Ain't Bad for a Pink by Sandra Gibson

Author:Sandra Gibson [GIBSON SANDRA]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Troubador Publishing Ltd

Slides And Gitfiddles; Half Tones And Quarter Tones

For immediate impact, though, the solo blues musician can add a whole new dimension through slide: an extra tool that enables the guitarist to get a vast array of notes in a short space. You can play slide with any guitar as long as it is open-tuned. Slide had very basic origins. There is a transcript described as “old-fashioned Southern vernacular speech” in which Mississippi Fred McDowell, who slid a bottle neck on his finger, describes the early use of the slide:

An my type of blue? I play it with a bottleneck? I first got this style from a beef bone, y’understan’ me. Rib wha’ come out of a steak? My uncle, when I was a small boy in the country. He ground this bone down, and filed it with a file, and put “t” on his little fi[ae]nger. But I play’t on my ri[ae]ng finger, y’understan’? and nis a-dis here bottleneck sound better’n the bone, cause you get more clar- clear sound outa it, [plays a chord](37)

Slide is the nearest thing to the human voice. The advantage of the monophonic instrument is that you can use it to emulate the human voice and you haven’t got the restrictions of frets. Voice and slide sound converge and diverge. There’s an explosion of notes in a short space but you can only hear the amalgamation. Violins and slide whistles and trombones also have this quality. How many notes are there as the slide slides down with no fret? A lot of notes. But the ear doesn’t discern them separately unless you have a very special gift. When you do it in slow motion it is possible to hear the separate notes. Whereas frets limit you to half tones, this limit goes with slide. You can use the fingers as a slide but this still separates the notes: nothing gets rid of frets like slide does. Ry Cooder says of slide: “When nothing but the bar or knife touches the string the guitar tends to ring more; it’s released and open.” I agree. (38)

Playing slide takes the rhythm guitar and chord basics of a tune and allows your guitar to be a violin. Monophonic harmony note is the melody to what I’m playing in the chord.

I like the continuity you get in a slide performance. Listen to “Amazing Grace” on slide: there are so many harmonies, you can imagine a choir whereas played with frets it sounds a bit Scottish. You can only do it on certain songs. It either sounds OK or it doesn’t. Blind Willie Johnson uses one chord then a monophonic melody line, the chord droning, using the slide to produce the note. The man to listen to is Kokomo Arnold. He makes everyone else look as if they haven’t got out of bed.

Mississippi John Hurt uses the slide to fret the note, as if he’s using his finger. I do this and I use all the notes in between with slide and I also use my finger as slide.

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