Slide Guitar Tuition
My collection of slides (and fingerpicks) - used with various instruments...
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and then there's this. Of course other beers are available!
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The Slide Guitar guitar can be of the acoustic, electric lap/Hawaiian variety. Also sometimes known as “bottleneck”, it is usually played using a glass, brass, steel or copper bar across the strings of a guitar. I have on occasions, been known to improvise with an empty beer bottle when caught without a proper bar and wanting to jam in with other players! A wide variety of tunings are used for this style of playing, open G and D being the most common, although many other tunings are available. While many slide players perform with the instrument laid flat on the lap, probably an equal number play with the guitar in the usual “slung round the neck” style and will most likely use a tubular bar (glass or metal) which fits snugly over the finger. This enables the player to utilize a near normal chord playing technique mixed with some slide patterns.
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This is an example of electric slide guitar played in an earthy rock style.
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Click to play
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1976 Dobro Resonator Guitar
A Resonator or Resophonic Guitar is an acoustic guitar whose sound is produced by one or more spun metal cones (resonators) instead of the wooden sound board (guitar top/face). Resonator guitars were originally designed to be louder than regular acoustic guitars, which were overwhelmed by horns and percussion instruments in dance orchestras. They became prized for their distinctive sound, however, and found life with several musical styles (most notably bluegrass and the blues) well after electric amplification solved the issue of inadequate guitar sound levels. Put simply, resonator guitars are generally of two styles, wooden or metal body and square neck, played in the lap steel guitar style or round neck, which can be more easily played in the conventional guitar style.
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Playing a wooden round necked Dobro (resophonic) on Welsh TV 1996
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Playing the metal bodied Epiphone Dobro in the studio
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British guitarist Mark Knopfler brought the National/Dobro guitar to the fore in the UK with the very eye-catching cover of the Dire Straits “Brothers In Arms” album.
“Romeo & Juliet” which contains an exquisite example of Mark Mark Knopfler's playing style, can be heard on the earlier 1981 Dire Straits album "Making Movies".
“Romeo & Juliet” which contains an exquisite example of Mark Mark Knopfler's playing style, can be heard on the earlier 1981 Dire Straits album "Making Movies".