modified with the strings raised for high action like a lap guitar), usually tuned to open E tuning. The double slide guitar system enables the player to play chords not heard in open tunings, such as minor chords, dominant seventh chords, etc. and provides a greater use of technique in soloing. Will Ray of the Hellecasters uses a similar technique, wearing "stealth" pinky-type slides on either hand.

History

The technique of using a slide on a string has been traced to one-stringed African instruments similar to a "diddley bow". The tuning and bend filled playing style resembles the blues-harp.

The technique was made popular by African American blues artists. The first musician to be recorded using the style was Sylvester Weaver who recorded two solo pieces "Guitar Blues" and "Guitar Rag" in 1923. Some of the blues artists who most prominently used the slide include gospel singer Blind Willie Johnson, Blind Willie McTell, Mississippi Fred McDowell, Son House, Robert Johnson as well as Casey Bill Weldon of the Memphis Jug Band. The sound has since become commonplace in country and Hawaiian music. It is also used in rock, by bands such as Canned Heat, The Allman Brothers Band, Led Zeppelin, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Little Feat, Eagles, and ZZ Top. The Rolling Stones featured a slide guitar as early as their 1963 recording of the John Lennon/Paul McCartney song "I Wanna Be Your Man". Guitarist Brian Jones played slide in a very blues-oriented style. His successor, Mick Taylor also displayed his own slide guitar skills while with the band, using a bottleneck on studio recordings and during live performances. Many early Pink Floyd songs such as "See Emily Play" (played with a zippo lighter for a slide), feature Syd Barret's slide guitar performances, reflecting the bands original Chicago urban blues repertoire from musicians such as Bo Diddley and Slim Harpo. Canned Heat's Alan Wilson also helped bring slide guitar to the rock music industry in the late 1960s. George Harrison experimented with slide guitar during the latter half of The Beatles' career, using it on a demo version of "Strawberry Fields Forever". He later used slide extensively during his solo career on songs such as "My Sweet Lord" and Traveling Wilburys' "Handle With Care", as well as on The Beatles' reunion single "Free as a Bird".

Arguably the first influential classic electric blues slide guitarist is Elmore James, whose riff in the song "Dust My Broom" is copied from Robert Johnson and is held in particularly high regard. Blues legend Muddy Waters was also very influential, particularly in developing the electric Chicago blues slide guitar from the acoustic Mississippi Delta slide guitar. Texas blues musician Johnny Winter developed his distinctive style through years of touring with Waters. Slide player Roy Rogers honed his slide skills by touring with blues artist John Lee Hooker. John Lee's cousin Earl Hooker may have been the first to use wah-wah and slide together.

Like Alan Wilson, Duane Allman played a key role in bringing slide guitar into rock music, through his work with The Allman Brothers Band. Duane Allman shows his skill in playing slide guitar in the 1971 live album At Fillmore East and with Derek and the Dominos' Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs album. Beginning in the late 1960s, Allman used an empty glass Coricidin medicine bottle, which he wore over his ring finger, as a slide; this was later picked up by other slide guitarists such as Bonnie Raitt, Rory Gallagher, Gary Rossington of Lynyrd Skynyrd, and Joe Walsh, who used his middle finger and later in the mid 80s, switched to a brass slide. Such bottles eventually went out of production in the early 1980s, although replicas have been produced since 1985. including the copy of Allman's slide used by another Allman Brothers member, Derek Trucks, made of Dunlop Pyrex, giving the same sound as the glass slide, without the danger of shattering.

Duane extended the expressive range of the slide guitar by incorporating the harmonica effects of Sonny Boy Williamson II, most clearly in the Allman Brothers' cover version of Sonny Boy's One Way Out, heard on their album Eat a Peach. He made his slide playing sound like an alto saxophone in the band's live version of "You Don't Love Me" on their 1989 anthology Dreams. (During his solo he included a portion of the song "Soul Serenade" as a tribute to his close friend, the then-recently-murdered alto player King Curtis.)

Robert Johnson, Blind Willie Johnson, Lowell George, Muddy Waters, Elmore James, Mick Taylor, Duane Allman, Billy Gibbons, Micky Moody, Ry Cooder, Bob Brozman, and Sonny Sharrock are all guitarists who have played a key role in the advancement of the slide guitar's playing style.

Modern examples of slide guitar players who have become prominent slide guitarists in modern rock music include Derek Trucks and Jack White.

Most recently lap style slide has been re-born via artists like Ben Harper and Xavier Rudd - both players of weissenborn's, the former using original early 1900s instruments long with modern day variations such as his own co-designed Asher signature model, the latter using modern reproductions of weissenborn.

Effects

In recent years, some guitarists have developed the bottleneck technique further by introducing other guitar effects.

Bass

John Paul Jones playing slide on his bass guitar

A few musicians have used slides with bass guitar—slide bass. Mark Sandman was probably the best known proponent (with Morphine, he performed primarily on a custom two-string slide bass guitar). Bill Laswell, Robert Weaver, Kevin Rutmanis, Marc Sloan and Stefan Lessard have also played slide bass. John Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin has performed on a custom-made bass lap steel. Timo Shanko of G. Love & Special Sauce, incorporates slide playing on electric bass. Jazz bassist Victor Wooten occasionally uses a slide for soloing during his live performances. Similarly to John Paul Jones, Mark Robbins, bass player and song writer from Joan, plays a number of songs in the standing lap slide style.

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's famous cover of the riff from Robert Johnson's "Dust My Broom", a textbook example of slide guitar in electric blues. Finally, a part of Duane Allman's solo from Derek and the Dominos's "Layla" is included, to give an impression of highly acclaimed slide work in rock music.

See also

• Blues guitar playing
• Classical guitar
• Electric guitar
• Guitarist
• Lap steel guitar
• List of slide guitarists
• Lute
• Pedal steel guitar

References

• van der Merwe, Peter (1989), Origins of the Popular Style: The Antecedents of Twentieth-Century Popular Music, Oxford: Clarendon Press, pp. 66–67, ISBN 0-19-316121-4

External links

• Slide Guitar for Beginners
• Open-G tuning, Open-E tuning and Slide guitar An overview of Open-G and Open-E slide