In a previous lesson we had a look at the basic techniques of playing slide guitar on the acoustic. Today I would like to dig into this style of playing a little deeper by looking at some blues slide guitar.
A lot of slide guitar playing is done in open tunings as it allows you to execute chords with a straight bar. This is very useful when using a slide as you can play your bar chords within a single fret.

However, in this lesson I want to show you how to approach blues on your guitar with a slide in a standard tuning. While there are some limitations playing this way, it still sounds great and is convenient, as you don’t need to alter your tuning every time you want to play slide guitar.
Intro To Slide Guitar
This is a root 5 bar chord shape in the positions for G, C, and D, and it is going to form the basis of a little slide guitar blues piece that we are going to play in the key of G.
The notes that I have highlighted in red form the shape you will target with your slide. These notes are going to be easy to play with your slide because they all fall within the one fret.
Here is this shape laid out across a 12 bar blues in G. This is very important for you to play as it will be the foundation on which we will build our slide blues piece. It will help you visualize where this shape needs to be at any given point within our blues in G:
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Remember that when playing slide guitar on your acoustic you need to place the slide directly over the fret you are targeting. Also, keep in mind all the things we spoke of with slide guitar technique in an earlier lesson on this topic.
In the example above I am targeting the top two strings of our shape at the 12th fret. Remember that the slide needs to play directly over the fret, not between them. Therefore I start this riff by placing my slide directly over the 11th fret before sliding it up to be directly over the top of the 12th fret.
In the second bar of this slide riff, our shape is moving down chromatically from the 12th to 10th fret. This is a very common move in blues slide guitar playing.
The Beginner's Guide To Slide Guitar
Notice that in this riff I target our shape at the 3rd fret before finishing up at the 12th. The 3rd fret is also a great place to target this shape to get some very cool sounding blues riffs over the G chord when playing slide on your acoustic.
The great thing about having just one shape to target for our blues slide piece, is that the same riffs we did on G will work for C and D at the 5th and 7th positions respectively. Try it.
Take note that when targeting this shape, as we have throughout for our slide blues, we are not restricting ourselves to only the notes within that shape. There are notes that are played outside too, as is the case for the C and D riffs above.
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Always see these “outside” notes in relation to the shape when you play them, as it will help greatly when you want to take these ideas and use them in other musical situations.
Finally, lets take these ideas and create our slide blues piece in G. Listen to it and compare it back to the beginning of the lesson when we were just targeting the shape for each chord with the slide:
Work your way through this slowly. Isolate each riff so you can really get it down and always listen carefully to the audio as a reference.
Essential Guitar Sliding Techniques
As always check out great players of this style to continue working on your slide guitar playing. Here are a few to get you started:Play Slide Guitar Like Elmore James Elmore James only knew one lick, but you had the feeling he meant it. – Frank Zappa

Part of Mr. Zappa’s remark, maybe that’s because I marvel at Mr. James’ slide playing. Besides, how could Elmore become the King of the Slide Guitar without knowing a few licks?
The key to playing in the style of Elmore James, as Zappa pointed out, is feeling. You have to get a little mean and a touch gritty when channeling the spirit of Elmore James into your own playing.
Slide Guitar Lesson
In this video lesson, I will show you an open G version of an Elmore James classic lick much like the Dust My Broom lick. Arguably, this is one of the most famous slide guitar licks ever played.
Remember to keep in mind those few slide guitar pointers from lesson 13 if you’re new to this style of playing. Here’s a quick mental checklist for you.
, the lick consists of two distinct systems a slide part and a typical blues rhythm part. I love this 12 bar slide piece because to master it, you have to learn how to play with the slide and switch to parts played without the slide.
Essential Slide Guitar Lessons For Intermediate Guitarists
The opening bar is played on the middle three strings with the slide over the twelfth fret. Then in bar 2, join up with the band and chug out the rhythm part. The next few bars alternate this slide – rhythm part with a couple of short slide licks thrown in to keep the feel going.
The four chord and the five chord rhythm parts need a little special attention to play properly since you have the slide attached to one of your fingers. My finger of choice is my ring finger. So normally, when I play the typical blues shuffle I use my ring finger. That doesn’t work out too well with the slide attached! So I will use my little finger instead. Go with what works for you but be sure you nail the chord properly.

The lick finishes up with a classic open G turnaround to get you back to bar 1. Again, take care to keep the slide out of the way when fretting the notes in the turnaround.
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I think for beginners, just keeping the slide out of the way when you’re not using it will be a challenge. It was for me. Watch how I point the slide away from the fretboard as one example of how to overcome this.
Back Porch Blues Course: A proven system to fingerpicking the blues. This step-by-step course guides you through building fundamental fingerpicking skills. Plus, you’ll learn three levels of a delta blues style performance study to put your new skills into action.
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Even if you’ve never picked up a guitar slide before, with a bit of practice you will be able to play all of the songs in this list. Some of the songs are perfect for beginners to try out, while other songs will require most practice to master.
Here are some of the top slide guitar songs to learn with Guitar TAB of some interesting slide guitar licks from each song. I’ve also listed the guitar tuning for each song because many slide guitar songs don’t use standard tuning.
Read through this lesson to learn how to correctly hold and use a guitar slide. If you haven’t played with a guitar slide before, I highly recommend you go through the lesson before attempting any of these songs.

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Note: I’ve grouped the songs together based on tuning, so if you change your guitar to an open tuning, you can try a few of the listed songs in that tuning. Find out about open and other alternate tunings in this Guide to Alternate Guitar Tunings.
If you are unfamiliar with reading Guitar TAB, check out this lesson on How to Read Guitar TAB. It includes a list of common TAB symbols and what they mean.
If you don’t have a guitar slide, check out my Ultimate Guide to Guitar Slides to find a guitar slide right for you. The guide includes a sizing chart to help you find the right size guitar slide for your fingers.
Lynyrd Skynyrd Guitar Riffs
The great thing about this song is that the slide licks are easy enough for anybody just getting started with a slide to be able to play the entire song.
From the opening riff, the entire song is based around the guitar slide. This makes it a great song to learn to develop your slide guitar skills.
The only downside to learning this song is that you’ll need to change your guitar into Open A tuning. But it’s a great example of how fun open tunings are with a guitar slide.
Slide Guitar For Beginners
If you want to try and get a similar guitar tone, the easiest way is to use a phaser pedal. Find out more about phasers and the best phaser

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