Slide technique qs

Stuckfast

So I've been slowly torturing my family to death by attempting to learn slide guitar, and making at least some progress, though they probably wouldn't admit it. I'm contemplating the purchase of some sort of resonator / Weissenborn / Hawaiian guitar, and it's got me wondering about the different techniques. I see most of these played lap-style with a tone bar rather than a circular slide. I know this allows you to angle the tone bar, but are there other advantages? Are square/hollow neck guitars always played lap-style or is it acceptable to play them like a conventional guitar with a slide on the little finger?

Mark1960

Hi - I play slide guitar in a band, and am by no means an expert, but all resonator guitars (except for steel pedal - which have legs) can be played on the lap or conventionally. I also believe (but could be wrong here) that the blues style of slide developed using a bottleneck with the guitar held conventionally, whilst the Hawaaiian style player sits with it on their laps using a tone bar, so it's just a cultural thing. Either way you are not fretting, but using a slide / tone bar to play the notes, so it's up to you which way you play it. As to which finger you put the slide on it's largely a matter of preference, and what you want to do with your other fingers. What really matters is getting clear clean notes and cutting out additional unwanted sounds. Hope this helps.

Lewy

The main advantages of playing lap style are:

- less control of the downward pressure of whatever slide you’re using is required
- easier to execute hammer ons and pull offs with the bar
- slants, as you’ve already pointed out
- easier to point the tip of the slide downwards to just play on one string and sound open strings either side of it 

But with practice, and an appropriately set up guitar, it’s possible to do all of the above playing bottleneck (upright) style too - with the exception of the slants - but with the massive advantage of also being able to fret notes. I can play both ways but the only reason I’d choose lap style over bottleneck would be for stylistic reasons (so playing Hawaiian that requires slants, or bluegrass that uses a lot of hammers and pulls) - otherwise it’s bottleneck all the way. 

Lewy

Mark1960 said:

I also believe (but could be wrong here) that the blues style of slide developed using a bottleneck with the guitar held conventionally, whilst the Hawaaiian style player sits with it on their laps using a tone bar, so it's just a cultural thing. Either way you are not fretting, but using a slide / tone bar to play the notes, so it's up to you which way you play it

Whilst there have been some notable lap style blues players (Black Ace, Casey Bill Weldon...and some argue Charley Patton and Blind Willie Johnson but nobody knows for sure) the vast majority played bottleneck style and on round neck guitars set up so that they could (and regularly would) fret notes as well as using the slide. Robert Johnson, Son House, Elmore James, Bukka White and many many more all fretted notes and held down conventional type
chords in amongst the slide elements of their arrangements.

Stuckfast

Thanks Lewy, that's very useful. I guess what's lurking in the back of my mind is that when I hear slide played on something like a square-necked Dobro or a Weissenborn, it seems to me to have a much cleaner and more pleasant tone than most people achieve on a fretted guitar. So I'm wondering whether it's worth sacrificing the fretting for that, and if so, whether one needs to play it lap style or whether the same tone can be achieved bottleneck-style.

Mark1960

I believe the tone issue is mainly in the set up not the style of playing. Most modern electric blues slide player have an overdriven sound either on the amp or via a pedal, where as Hawaiian is often played on a clean channel

Stuckfast

I'm not really talking about electric playing -- at the folk club I go to most often there isn't even any amplification, so we're hearing the raw tone of the instrument -- and the lap players seem to make theirs sound nicer. Maybe they're just better players.

CarpeDiem

I think @Mark1960 is right in terms of the guitar setup. The action tends to higher, and players often use altered tunings. It also depends what style of music you're interested in as to whether to play acoustic or electric instruments.

Lewy

Stuckfast said:

Thanks Lewy, that's very useful. I guess what's lurking in the back of my mind is that when I hear slide played on something like a square-necked Dobro or a Weissenborn, it seems to me to have a much cleaner and more pleasant tone than most people achieve on a fretted guitar. So I'm wondering whether it's worth sacrificing the fretting for that, and if so, whether one needs to play it lap style or whether the same tone can be achieved bottleneck-style.

I hear what you’re saying.  But just because so many people make a lamentable racket playing slide guitar on round neck guitars, that’s not because it’s impossible...or even that hard, you just have to approach it the right way. Whether you gravitate to old blues music  or not, check out the playing of Tampa Red to hear how sweet, clean and articulate bottleneck playing can be. 

In in terms of the question “do you have to play a lap style guitar on your lap” I guess the answer would be no, but you’d probably be more comfortable just putting a really high nut on a round neck instead, and it wouldn’t look so odd. But if you’re going to do that, you may as well put it on your lap anyway.