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Here's a nifty slide trick


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Posted

So here's what you do, take your slide and place it over any fret where a natural harmonic resides (like the 12th, 7th, 5th or 4th fret) then pick the note behind the slide. This usually sounds better with a good deal of amplification, so an electric or possibly an acoustic-electric is ideal. Add some delay or reverb or whatever and things start to sound really cool, but it sounds great by itself. Also try experimenting with this technique in other places on the fretboard too or try hitting the note behind the slide and sliding up (or down) to a target pitch. Very sweet sounding.

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Posted

What's supposed to happen? Maybe I didn't get the "lots of amplification" bit :)

 

Anyway, here's a nice trick that works without any amplification too. Play the natural harmonic at the 12th fret (preferably on your high E-string, it's easier but it works on the other strings too), get the slide behind the nut, glide in over the nut and onto the string. You now have a moveable harmonic! Slide it up to any pitch you like.

 

Great trick to end a song! Learnt it from that Bob Brozman video.

 

You can get a moveable harmonic by playing a false harmonic on the note that your slide is at. This is harder but it works too, with a bit of practice. The good thing is that then you can do it in any ket and it'll al sound good (you know how an open E sort of sounds bad in Eb).

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If done right you get a harp sounding thing going on when you play behind the slide. It also goes higher in pitch as you slide away from the pu's when doing that.

 

Another trick for slide is to slide up to a fret that has natural harmonics and while holding it with slight vibrato over that fret let it sort of lift off and get that BUZZING harmonic thing going. This buzz is a combination of the slide on the string, and the harmonic caused by touching the string and lifting off of it at the same time.

  • 2 weeks later...
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Posted

Mybe this is the same thing.... Only different!

 

McKinley Morganfield, (Muddy Waters), often used what I have been calling -- for lack of more descriptive terminology -- 'slide-hammer'. Just like it sounds, you hammer-on/pull-off with your slide. Works REAL good on B & E strings at 3rd & 5th frets.

 

George Thorogood is quite adept at this too.

 

BUT!

 

There's this guy who has played with John Hiatt (in 'The Goners') named Sonny Landreth, and he's taken this to the nth degree. Rather than limiting himself to using this technique where it lends itself to the open string's note, he frets the note with his index finger, behind the note(s) he's hammering with the slide. Thus proving it can be done virtually anywhere on the neck.

 

EG: Fret at 12, slide-hammer at 15.

 

Wickedly good stuff here folks! He is definitely an unsung hero in my book.

 

 

------

 

 

I've been seing mention of past-masters in several slide related posts, with Bob Brosnan being the modern-master most referred-to. He's quite the disciple of the Rob't Johnson ilk. But I wanted to include Sonny Landreth here as a guy who plays really really good electric slide.

 

Some other modern-masters I have not seen mentioned yet are:

(no particular order)

 

Ry Cooder -- Speaks for himself. If you can figure out what he's doing, you're a better man than I.

 

(The regrettably deceased) Rory Gallagher -- Just crazy/wild stuff! Played on an impossibly beat-to-{censored} Strat and an impossibly small tweed amp.

 

(The ALSO regrettably deceased) Duane Allman -- Get a copy of the Fillmore East album (or any of the other early ones) and prepare to be boggled.

 

And the kid who's name I don't know, but is playing Duane's parts with the Allman Bros Band -- I expect I won't be able to NOT know his name soon. He's THAT good!

 

IMO: These guys are all in the same class. The class that has learned from the past-masters, then (to use terminoligy popular amongst athletes and ad writers) "stepped-up, taken it to the next level, and made a lot of big plays"!

 

 

g

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Posted

The kid who is playing Duane's parts in the Allman Brothers as of late is Derek Trucks. I have seen him in small places with his own band probably a dozen times. Simply awesome! He plays in Open E almost all of the time.

He can be heard on The Derek Trucks Band albums (3 of them)

Frogwings and various recordings with Gov't Mule. Actually on Susan Tedeschi's latest album as well......they are married and have a son. Wonder if he will be a musician.

 

Other Slide players I feel are worth mentioning and checking out if you haven't already.

Warren Haynes - Gov't Mule and he also worked with the Allman's in the early 90s and occassionally travels with them now too.

 

Kirby Kelly - caught this guy at the National Guitar Workshop last year. Does a killer one man acoustic slide stomp the foot and sing thing. A real raw Delta blues feel. He was playing ridiculous slide on a 12 string acoustic.

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Posted

Close, but actually Derek is nephew of Butch.

 

They play together on the Frogwings - Croakin at Toad's CD. Obviously when Derek is with Allman Bros. too.

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Posted

 

Originally posted by peckhart

Close, but actually Derek is nephew of Butch.


 

 

Well, they ARE from the South, so..... {fill in the blanks}

 

Anyway, I'd stack him against both KWS and Little Johnny Lang any day of they week for the 'Prodigal Son Award.

 

 

g

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Posted

Personally I like Derek's playing much more than KWS and Johnny Lang.

To me KWS is just too much of an SRV rip off. He is good at it, but the lack of originality in his playing and tone keeps me from really getting into him

Lang.....Don't know what it is, but every tune I have heard from him just sounds too cheesy.

 

Derek is a lot more versatile and has defined his own sound through his playing and tone. He just stands out to me as someone who will continually have something to offer the music world. He mixes blues, jazz, rock, funk and more recently other worldly musical influences into his playing. Very cool stuff!

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