Active Melody

Learn to play blues guitar.

Acoustic Slide Guitar Lesson – Delta Blues – EP026

Description

In this guitar lesson I’ll show you how to play basic, delta blues style slide guitar on an acoustic. This is played in open D tuning, and I’ll show you an easy way to tune to open D, without even needing a tuner. I also assume you know little to nothing about slide and will walk you through all of the basics, how to hold a slide, what finger to use, etc. If you’ve always wanted to learn how to play slide, this lesson is a great one to get you started!

Delta Blues Slide Guitar Lesson - Acoustic

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Comments

  1. 6stringer says

    Thanks, Brian. Now I got to buy a glass slide.  Amazing how well that guitar sounds, such a rich tone. Some really nice D tuning tunes are:  Bottleneck Rag of Sylvester Weaver, Dark Was The Night,Cold Was The Ground, Evocative Slide of Blind Willie Johnson, Things ‘Bout Coming My Way, Boogie of Tampa Red… Hmm, do I see more lessons coming soon…

    • Kevin D says

      I guess I’m late to this party, however, glad I searched the lessons for slide. I just bought a Clarksdale 220r Tricone. Naturally you cant break one of those out around the campfire unless you can do some slide. This is a great open D riff. Thanks Brian (:

  10. sunburst says

    Say Brian, great tutorial..always enjoy your step by step detailed teachings .. I been busy ;earning other styles on all my guitars,, keep up the great work my man! You inspired me to practice and play more often. thanks again, John

  11. StreakyPete says

    Thoroughly appreciate you teaching us the ‘Secret’ of slide blues Brian.  I’ve tried a number of times before, but didn’t make any headway, but now I’m making progress.  One silly thing I didn’t realize was that my existing metal slide only covered 4 strings!  couldn’t understand why I kept clipping the 5th string while you never did… finally dawned on me half way through the lesson :-)
    Now I’m off to the village music store to buy a new slide.

  12. jontyblu says

    Great slide lesson Brian. For years I never dulled the strings upneck (towards machine heads) with my fingers but the sound is better with damping although a difficult habit to break

  13. Rick C says

    Great lesson Brian! For years I have had a slide and now I can finally play with it!
    I would love more lessons like this one. Maybe one in another tuning?
    Thank you!

  15. benneyy says

    Hi Brian
    Great Lesson! you made it so easy to retune my guitar to open D! something ive never done but did it first time with your lesson! i now need a slide!!

    any chance you could do an Artist series on seasick steve!? i really want to learn “i started out with nothing” its a great song with a cool riff that i would love to learn.

    Thanks

  16. William A says

    Love this entire series Brian. Just discovered you. I have been playing dobro and electric slide for years without much understanding of the music theory aspects-or what I was doing for that matter. More slide lessons, and electric technique would be great.

    Also, I loved the David Gilmour tutorial. He and Duane Allman are my guitar heroes! Working through pedals and getting specific tones are helpful too, like on the Gilmour lesson. Thank you

  18. Danilo S says

    Hi Brian, great lesson as always.
    I’ve practicing for two days and I’m addicted to slide now! Only thing that’s driving me nuts is the thumb…very hard to free it up! This is my new goal as I love this type of finger style Blues.

  22. AdmiralBastard says

    Great work as always Brian. Your call and response lessons seem to be quite unique. I’ve learnt a ton by the way you apply theory to your teachings. Anyway man just thought I owed you some mad props at this point : ) Thanks for helping me up my game. Oh and if you feel the urge, more open D slide would be awesome.

  23. john l says

    Thanks Brian…really like the sound of my acoustic in the Drop D tuning…especially that rhythm part…new to the slide stuff…but enjoying working my way through the lesson. Only wish I had more time to work on this stuff…without having to go to work every day…come on Lottery Board ! John…

  24. andrew k says

    thanks brian, such a blast to play ! it would be great if there was more to this song, maybe an extended version ? or more bluesy slide lessons as this is the only one i could find by you . thanks again really enjoying all your great lessons

  26. Duncan M says

    Hi Brian,

    Any chance you’ll being doing any more slide lessons in the near future? I have found your lessons really inspiring and hope you can help me get slide sorted too. Something from the Deep South would be great. Thanks, Duncan from U.K.

  28. sunburst says

    This is really fun! finally found my slide, had it stashed away a few years,, I need more, the only one I have fits my pinky.. but is this lesson is very cool..finally going to learn this excellent beginner open D delta blues slide ,, I can only ask but you do so much as it is,, open G and E or just in standard tuning ..I know slide lessons aren’t for everybody but even if they are micro lessons ,tia!

  29. sunburst says

    I tell you I am no slide player but man really enjoy how tight and cool sounding this slide lesson is! I won’t rush this because you are so right in every detail.. 5 star rating for short but excellent slide lesson! thanks Brian!

  33. Ken Sheppard says

    Stumbled across this lesson while browsing through and see you’re playing an Alvarez AP66. Coincidentally I’ve just purchased an Alvarez Blues 51 CSB. A lot of guitar for not too much money and sounds great when playing slide, still getting to grips with the thumb bass but it’s coming along!

  39. mritalian says

    Dusted off my resonator guitar the other day and have been going through the slide lessons on the Active Melody site. This one is a great one to start with, interesting to see how the web site lessons have evolved as we all do eventually.. Fun to play and develop new skills. Thanks

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