Derek Trucks' slide technique

[Plugger]

I need to learn some of his stuff. My slide playing is pretty basic. I tuned up the Firebird to open E after the Clapton concert the other night, and laid down what I thought was a pretty cool version of "Motherless Children". My 10yo daughter then told me it sounded like a Hawaiian guitar. 10yo daughters never lie -- well, almost never.

So I need to get serious about getting some of those Trucksian licks down. Where would the "sliders" amongst you suggest I start on a quest for slide chops? Tom?

-Mark

[sliding-tom]

Hi Mark - you've got your goal set up pretty high!

Derek Trucks is a very idiosyncratic player and when being asked about his personal technique in a recent interview he admitted that he's not very consciuous of what he's doing, so he won't be able to teach somebody exactly what he' doing and how to get there. But: you should know that he comes from Duane Allman's style of playing slide. It's mostly how you connect the notes and where you choose your notes on the fretboard. Duane's style is very linear (playing along the board instead of across in a closed position) and that comes from him having started out in standard tuning and the nesessity to to move the slide to get to the desired notes. This all comes from Tampa Red. T.R. tuned his guitar to open D but almost always played only the top two strings with a slide, so his licks can be duplicated in standard (and open E). Then from there came Robert Nighthawk and then Earl Hooker (both played in standard). Get some recordings from these players and study their styles and you'll get a very good grounding. This is pretty different from the Elmore James school of slide where you mostly stay in one spot and choose your notes playing across the strings.
Back To Derek and Duane: the Allman Bros. Statesboro Blues version is a typical example of that style - now go back to Taj Mahal's version on his first album with Jesse Ed Davis on guitar - that's where Duane got his start. And: if you want to emulate Duane / Derek you have to play fingerstyle. Get the Allman Brothers' DVD "Live At The Beacon" - there's lots of footage where you can watch Derek strut his stuff.

Here's a copy of a post of mine in the LPF from not long ago when somebody asked about setup and other stuff about slide guitar, maybe it's helpful. Good luck and let me know how you're doin'!

There's already a couple of threads that cover most of these aspects, but here you go:
action: definitely use a higher action, one that allows you to slide cleanly without rattling on the frets and that's still low enough so you can fret the occasional note - especially on the bass strings, where you'll play rhythm. Would be good if you have one guitar that's devoted to slide.
string gauge: you'll want a bigger string for tonal reasons and to get more resistance against the slide. At least a set of .011-.049 for standard and higher tunings (open E and open A), .012 - .050 or .052 would even be better. For lower tunings (open D and open G) at least a .012 or .013 set and maybe you'll want to swap the first two strings for heavier gauges. I am using a custom slide set of .0145 - .052 with a medium high action in open D an G tuning.
string type: whatever sounds good to you - steel or pure nickel and if you don't like the noise that a slide can make on the strings you might consider a flatwound or half round wound.
radius: some say they prefer a totally flat radius so they can play all six strings at the same time, but I prefer a slightly radiused setup, because I rarely play all of the strings at the same time and you'll apply a little pressure anyway so the slide will touch all the strings even when radiused.
slides: get a few of different materials to see what you like best in tone and feel. Some guitars seem to prefer a certain material. As for length, it shouldn't be longer than the finger you put it on. I get the most control when the slide's top is just where the top of my sliding finger is. M current favourite is "The Rockslide".
finger: I would advocate to use the pinky because you'll have three adjacent fingers left for fretting, then. Ring finger gives you a little easier control over vibrato but can be a little arkward.
The most important thing is damping: behind the slide (towards the nut) where you should barely touch the strings with your index and on the picking side to get rid of unwanted noise and strings not being played.
You can use a flatpick, thumb- and fingerpicks or just your natural fingertips, whatever comes natural and sounds / feels best to you.
Starting out it's not the worst idea to start in standard tuning because you already know where your notes are and with standard tuning you'll be forced to practice your damping technique.
If you want video lessons, here's two that are good for starters but also useful for advanced players alike:
Rick Vito - Complete Slide Guitar
Roy Rogers - Slide Guitar For Rock And Blues.
Anything else? Feel free to ask.
Good luck!

[cooltone]

He has also immersed himself in eastern Indian music. If you listen to "Sahib Teri Bandi/ Maki Madni" from 'Songlines', this is obvious. With him, it is not as simple as incorporating a few scales. He is actually very educated in that style of music.
What makes him so interesting is that because of these outside influences, he is able to inject some of that into his blues playing as well.
There are probably some sources where you can get some interesting Eastern modal type scales which you can use to color your blues 'boxes' with some cool passing tones.

Sliding-Tom's posts are like a mini master class. Great advice on starting out.

[sliding-tom]

Sliding-Tom's posts are like a mini master class. Great advice on starting out.

Well, thank you, Sir!

[pc]

Yeah Sliding-Tom--excellent material!!!

[sliding-tom]

Yeah Sliding-Tom--excellent material!!!

Thanx again.

[TommyJ]

My only thought remains with Duane Allman.

[Plugger]

Yeah Sliding-Tom--excellent material!!!

+1.

This should keep us busy for a while.

Do we degree certificates for finishing the complete program of study?

-Mark

[sliding-tom]

Do we degree certificates for finishing the complete program of study?
-Mark

[sliding-tom]

Great advice, Tom! Some of the doublestops are there anyway in standard. It also "unlocks the box" when you're playing in open tunings.

Exactly - you'll have 5-1, 1-3, b7-9, also 5-1-3 (major chord) and b3-5-1 (minor chord) and even b7-b3-5-1 (minor 7), which you could also see inversed as 5-1-3-6 (6th chord). There's a lot in standard you can do with a slide.

[bonefish]

check out the latest rolling stone

[Guitar_Mc]

Blues Slide Guitar Cam