https://guitarnoise.forum/slide-and-alternate-tunings/slide-styles/ Guitar Noise Discussion Board en-US Thu, 04 Jun 2026 04:02:41 +0000 wpForo 60 https://guitarnoise.forum/slide-and-alternate-tunings/slide-styles/paged/2/#post-219298 Thu, 04 Jan 2007 06:53:46 +0000
After getting into the book, you'll see. All of a sudden, it all makes sense.


Then it's practice, practice, practice.

I rate this book an A, but I'm not sure if I know any better.

It straightened me out.]]> Slide and Alternate tunings tinsmith https://guitarnoise.forum/slide-and-alternate-tunings/slide-styles/paged/2/#post-219298 https://guitarnoise.forum/slide-and-alternate-tunings/slide-styles/paged/2/#post-219278 Thu, 04 Jan 2007 04:03:48 +0000
Some of those steel tunings get complex! :lol:]]> Slide and Alternate tunings Ricochet https://guitarnoise.forum/slide-and-alternate-tunings/slide-styles/paged/2/#post-219278 https://guitarnoise.forum/slide-and-alternate-tunings/slide-styles/paged/2/#post-219276 Thu, 04 Jan 2007 03:59:51 +0000 Slide and Alternate tunings Witchdoctor https://guitarnoise.forum/slide-and-alternate-tunings/slide-styles/paged/2/#post-219276 https://guitarnoise.forum/slide-and-alternate-tunings/slide-styles/paged/2/#post-219271 Thu, 04 Jan 2007 03:51:50 +0000
I don't have any problem arguing with "the experts" at all. What works best depends on what you want to do. What you said about standard pitches and tuning together so you can play together on different instruments is right, of course, but doesn't have much to do with why we use the tunings (i.e., tuning patterns, not absolute pitches) we do on guitar. Tunings do have a lot to do with what chords and riffs are convenient to finger, or slide.

The reason "standard" tuning was settled on as a popular tuning is that it is quite versatile for playing in different keys. Once you learn the many arcane chord shapes, a wide variety of chords can be accessed without shifting hand position much. The learning curve is long and steep, though.

When you play in different tunings, some things get easier, some get harder. Open tunings are nice in having a full chord available on the open strings or by barring any fret. There are a bunch of nice standard licks in them that involve relatively simple patterns. A lot of them can be duplicated in standard, but aren't as simple. It's easy to modify open tuning chords; for instance if you're sliding and you want a minor chord, when your slide is over any fret from the second on up, you just fret the string tuned to the major third one fret behind the slide and you've got a minor chord. If you really want them, all the chords from standard tuning are there in other tunings, but some will have to be voiced differently for practical fingerings. But you don't need all that to play basic country blues, which is what I mainly do. That music was developed by simple country folk, and doesn't require a conservatory education in music to be able to play it. It sounds best when played in original form, IMO.

Open tunings are easier to slide in because you can't really hit a disharmonious note when the slide's barring a full chord. In standard it's easy to hit some really bad sounding combinations, and good skills in string muting are a must. It's more difficult to play solo with a slide melody accompanied by a chordal bass line in standard. Kirk Lorange can do it right impressively, but he's been working on it for years, too. If you're playing in a band that jumps around all the time to different keys, and someone's going to be playing bass for you, it'll likely be more convenient for you to play in standard.

Anyway, there's no reason we all have to play the same things or the same way. And definitely no reason to put any tunings down, if a player can use them to do what he wants to do. Can someone figure out a way to play some blues riff in standard tuning? Sure! Most of 'em have been long ago. But it may be a piece of cake to play in one of the standard open tunings, in which it was originally done. They're often very useful for expressing yourself in new stuff as well. And a new guitarist can find him/herself able to make decent sounding music a lot quicker with them. I can take someone who's never played a guitar, hand 'em one in Open D or another open tuning, show 'em the open strings, fifth and seventh frets and have 'em strumming a basic 12-bar blues in a few minutes. There's a lot you can do musically with that. A lot of well known musicians never got much past that, either. It's not necessarily technical virtuosity that makes great music.]]> Slide and Alternate tunings Ricochet https://guitarnoise.forum/slide-and-alternate-tunings/slide-styles/paged/2/#post-219271 https://guitarnoise.forum/slide-and-alternate-tunings/slide-styles/paged/2/#post-219240 Thu, 04 Jan 2007 01:07:07 +0000
While I was at it I purchased Warren Haynes, Hot Licks, "Electric Blues & Slide Guitar," as well as "The Best of Warren Haynes " song book.

My wife gave me a Father's Day gift certificate at Amazon.

Needless to say, you could see who I'd been listening to. After I posted last night I was looking at the Warren Haynes slide book and CD at Amazon, and it was also available with another book/cd on slide guitar. I like the idea of getting some backing tracks because I don;t have my recording gear set up yet to make my own backing tracks.

How do you rate the Warren Haynes guide to slide guitar and the CD with backing tracks? How are you doing with this and are you learning alot from it? Does he get into details about right hand string dampening?

I am tempted to buy those books. For me that is a big expenditure since I am on low income medical disability and in debt, planning to pay it all off today, but maybe I'll risk spending some more money. Also have to order Steinars CD, so I'llk have to go over my budget in detail.

Here are thew books I am looking at:
http://www.amazon.com/Warren-Haynes-Guide-Slide-Guitar/dp/1575605244

Phangeaux]]> Slide and Alternate tunings phangeaux https://guitarnoise.forum/slide-and-alternate-tunings/slide-styles/paged/2/#post-219240 https://guitarnoise.forum/slide-and-alternate-tunings/slide-styles/paged/2/#post-219236 Thu, 04 Jan 2007 00:56:42 +0000
I don't think anyone ought to think that playing in either standard or open tunings is the "best" or "only" way to slide. Both have advantages and disadvantages for particular situations. Ideally one could use both. Standard is just one of many alternate tunings, IMO. I don't like the terms "standard" and "alternate."

For learning slide in standard and Drop D, there's nothing better than the videos produced by Kirk L'Orange. Hi Ricochet. Yeah I haven't been around much to post and with me that usually means that I am probably doing something else like actually studying and playig music, so when I don't show up that is probably a good thing. Alot of times when I do post it is when I am burnt out and often up late with insomnia or something, or not feeling well. have been down for a couple of weeks actually and todayI am better and getting readyu to get out and pay bills etc. I tend to agree with you about tunings in that I feel they are all completely relative and standard tuning is somewhat arbitrary. However I have read some expert analyses as to why a guitar is tuned the way it is (what we call standard tuning) and it would be difficult to argue with technical experts in music, but still, ultimately I believe it is all relative from the start and the system we use has evolved from making some arbitrary standards to define various parameters, frequency relationships, etc. Mainly these standards are so that different instruments are able to interact with each other at same frequencies, notes and scales, so in order to do that there has to be a standard reference pitch and standard scales, etc.

Slide is interesting because we can use notes that are outside of the scales of sharps and flats, like sliding into a nice sounding blues note that is only 1/2 sharp or therabouts. It definately seems like those notes belong in the scales and even notes that are 1/4 sharp (or flat), so we could easily double or quadruple the nunmber of notes between octaves if we wanted to, in effect the whole frequency range between octaves belongs there but isn't described in the standard notation. So I guess that means that the standard notes and their frequency relationships are pretty much arbitrary. When we explore the music of other cultures I think we find different standards and different relationships. I can't cite any examples at the moment, it's not my area of expertise either.

Anyhow, there are times when I like to forget about standards, rules and conventions and just play free flowing and try to discover something new and different.

I love my tricone but I don't play it very often because I don't like to have to change the tunings back and forth with the heavy guage strings. Instead I keep a wood bodied acoustic and an electric within reach and I don't mind changing the tunings on those frequently. Once in awhile I'll get the tricone out and go over the stuff I've been working on. It's always a treat to play it.

Time is running late I have to get going- I'll catch you later Ricochet.

Phangeaux]]> Slide and Alternate tunings phangeaux https://guitarnoise.forum/slide-and-alternate-tunings/slide-styles/paged/2/#post-219236 https://guitarnoise.forum/slide-and-alternate-tunings/slide-styles/paged/2/#post-218982 Wed, 03 Jan 2007 05:09:29 +0000
While I was at it I purchased Warren Haynes, Hot Licks, "Electric Blues & Slide Guitar," as well as "The Best of Warren Haynes " song book.

My wife gave me a Father's Day gift certificate at Amazon.

Needless to say, you could see who I'd been listening to.]]> Slide and Alternate tunings tinsmith https://guitarnoise.forum/slide-and-alternate-tunings/slide-styles/paged/2/#post-218982 https://guitarnoise.forum/slide-and-alternate-tunings/slide-styles/#post-218922 Wed, 03 Jan 2007 03:04:59 +0000
I don't think anyone ought to think that playing in either standard or open tunings is the "best" or "only" way to slide. Both have advantages and disadvantages for particular situations. Ideally one could use both. Standard is just one of many alternate tunings, IMO. I don't like the terms "standard" and "alternate."

For learning slide in standard and Drop D, there's nothing better than the videos produced by Kirk L'Orange.]]> Slide and Alternate tunings Ricochet https://guitarnoise.forum/slide-and-alternate-tunings/slide-styles/#post-218922 https://guitarnoise.forum/slide-and-alternate-tunings/slide-styles/#post-218872 Tue, 02 Jan 2007 23:52:30 +0000

I'm coming along slow but sure. Bottleneck slide in Standard Tuning is great, I think. Try to get ahold of the Hot Licks video by 'Warren Haynes of the Allman Brothers Band' 'ELECTRIC BLUES AND SLIDE GUITAR' (if you are into blues) I think he states or implies that he plays slide almost exclusively in Standard Tuning (prefers standard tuning) and he is an excellent blues and slide player. It is a very good video. It has excellent reviews and relatively inexpensive ($20.00 or so) for the over all quality and content. He also has a book and CD on slide guitar that has good reviews and costs about half that much.

I am glad you mentioned Standard Tuning for bottleneck slide because I think there is way too much emphasis on alternative tunings.

When I first started playing slide on my tricone I mentioned it to my neighbor who is a recently retired professional rock lead guitarist who has played and lead bands for 40 years. (mostly southern rock). I told him I was playing in an open G tuning and he scoffed at that saying, "What do you want to do that for? " He grabbed his old Gibson acoustinc and started playing some Allman Brothers bottleneck slide stuff and said "That's the way you do it".

The fact is that bottleneck slide in standard tuning sounds really awesome- if you can learn how to do it. Listening to and watching Warren Haynes on this video will prove that. It's a bit more difficult than open tunings because you don't have an open chord so string damping is more important and I think it is more technical in standard tuning. He also explains advantages and things you can do in standard tuning that you can't do in open tunings.

He says that when learning slide the open tunings are easier to learn but you are confined to the parameters of that tuning and reach a point where they become limiting. Open tunings offer more chord opportunities but standard tuning offers more solo note opportunities - play minor key stuff, voicings inflections, 6th's, 9ths, etc.

I am listening to that video right now and I wonder why in the heck I am spending so much time in open tunings when this standard tuning is some of the best bottleneck slide I've ever heard.

Of course he is playing an electric guitar, lead solo parts in this video so I'm not sure how these same techniques will sound on acoustic, but I think it should sound good. I think the advantage of open tunings on acoustic is that you can have a background chord or drone notes and make it sound almost like 2 guitars or at least full enough where the single guitar doesn't need any acompaniment. If you have two guitars going I think standard tuning would have some significant advantages.]]> Slide and Alternate tunings phangeaux https://guitarnoise.forum/slide-and-alternate-tunings/slide-styles/#post-218872 https://guitarnoise.forum/slide-and-alternate-tunings/slide-styles/#post-218849 Tue, 02 Jan 2007 22:14:07 +0000 I guess the blues is present in everything I play, but more as an 'attitude' than anything else, I find playing straight 12bar/3chord blues too limited I'm afraid. But I love the blues - in a way you can say that I love it too much to play it, because of it's apparent simplicity it has to be done real well and with great conviction in order to sound true, at least to me.. But it's definitely there, in the way I approach the music I play. At least I prefer to believe it is..... :wink:
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Steinar Very interesting comments, Steinar, for example about playing blues with 'great conviction'. I have always called that 'depth of emotion' and I think there is something unique and special about blues where you can capture and hook up with powerful emotions and convey those through the instrument, moreso than any other style of music although we know that this can be carried over to any style of music. I feel that there is inherently alot of power in blues styles if one is inclined to play with that level of passion and this can capture the emotions of a listener. Once that is accomplished you can take the song anywhere, painting a picture, a story, one with a purpose, a moral, a lesson... whatever, and bring it back to a nice landing or finish. The lyrics are equally important in my opinion and ideally the music and lyrics should be on the same emotional wavelength so to speak. When talking about slide guitar the old timers often compared the slide notes to the human voice (singing) and of course that too was a powerful form of expression that often carried alot of emotion.

Yeah, there is something uniquely special about blues in this regard and that is why blues is my base. I can take these same concepts and this understanding and extend them into any style or genre of music and I am interested in all styles and genres from Rap and Hip Hop to Opera and Classical, but one essential element is that emotional tie-in, the passion of the artist for the work of art. I think there are intellectual aspects too. I'll curt this short so I don't ramble on too much.

When you said in effect that the blues is in everything that you play, as an attitude, I understand what you mean and that is also what I was trying to elucidate in my comments. I think it could be stated similarly that you are passionate about your work and in my view you are truly an Artist.

I guess we know what that means, LOL.

On the other hand I envision that the corporate controlled music industry is going to be taken back by artists and controlled by people who know and appreciate what the art is, rather than controlled by profitteers who mass produce cheap junk and as David Crosby stated in an interview about the corporatization of the music industry; "They wouldn't know a good song if it flew up thier nose."

In effect I think that we are going to be part of a revolution, which is very much needed but I'll leave it at that, for now.


As far as my answer to the poll question, I haven't started playing lapstyle (yet) but I will. I always have a bottleneck within reach and my answer is 'blues' of all kinds but mostly I am concentrating on acoustic blues right now and I am studying everything I can from the early beginnings through the whole history of how this music evolved, so it is alot of old time stuff, fingerstyle and bottleneck mostly. I want to have a thorough knowlege and experience of the whole realm of blues music.

HOWEVER, my objective is songwriting- writing songs and composing the basic music for them (rather than being a performer), AND the music I intend to create will be in alot of different genres. Blues is my base and that is what I am studying now.

Eventually I will get around to learning to play lapstyle but presently I have so much to learn now with conventional styles that I haven't had time to venture into lapstyle. I'm trying to get 'good enough' instrumentally to record what I have in mind, to create the mood for the songs and I had intended on passing those songs upward to more competent musicians for the final composition work but I find that I like playing guitar so much that I might just get really good at it. I am working at it.]]> Slide and Alternate tunings phangeaux https://guitarnoise.forum/slide-and-alternate-tunings/slide-styles/#post-218849