Guitar Lessons - String Slide

Sliding is another legato technique used by all guitarist. They are very simple to learn, just  pick a note or notes and slide your finger slides to another note(s). This is presented in most TAB format as a “/” slide up and “\” slide down.

First let’s do a simple slide up. Use your 3rd finger on the A string 7th  fret pick the note and slid up to the 9th fret smoothly and without stopping. Don’t pick the note on the 9th fret!  The Tab is below

E|---------------|
B|---------------|
G|---------------|
D|---------------|
A|--7/--9--------|
E|---------------|

Now for a slide down: on the G string put your 3rd finger on the 5th fret pluck the note and then slide down to the third fret. Made sure to do it smoothly and don’t pluck the note once you arrive at the 3rd fret.

E|---------------|
B|---------------|
G|--5\--3--------|
D|---------------|
A|---------------|
E|---------------|

Listen to a sample

If you combine the slide up and slid down you get cool legato sliding effect. Try this combo using the b string and your 3rd fret. Pluck the note at the 5th fret slide to the 7th fret then slide back to the 5th fret. Pluck again and slide up to the 7th fret, hold the note a bit and then slide up to the 11th fret. Then pluck at the 11th and slid down to the 9th. Cool!

E|-------------------------------------|
B|--5/-7\-5/---9\---7/--11\--9---------|
G|-------------------------------------|
D|-------------------------------------|
A|-------------------------------------|
E|-------------------------------------|

Try sliding a chord, a power chord for example. In this tab form a C5 chord and slide up to the D5 Chord. This is done a lot in modern rock song.

E|------------|
B|------------|
G|------------|
D|---5/--7----|
A|---3/--5----|
E|------------|

Sometimes you may want to pick a note and just slide it down until it fades out. In this example just pluck the note on the 9th fret of the A string and then slide down with no end spot. This is done to added color and a fade sound to your playing. You can also reverse this and do a slide up.

E|------------|
B|------------|
G|------------|
D|------------|
A|----9\------|
E|------------|

Now is the best part. Practice doing all kinds of slides you don’t need any book or rules, just make things up that sound cool to you.