Bottleneck and Slide Guitar Playing

Bottleneck and slide guitar playing. This is a form of guitar playing which has been around for nearly one hundred years or more. Its roots are embedded in the African-American negro blues music. It is easily recognized when played by the wailing sound it makes on the fretboard of the guitar.

Bottleneck and slide are terms often used interchangeably for a style of guitar playing in which the strings are "stopped" by a small metal or glass tube held in the hand or slipped over one of the left hand fingers.

Strictly speaking, " bottleneck" refers to glass, whereas slide refers to metal, but the technique for playing is the same in both cases.

Slide guitar originated in America, around the Mississippi Delta

It was predominately negro blues music. It is thought that it's roots originated in the tradition of black slavery and therefore linked strongly and forever to the evolution of the blues.

It is also believed to be an expression of feelings through music and song. The term bottleneck is derived from the fact that the earliest slides were made from broken - off necks of beer bottles. This technique for slide playing was the precursor to all the modern slides we now have available in the music market place.
Using a slide is quite easy, and it is also easy to make your own slide from the neck of a bottle, or you can improvise a metal one from a piece of tubing. But why go through all this bother when they are readily available in all musical instrument retail shops, and very inexpensive.

Metal and glass produce very distinctive different sounds, that is why most guitarist will have both types in their guitar bag. But if you just want one, then experiment around with both types until you are satisfied with the one that gives you the sound you are looking for.

Wearing the slide on the finger is also a very personal choice. It takes time to get used to wearing the slide so you must use the finger you feel more comfortable with when playing. Usually the third or fourth finger is the choice, but like I said it is purely a personal decision. Just to give you a tip on which finger might suit best, I would recommend you try the fourth finger as this frees up the other three fingers for playing chords or individual notes.

Learn how to use the slide technique of guitar playing and play the sounds you hear the professionals play. Click below now.

Guitar slide playing

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Noel_Halpin

 

 

Blues Guitarist Magic Slim Dead at 75

Blues guitarist Magic Slim died yesterday in a Philadelphia hospital, The Associated Press reports. He was 75, and had been dealing with worsening health problems, his manager said.

Slim, born Morris Holt in Mississippi, helped define the sound of post-war electric blues in Chicago as a younger peer of icons like Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf. Slim's first instrument was piano, but after he lost the little finger on his right hand in a cotton-gin accident, he switched to guitar, and also played bass with his mentor, the guitarist Magic Sam. Slim moved to Chicago in 1955, but found it so difficult to land gigs on a competitive South Side blues scene that he soon returned home.

Back in Mississippi, he developed his talent playing small gigs like plantation parties, with brothers Nick and Douglas as his backing band, the Teardrops. They returned to Chicago by the mid-Sixties, this time for good, and began a recording career in 1966 with the song "Scufflin'," the first in a series of singles that led eventually to his first album, Born Under a Bad Sign, in 1977. His latest, the covers album Bad Boy, came out last year.

Though he's most closely identified with Chicago, Slim had lived in Lincoln, Nebraska, for nearly 20 years. His manager, Marty Salzman, said bleeding ulcers sent Slim to the hospital, though he also suffered from heart, lung and kidney ailments.

source: rollingstone.com