The Challenge 20 - 29 September 2010

Renesongs

Slide Guitar
By popular demand this weeks challenge is Slide Guitar. Entries to be in by 8pm Wed 29th.

PS please keep those topic suggestions rolling in (not more than 3 per person) for the next topic poll on the 30th. I will carry over topics from last poll that got more than 10% of the vote.

Renesongs

bump 8)

chris77

I will be sitting this one out. ☹I haven't got a slide, the foggiest idea how to use it if I did, or a guitar suitable to play slide on. Eager to hear the okes who voted for this' entries though.

raithza

Looking forward! hope I get some time to do something proper...

Bob-Dubery

chris77 wrote: I will be sitting this one out. ☹I haven't got a slide, the foggiest idea how to use it if I did, or a guitar suitable to play slide on

You can buy a slide and you don't have to have a specially set up guitar. I did a piece for a previous competition that featured slide guitar. I did most of the slide melody in standard tuning, with the guitar on my lap playing "lap steel" style. I found it easier to control downwards pressure playing this way and I got my recording done with no noises from the slide bumping against the frets. Any decent musical instruments store should stock slides or be able to get one for you fairly quickly. For playing with the guitar on your lap a "steel" offers some advantages, but that would probably be harder to get in SA (though I think that Music Connection stock them). Using a spark plug socket or something similar is not an outrageous suggestion - in fact that's what Lowell George used for his signature slide sound.

So do not be disheartened. Slide away!

chris77

No look, I'll be giving it a try hey. I always do with the comps. Some I just don't get to complete in time and some just sound uberk@k - so I dont submit them. Slide to me is like flamenco or shred - something I would love to do SOMEDAY, but haven't got around to yet. So, since I'm starting at zero, I doubt a couple of minutes playing a day will see me record an entry this week.

makepeace

You don't even have to trouble to BUY a slide.. I've made two out of wine bottle necks. They work very well! Very earthy sound. I used an angle grinder to cut them off just where the neck meets the body, and then to smooth the edges a little bit. You can get some very interesting sounds from an electric with a slide and a little overdrive.

Just a question wrt the topic. Is it meant to be PURE slide, or can one play around with a little bit of finger picking?

A little something that I found a while back (slide from 0:55):

dee

Hang on...I'm tempted to build a Diddley bow for this!

Bob-Dubery

My entry is nearing completion now. It's been fun. I hope everybody is joining in. ("everybody" includes you, Dear Reader)