-
A Multitude of Small Wins This Week
I found this week’s daily challenges extremely easy so that left me time to play a lot of slide guitar. In anticipation of the slide lesson on this week’s Acoustic Tuesday show, last week I started Tony Furtado’s Slide Guitar 101 course from the Skills section. So glad I did, because it allowed me to easily perform the slide lick that Tony taught on Tuesday. Not only that, I played acoustic slide, 3 string cigar box (CBG) slide, 4 string CBG slide, and electric slide. My electric guitar that I’ve dedicated to slide has a wraparound tailpiece/bridge which I finally took the time to adjust for proper intonation. Took about an hour, but I learned a lot since I’ve never adjusted a wraparound before. I also learned/explored several new open tunings, D, E and A. I’m only sorry I didn’t do it before. I like all 3, but I really like A. I found 4 different ways to tune A, which was pretty interesting in and of itself.
I also made a decision to dedicate my no name 00 Mahogany acoustic guitar, that I was going to sell, to slide exclusively. The action is higher than I like, even tuned down a whole step and with Santa Cruz Parabolic Low Tension Strings. I can’t get it any lower. It needs to have the frets replaced and probably a neck reset. Each one of these cost more than I paid for the guitar. It only cost $225, but I hesitate to sell due to it’s serious mojo factor. There are no markings on the inside or outside to indicate date or place of manufacture, but it looks to be Japanese, probably from the 70s. Since I don’t want to spend the money it would take to make it playable as a regular 6 string, I think the decision to dedicate it to slide is a winner. That way I don’t lose my mojo, which would be really horrible, and I don’t struggle to play it. I used it for the slide lessons and it sounded great tuned to open D.
Now that I’ve looked back at it, it was an extremely productive week. I’ve never played that much slide before and I was feeling pretty good about how it felt and sounded. I have been wanting to spend more time playing slide and I think this week showed me how quickly I can improve if I do it a little every day, just like TAC. Looking forward to next week for sure.
-
9 Replies
-
Sounds like a great week of small wins to me! Keep it up…
-
That’s awesome @GuitarGeni 👍😱👍 Way to work that mojo (lol)🤩 I’ve done the same thing with my 2nd acoustic, but I haven’t been as diligent as you. I’ve only done the open D tuning.🤔
-
Bill, I highly recommend exploring more open tunings. I was stuck in open G since that was the one that was recommended for cigar box guitar. That’s how I got started with slide in the first place. Currently I’m looking into open E, which seems to be popular with guys like Duane Allman and Derek Trucks. I’m nowhere near that precise, but it is interesting to listen to.
I had a great time last week figuring out old songs like the Rolling Stones, Start Me Up. I forget what tuning it was, but it was a blast. The most FUN I’ve had in a long time!
-
I’ll take that recommendation graciously @GuitarGeni 👍 I was lucky enough to see the Allman Brothers live circa 1970. The band was awesome, but when I saw (and heard) Duane Allman with that Gibson playing slide – the earth stood still for me. I’d never played guitar before, but that’s what started this whole ball of wax for me😱 I love listening (and trying to play) anything slide guitar🤩 I’ve fooled around with it when I was (a lot) younger, but now I feel like I have a better handle (not control of) on it and a destination is in sight. My daughter loves listening to me play slide, my wife, not so much😎
-
-
-
@GuitarGeni What a GREAT week you’ve had with your guitars. I would love to see a video of you performing with the slide when you have time. Fantastic wins!
-
This reply was modified 3 years, 11 months ago by Loraine.
-
Not quite ready for Prime Time, but one of these days I will. I’ll work on that lick that Tony played last week and post it soon. 😺
-
😄
-
-
This reply was modified 3 years, 11 months ago by
-
That is truly inspiring. It’s what I want to do over the next 90 days so I’m off now to get on the slide course and see what it’s all about.
-
WOW , that is a lot to get done for a ‘small’ win. The Acoustic Tuesday did make me start thinking about playing around with a slide guitar. Thank you for your post. I’ll look into the Skill Course that is offered on the site.
Log in to reply.