Hey there and welcome to the Walking Blues Slide Guitar Lesson here at EverGreen Guitar!
As the lyrics written by Son House are historically interesting enough to follow, the lyrics are a little outside the scope of this session. Most of what you’ll find in this video is based on basic slide guitar method.
If you plan on following along with the video and interacting with it, go ahead and tune your guitar to open G tuning first and be sure to have your capo handy. If you are already tuned up with capo in hand, go ahead go directly to the Walking Blues Slide Guitar Lesson video later on this page.
Preparing: Walking Blues Slide Guitar Lesson
Let’s talk about how to place a slide on your fret hand finger. For many players, using a slide is all about finding those slippery notes in between the frets of your instrument. Guitar players from Son House to Bonnie Raitt have differing preferences. Which finger do we place the slide on? For the most part it is about personal preference and comfort. If you choose to fit your ring finger with a slide it limits the accessibility of the typical power chord shape (you know, the Iron Man shape?) which is a pretty commonly used chord shape. At the same time, you gain power and accuracy with the slide.
The right hand will not only have to pluck the strings. Since you have a slide that lays over the entire string set, you will now have to figure out which parts of your left hand will be able to mute out unwanted sounds.
The most challenging part of the picking hand’s duties will be to mute all unwanted string noises with any free part of the hand. You can use the palm, finger tips, or side of thumb. Get creative and be patient and everything will be okay.
Watch the video: Walking Blues Slide Guitar Lesson