SLIDE GUITAR
In this open D lesson Harrison Marsh looks at the approach used by some of slide guitar’s greatest acoustic exponents.
Harrison Marsh brings you more slide guitar ideas to try in open D tuning, echoing the approaches of Martin Simpson and others.
Open D tuning has been used by a variety of slide players to create some of the most memorable and emotive songs, including Blind Willie Johnson’s Dark Was The Night, Cold Was The Ground, famously included on the Voyager 1 and 2 probes in 1977. Just like open G it has its own flavour and phrasing and it takes a while to become familiar. Open E and open A are equivalent to open D and open G respectively, just a tone higher, whereas the interval relationships between open G and open D are different, giving the tunings their unique sound and making some phrases easier to play in one tuning or the other. The more time you spend in each tuning, the more you will come to appreciate the advantages and disadvantages of each. While players have experimented with numerous tunings, open G and open D are the most common mainstays of acoustic slide guitar, as well as for Dobro and lap steel.
As with regular guitar there are various subtle factors when using a slide. Amount of vibrato, speed, interval size, direction, staccato or legato and can all add variety to your vocabulary. And as with quarter-note string bends, it is not uncommon for slide players to use microtonal slides, raising the pitch of a note by less than a semitone to give an authentic blues sound. This means that your ear becomes critical in recreating these ideas effectively. Such aural awareness is particularly true for intonation and vibrato. Most players starting with slide watch their hand to ensure the slide is directly above the fret, but before long your ear should guide you. When using vibrato, starting with a ‘less is best’ philosophy until you have it mastered, and listen to key players for reference points for ideas, technique and so on. As with any other genre this can help to create very clear goals for vibrato, style and tone.
It is common for slide players to follow the vocal melody with the slide, and Dark Was The Night, Cold Was The Ground is a wonderful example of this. Call and response is also very common in the slide repertoire. Working some of these tunes out by ear can be a strong aural training exercise in itself.
it’s not uncommon for slide players to use microtonal slides in order to give an authentic blues sound
NEXT MONTH Harrison moves up a tone as he looks at Open E or Vestapol tuning