A guitar slide can completely transform your guitar playing and open up new licks and ideas. Playing guitar with a slide is almost like playing a completely new instrument.
By the end of this lesson, you will feel confident in playing slide guitar and will know the important techniques to get a good slide guitar sound.
Once you feel confident with the basic slide guitar exercises in this lesson, check out this list of Easy Slide Guitar Songs. Guitar TAB is included for each song along with tips and advice.
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If you don’t have a guitar slide, check out my Ultimate Guide to Guitar Slides to find a guitar slide right for you. The guide includes a sizing chart to help you find the right size guitar slide for your fingers.
You can put a guitar slide on any finger, but most guitarists choose between the middle finger, ring finger, or pinky. The best finger depends on your style of playing.
You will see different guitarists place a guitar slide on different fingers, so there is no rule on which finger you should use.
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The right finger to place the slide on depends on what you will be playing.Let’s see how placing a guitar slide on different fingers changes the way you play guitar.
Most guitarists don’t like to place the slide on the index finger because it makes it impossible to properly mute the strings behind the slide.
As you can see in the above photo, there is no way for me to make sure the strings stay muted behind the slide. As you will learn later, muting the strings is crucial to getting a good slide sound.
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Many guitarists feel placing a guitar slide on your middle finger gives you the best access to playing normal guitar parts at the same time.
Take a look at the below photo and think about what you are able to play with the other three fingers when not playing slide licks:
Having the first and third fingers (index and ring fingers) free means you can play almost any normal riffs and licks while keeping the slide on your middle finger.
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Playing basic licks and scale runs is also fairly easy as you have your first, third, and fourth fingers ready to go.
If you will be playing a combination of slide licks and normal guitar riffs or licks, then placing the guitar slide on your middle finger is the best option.
The advantage of putting the guitar slide on your ring finger is that it gives you great control over the slide. Many guitarists feel most comfortable playing slide guitar when it is on the ring finger.
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You are also better able to mute the strings behind the slide as you now have two fingers to use to keep the strings quiet.
The downside of placing the slide on your ring finger is that it limits what you are able to play when playing normal guitar parts.
Guitarists use the ring finger for a lot of riffs and licks, so placing a guitar slide on that finger makes it harder to play normal guitar parts.
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It is still possible to play a lot of normal parts with some modifications. The below photo shows how you would play a power chord with a guitar slide on your third finger:
Some riffs and licks will still be possible, but it won’t be as comfortable as having the guitar slide on the second finger.
If you plan on playing mostly slide guitar licks without normal riffs and licks mixed together, then placing a guitar slide on your ring finger is likely to be the best choice.
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Some guitarists prefer to place a guitar slide on their pinky because it also allows them to play normal chords, riffs, and licks with ease.
As your pinky is a smaller finger, you may also find that more guitar slides fit on that finger. I have a chrome guitar slide that fits nicely on my fourth finger but doesn’t fit on any other finger.
This is great for guitarists who want to strum some chords and add in a few slide licks. You can do all of it while keeping the guitar slide on your pinky.
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You can see in the above photo that I’m easily able to play an open chord while the slide remains on my pinky. If it was on any other finger, it would be almost impossible to play most open chords.
If you plan on mostly playing normal guitar parts with a few slide licks added in, placing the slide on your pinky may be a good option.
How you hold a guitar slide against your guitar strings is crucial to get right. If you don’t hold a guitar slide correctly, you will experience problems such as buzzing or out-of-tune notes.
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If you apply too much pressure on the strings with the guitar slide, the string will likely push down into a fret as shown below:
Pressing down too hard makes the string ‘fret-out’ and instead of hearing a nice smooth slide as you move the slide up and down the fretboard, you end up with a jumpy mess as the strings push against the frets.
If you don’t apply enough pressure, you will end up with buzzing. Buzzing happens when the slide isn’t pushing down enough on the strings. When the string vibrates, it hits against the slide.
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Key lesson:if you hear buzzing, apply more pressure onto the strings. If you hear the pitch jump as you slide up or down, apply less pressure.
The position of the guitar slide on the string changes the pitch. To play a note in tune, you need to perfectly position the guitar slide.
The straight guitar slide on the left photo will play in tune across all six strings. The slide on the right will be in tune on the low-E string, but the other strings will be out-of-tune with the high-E string horribly sharp.
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Line your guitar slide up to the fret and you will find it much easier to keep the notes in tune. As you slide up or down the fretboard, make sure you continue to keep the slide parallel to the frets. If you don’t pay attention, your hand is likely to change the angle of the slide the further up or down you move.
If your guitar slide is tilted on an angle, you will find it hard to play in-tune. Chords will sound wrong and you will need to constantly readjust your slide position depending on what strings you are playing.
Once you have properly angled your guitar slide parallel to the frets, you can think about the position of the slide up and down the string.
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Placing the guitar slide directly above a fret will make sure the note is in-tune. If the guitar slide is to the right or left of the fret, it will sound out-of-tune.
The only time when you will want to move away from this position is when you’re sliding to different frets, or you’re playing vibrato.
When playing vibrato, you will slide left-and-right, but you want to stay close to the fret position to stay in-tune. We will look at some vibrato exercises and licks later.
What Are Guitar Slides Used For?
The guitar slide is directly above the fret and you can see it is parallel to the frets. If you keep your guitar slide lined up parallel to the frets and keep it directly above the fret, you will hear in-tune notes.
When you press a guitar slide against the strings, you will probably hear some notes ring out as soon as the slide touches the strings.
While we want the slide to cause notes to ring out below the slide (highlighted in green), we don’t want anything vibrating above the slide (highlighted in red).
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If the strings vibrate above the slide while you’re playing, you will hear weird overtones and notes sounding like they’re sliding the wrong way.
You can see in the above photos that there are different ways to mute the strings depending on which finger you have the slide on.
You will know if you are properly muting the strings when you pick a note. If you are properly muting the strings, the note will ring out crystal clear.
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If you aren’t properly muting the strings, you may also hear a second note ring out in the background. This can quickly become a problem when playing complicated slide licks, so get used to muting the strings now.
Now that you know how to correctly hold a guitar slide against the strings, let’s go through some basic guitar slide exercises.
This exercise will help you feel confident at sliding up to the correct pitch. You will get used to stopping the slide at the exact position where the note is in tune.
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Play this exercise slowly and make sure the slide continues to stay parallel to the frets as you slide up. You can slow down as you arrive at the 12th fret and make sure you stop directly above the fret.
Check that you did land on the correct pitch by playing the 12th fret with your finger. Check the pitch you hear against what you played with the side. If
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