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Chapter 10: Express Yourself: Making the Guitar Sing, Cry, and Wail
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sound mechanical. Unlike some other left-hand techniques that must be practiced
and perfected, the slide comes naturally to blues guitarists and needs
little introduction.
It’s almost impossible to play in a blues shuffle or slow 12/8 feel and not slide
into and out of some of the melody notes. If sliding wasn’t already an established
technique, blues players would invent it every time they picked up the
guitar.
Basically, to play a slide, you pick a note and then slide your finger up or
down the string to a second note while maintaining pressure on that finger.
You have your pick among three major types of slides, which I cover in the
following sections.
First things first: The difference between scoops and fall-offs
An ascending slide before a note is sometimes called a scoop and sounds
much the same as when a horn player or vocalist enters a note gradually
from a slightly lower pitch (rather than hitting it dead on). The scoop’s counterpart
is a fall-off, where the finger is dragged downward after a note ends.
To play an ascending, pre-note slide, pick the note from a fret below the principal
note and slide up quick to the destination fret, letting the note ring. For the
descending, fall-off slide, play a note in the normal way (hitting it dead on) and
let it ring for its full value (or nearly so), and then pull your finger down the
fretboard toward the nut for a fret or so and then lift off. Figure 10-4 contains
slides into and out of notes as a way to give a little grease to a melody.
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Figure 10-4:
Slides into
and out of
individual
notes.
T
A
B
5
7 5
7
5
8 5 8 5 5 5
7 5
7
On an ascending slide, the note that starts the slide can be from one or two
frets below, but, because you don’t really hear it, it doesn’t matter. If you
want a longer-sounding slide (because the tempo is slow) or if you want to
slide a long distance for dramatic effect, you can start four or five frets below
the destination note.
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