How to Finger Pick a Guitar With a Slide

It may look easy, but to use a slide on a guitar, you need to know at least a little about the fretboard. When you use a slide, you are limited in how you can arrange the other strings, so it's important to know what strings you can play along with the slide to get harmonic tones. Here's how to get good note combinations and finger pick while using a slide.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

1. Get yourself a slide. You can find slides for your guitar in either glass or metal models. Try Musician's Friend for slide models online.

2. Figure out which strings you want to use the slide on. You can choose to slide the lower strings, the middle strings, or the higher strings, depending on your preference. Choosing isn't too hard. It's the next part that's a little tricky.

3. Figure out what notes will be open on the strings you won't be picking. You have to recognize that on a completely open guitar, you have these notes: low E, A, D, G, B and high E. When you strum all of these together, it's not that harmonic, the result is a "muddy" sound. To fix this, you'll need to do a little calculation.

4. Tune the strings you won't be sliding on to harmonic open notes. For example, if you'll be sliding on the high strings, one easy way to harmonize is to drop the low E string down to D. That way, your open notes on the four bottom strings are: D, A, D and G, all parts of the D major progression and harmonic together. Another option is if you'll be sliding the bottom strings, tune the high E up to G, and you'll have something similar to an open G chord.

5. Do calculated slides up to frets that harmonize with what you've set yourself up for. For the example of sliding on high strings in the key of D, you'll want to hit harmonious notes like D and A. For the G major example, you'll want to slide up to G or D. Experiment with many note combinations find the ones that sound the most harmonious.

Resources

• Guitar slides at Musician's Friend