Guide to Slide Guitar Tone and Technique

Playing guitar with a slide is something that's very elusive to most players. The beginning player, and many times even the intermediate player, feels comfortable with letting the frets keep them in tune. However, playing with a slide offers some phrasing and inflection options that can't be acquired in any other means. It pays to be versatile, and so I'll give you a run down of some tips to having great slide guitar technique.

First, the most overlooked thing is the proper string gauge. It is very hard to play slide guitar correctly if your strings are too thin and have too much give. Thicker strings yield better tone, less give, and make it easier to play the slide a bit harsher without causing too much extra noise.

The other thing is, you're gonna want to use a slide that's appropriate to your guitar. In general, glass slides sound very nice for nylon string guitars. Brass sounds great for steel string acoustics. Many people recommend steel slides for electric guitars but I don't agree, they are far too noisy. You're welcome to try, but I like using glass slides for electric guitar. Not much noise, very light, very smooth.

Let's get cracking on technique. So you've got the proper materials, but how do we use them? First, you need to understand that one of the main reasons slide guitar can sound so messy is the beginner doesn't mute anything. So let's go over ways to keep your sound from spiraling out of control. First, place the slide on your pinky. Now, using the index, middle, and ring fingers of your left hand you can mute the strings that come before the slide. This prevents the overtones from being heard. If you didn't mute one side of the string, you would hear noise on both sides. That is, the string before and after the slide. This is especially very obvious on acoustic guitars. For the most part, you don't want to hear overtones so eliminate them by muting them with your index finger.

Practicing scales is a must. Use a tuner, and make sure you stay in tune as you progress. Another beginner's trap is they usually think you need to slide into everything just because you're using a slide. Take the slide off the strings and place them back onto the desired note before playing sometimes. This staccato approach is good, you don't need to slide into everything. In fact, it's better if you don't. You'll make everyone seasick if you do.

This concludes our guide to coaxing great tone and technique out of your slide playing. Good luck!