5 Ways to Improve Your Slide Guitar Technique

Sweetwater Sales Engineer Brian Lemert shares five tips on how to improve your slide-guitar playing.


#Sweetwater #GuitarTips #SlideGuitar

[sweetwater]

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[SparksD]

I buy all my gear at Sweetwater through Brian. He's a very cool guy and super helpful. If you are at the store and ask him to help you find the right guitar, he will not only find it but play something on it that will blow your mind. He doesn't give you a sales pitch, he demonstrates how good the instrument can sound in the right hands within a few masterful riffs. We definitely need more Brian videos!

[ravenartsandgraphics]

An excellent lesson. I'm sick of slide lessons that are basically 10 seconds of mumbling about a technique then 10 minutes of the player trying to show off their "skills"... which is usually quite unimpressive. I've learned more in your 8 minute video than I have in the previous 10 videos that I've watched. Bravo sir!

[bobboitt]

Great advice! I would add Muting strings so they dont ring out uncontrolled. Slide playing is about total control You can mute with heel of hand, fingers of picking hand or even fingers behind the slide. You dont want unwanted strings ringing out. Great Video!

[blues]

Great video Brian. Another tip - use the fingers behind the slide to mute the strings and reduce the overtones. When you touch the string with the slide the length of string behind the slide rings as well. Not as loud as the length of string you're picking, but loud enough to add overtones. Sometimes this creates a cool, gritty sound but most times it's unwanted dissonance. To make it more comfortable to mute behind the slide, make a "bridge" with your fingers that are behind the slide and let your index finger be the mute across the strings. Look at how Brian is holding his fingers behind the slide - that's the "bridge" I'm referencing. Before I was taught that technique, I muted with a free-hanging index finger and it got fatigued really fast. Another benefit is more control over the slide when you use this technique.

[jamesmatthews]

If everyone would just watch more Little House on the Prairie, and make great videos like this, we might actually make something of this planet. Thank you guys. Great stuff!

[geoffwhitemusic]

Finally a slide instructor who has his slide on his pinky

[AndersMcTee]

I’ve always jacked the action up but in all these years I never thought about flattening them out. Great tip

[letsgobrandon]

Great lesson. Thank you! I just got schooled on the slide for sure. Rock on Peeps! 🤘🏼

[kenwood]

Easily the best electric slide guitar instruction video I`ve seen in the last three years. Thank you

[jukeboxkid]

I never thought to play it in open tunings. Such a great way to get those tones! Sweet stuff man! 🤙

[JohnWandTele]

Thank you! That was a great, easy to understand lesson! It really helps someone to learn the basics of slide guitar.

[clemkelly]

Neaver thought about #5 befor.. sweet man

[jimbradley]

Love the tone and tuning...will set my tele up for this setup. Great lesson for every player...

[s.afoxmulder]

this guy knows his stuff ! rock on brian!

[lifelongfan]

You sound really good!…..reminds me of Sonny Landreth.

[ArturBrzozowski]

I was looking for a info how slide with radius is used but I found the best slide lesson I've ever seen instead
Thank you!

[walking_jack]

Thank you for very usefull video!
Sweetwater the best)

[MrSimhacker]

Thanks, that was slammin playing there.

[rjb]

Excellent lesson, clearly explained.

One question: If you were to teach yourself slide, what would be the 3 main (as in "easiest") keys to learn to play in, listed easiest to more difficult.

Well, I actually have another question: Does Bonnie Raitt (did I spell her name correctly?) favor one particular key? Many thanks!