How to slide on guitar

Slides give your guitar a vocal quality and add an emotional layer to your playing. The technique is pretty easy to learn but you can get real fancy with slides. We’ll cover different levels of difficulty from the very basics to advanced neo-soul chops.

You can use slides for both lead and rhythm guitar, as well as on acoustic or electric guitar. So whatever you play, this article is for you.

If you came here hoping to learn slide guitar, that’s a whole different story. Head over to this article instead: “How to play slide guitar”.

Now that we’re on the same page, let’s talk shop. You’ll learn

• Two licks with slides from one note to another
• How to combine slides with grace notes
• How to incorporate slides into R&B and funk chords
• Advanced neo-soul slides

Four ways to utilize guitar slides

In neo-soul guitar, slides are an essential part of that ‘slinky’ sound. That being said, slides are very common in all genres from jazz to country music –  most guitar players use them on a regular basis.

To give you some examples:

We asked 12 guitar players to solo over the same backing track and all of them used slides. You can watch the entire video on the Pickup Music’s YouTube channel to compare different playing styles.

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Here are direct links to a few slide highlights. Slidelights, if you will.

• Plini uses a long slide down the fretboard to end a musical phrase.
• Tash Wolf approaches notes from a fret below or above with very short slides.
• Kerry2Smooth practically weaves slides into almost everything he plays.
• Tiano Ohara combines chords with slides.

How to play guitar slides

Play a single note and – without picking or strumming the same string again – slide your finger to another fret.

• The first note should flow seamlessly into the second note.
• Maintain just enough pressure to keep the note ringing for the entire slide.
• The pressure of your fretting finger needs to be light enough to slide over the frets with ease.

There are different ways to play slides. You can:

• Slide up or down
• Slide one fret or more
• Slide at any tempo (or until the string stops vibrating and the sound dies off)
• Use any finger (but many people learn this technique using their middle finger)

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Practice sliding into a note from below and above

Below are two exercises to help you practice the basic technique of guitar slides.

• The first is a blues lick that ends on a slide up two frets.
• The other is a phrase built from the C major scale with a slide down two frets.

Exercise 1: Blues Lick

This is one of Seth Rosenbloom’s favorite licks to get a slow blues going or as a pickup into a solo. The example is for a blues in C minor.

Practice the slide separately. Once it feels good, try out the whole lick.

• You can use this lick before the I chord.
• Play the note before the slide with your index finger.
• Slide with your ring finger.

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Below is a backing track so you can apply the lick in a musical context.

The recording already features a pickup line but you can play your over the existing one and also every time the 12-bar blues lands on the I chord again.

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Exercise 2: C major with grace notes

There are two different kinds of slides in this example: a grace note and a slide.

A grace note

• Is so short it doesn’t occupy a note value.
• Is notated as a small note before another note.
• Can appear with a slash – this is called an acciaccatura (play it fast).
• Can appear without a slash – this is called appoggiatura (play it a bit slower).

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Hit play on the backing track and try out the lick. Feel free to modify the rhythm in whichever way you like.

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If you’re struggling with notes dying off, check out what Tony Polecastro has to say about that over on GuitarLessons.

Combining chords and slides on guitar

You don’t have to stick to single notes when you’re playing slides.

Sliding shell chords

Shell chords are three-note voicings that are often used in jazz, chord melody arrangements, or singer-songwriter contexts.

• Shell chords are easy to slide.
• They consist of the root, 3rd, and 7th.
• All three notes are on adjacent strings.

Below are examples of compact shell voicings for minor 7th chords.

• The root note is on the A string.
• The b3 is next, on the D string.
• Finally, the b7 is on the G string.

Learn these shapes first and then play the exercise.

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Exercise: Sliding shells by the seaside

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