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Playing Slide On Acoustic

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This lesson is in Open D Tuning.

Tips

  • You can use a metal or glass slide. Metal slides sound great on acoustic because it allows greater sustain.
  • Don’t press down very hard. Just gently allow the slide to come into complete contact with the string. Just enough to sound a clean note.
  • To ‘fret’ a note you’ll want the slide to rest directly above the fret. Normally when we fret with our fingers we fret the note behind the fret, but to sound the proper pitch with the slide you’ll want it directly above the metal of the fret.
  • Good slide guitar is a slide always in motion. Add vibrato or slides to keep the magic going.
  • If you hear a lot of dead strings when you pick, you may not be applying enough pressure on the strings.