Slide What?

Slide guitar is used in a variety types of music from blues to rock to country to pop. The method of slide guitar is using an object that is placed on one of your fingers on the hand that is playing on the frets of the guitar called the slide. Then the slide is used to slide along the strings to created a smooth transition between pitch and allowing expressive vibrato. 

No matter if you hear people say they are going to play the "slide guitar" or the "bottleneck guitar" they are both the same thing. It is called bottleneck guitar because guitarists would make slides out of beer bottle or wine bottlenecks in the earlier days and they are still made of bottlenecks to this day. Slides can be made out of different material like glass, brass, or anything you can get your hands on. There is even some guitarist that use drumsticks or a hollowed bone as their slide. The different material that you use will produce different sound. A brass slide will produce a more brighter sound where as a glass slide will produce a more of a mellow sound. Also, the thickness of the slide will determine how easy it is to play with a slide. A thick slide will move slide across the strings more easily, where as a thin slide will need to be pressed on the strings more to produce a sound. However, you don't want a slide that is too heavy because it will take more that one finger to steady the slide.

The slide is usually a tube that fits snug around a finger. There is no right finger to place the slide on but the pinky finger,like how Muddy Waters plays, is usually the most common because you still have three other fingers to fret the notes. Me personally I play with the slide on my middle finger because that is the most comfortable. It is just all your preference in which finger you choose to wear it on.  

Slide guitar became the staple in the Blues.Willy Brown, Son House, Johnny Shines and Robert Johnson all played slide on acoustics, but by the 1940's slide guitar was becoming popular on electric guitar by Hound Dog Taylor, Robert Nighthawk, Muddy Waters, and Elmore James. This open the door for a new way to be playing slide in music which would later evolve into rock 'n roll. 

As rock 'n roll was taking off around world a lot of guitarist took up the slide to add a flare to their songs. The Rolling Stones' (You thought I could go a whole blog post and not mention the Rolling Stones did you?) guitarists Brian Jones, Mick Taylor, and Ronnie Wood all played/plays the slide on The Rolling Stones albums and live. When playing slide the guitar is usually tuned to an open tuning like Open G or Open E. However, Mick Taylor is notably for playing the slide in standard tuning, which is more challenging than playing the slide in open tuning. Some of The Rolling Stones songs that contain a slide that I personally like and recommend getting your ears acquainted with them are "No Expectations" from Beggars Banquet, "You Got the Silver" from Let It Bleed,  and "Jigsaw Puzzle" also from Beggars Banquet. 

Whether you choose to listen the artist that played slides or try your hand at playing the slide you will love the sound that comes from the guitar.