Learn Guitar Slides
The guitar slide is a very popular technique and one that needs to be mastered by anybody who wants to learn guitar.
It should not be confused with slide guitar, which is an entirely different style of playing.
Guitar slides can be played in almost any situation but are most often used in guitar solos.
However there are plenty of popular songs that use acoustic rhythm guitar slides. Listen to the intro of Jeff Buckley’s ‘Last Goodbye’ or Pink Floyd’s ‘Wish you were here’ for some great examples of acoustic chord sliding.
The technique itself is very simple and you will get the hang of it quickly with just a little bit of practice.
The basic concept of sliding is to fret a note, play it and then quickly slide to another note on the same string without re – picking. If the slide is done correctly the second note should sound as clearly as the first.
The number one rule of sliding is to exert the correct amount pressure with your sliding finger. You should only press down enough to keep the note ringing.
Pressing too hard will slow your finger down too much, and the slide will not sound smooth. Pressing too softly will result in the note dying away as soon as you start to slide. Do not worry if you hear funny squeaks when you are sliding. This is common especially on the lower strings of the guitar.
There are Two Main Variations of the Guitar Glide.
In the first method we slide to the note we want to play. So for example if we want to play 7th on the b string as our ‘main’ note we would finger the 5th fret (or any lower fret), pick the string then quickly slide to the 7th Fret.
In the second method we begin on our ‘main’ note and slide away from it either up or down the fretboard.
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