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Michael Johnson >> Guitar Techniques I >>


Teacher: Welcome class to the lesson series on guitar techniques. This lesson will cover a very important technique used by guitarists, the technique is Sliding. We have a lot to cover, so I'll start off with the basics and build from there, at the end of the lesson you will apply these techniques to riffs I'm sure you all have heard before. Let's start of with a basic ascending half-step slide.

Part 1 - Slide 1 - Half-Step

Part 1 - Slide 1 - Half-Step

Teacher: Make sure you hold the note firmly and then slide, you only pick the 1st note and let the sliding technique carry the sound. Here's a ascending whole-step slide.

Part 1 - Slide 2 - Whole-Step

Part 1 - Slide 2 - Whole-Step

Teacher: I will move through the 1st Part quickly because these should be easy to do, I have many exercises ahead. Here's an ascending one & half- step slide.

Part 1 - Slide 3 - 1 & Half-Step

Part 1 - Slide 3 - 1 & Half-Step

Teacher: You can apply these techniques to descending the neck, here's a descending half-step slide.

Part 1 - Slide 4 - Half-Step

Part 1 - Slide 4 - Half-Step

Teacher: Basically the same technique, here's the descending whole-step slide.

Part 1 - Slide 5 - Whole-Step

Part 1 - Slide 5 - Whole-Step

Teacher: And descending one & half-step slide.

Part 1 - Slide 6 - 1 & Half-Step

Part 1 - Slide 6 - 1 & Half-Step

Teacher: Let's combine the ascending and descending.

Part 1 - Slide 7 - Half-Step

Part 1 - Slide 7 - Half-Step

Teacher: Whole-step.

Part 1 - Slide 8 - Whole-Step

Part 1 - Slide 8 - Whole-Step

Teacher: One & half-steps.

Part 1 - Slide 9 - 1 & Half-Step

Part 1 - Slide 9 - 1 & Half-Step

Teacher: OK, the final basic example, sliding one octave.

Part 1 - Slide 10 - Octave

Part 1 - Slide 10 - Octave

Teacher: So you can see the basic combinations, now let's apply these to scale patterns. Here's the first exercise:

Part 2 - Slide Scales - E Major 1

Part 2 - Slide Scales - E Major 1

Teacher: In this example you will use the E Major Scale on the 2nd string. This might get a little tricky and is a great exercise, remember you only pick the 1st note, and then the sliding will produce the other notes. Make sure you have good contact to the fretboard to produce the notes. Knowing the scale will help will you focus on the sliding aspect. Here is another sliding pattern you can try using the E Major scale.

Part 2 - Slide Scales - E Major 2

Part 2 - Slide Scales - E Major 2

Teacher: This exercise is different, you play an ascending and descending slide between the interval changes of the E Major scale pattern. In this case you will pick every time you shift to the next interval. Here's another exercise using E Major.

Part 2 - Slide Scales - E Major 3

Part 2 - Slide Scales - E Major 3

Teacher: In this example you ascend and descend 4 notes at a time. Let's change to another scale pattern, this time you will use the A Minor Pentatonic that uses all 6-strings.

Part 2 - Slide Scales - A Min Pen 1

Part 2 - Slide Scales - A Min Pen 1

Teacher: This is a very interesting approach to playing the A Minor Pentatonic. Notice you ascending and descend using the pattern on each string. You can also use the other minor pentatonic box patterns as well. In this next exercise you use box 1 & 2 of the A Minor Pentatonic.

Part 2 - Slide Scales - A Min Pen 2

Part 2 - Slide Scales - A Min Pen 2

Teacher: This pattern might be cool to use in a solo in Am. Try it sometime.

skip: Can you alt fingers to build calluses and strength?

Teacher: Teacher: You bet Skip, in fact that brings up a very good point, you should use all of your fingers when practicing these exercises. The series is to help open your eyes to new possibilities. Let's apply sliding to intervals and chords. This first example uses double-stops.

Part 3 - Slide Double-Stops 1

Part 3 - Slide Double-Stops1

Teacher: This technique is commonly used by blues players and guitarists like Hendrix, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Clapton,... Here's another example using double-stops.

Part 3 - Slide Double-Stops 2

Part 3 - Slide Double-Stops 2

Teacher: All kinds of tunes!

Part 3 - Slide Double-Stops 2

Part 3 - Slide Double-Stops2

Teacher: You can also use octaves as well, try this example.

Part 3 - Slide Octaves 1

Part 3 - Slide Octaves1

Teacher: Make sure the 4th string is muted when playing these octaves, your 1st finger can lay slightly over the 4th string, muting the note. You can apply sliding to chords as well. Try this example.

Part 3 - Slide Chords1

Part 3 - Slide Chords1

Teacher:
In this example you start with the Am7 chord, then slide a whole step. You shift the fingering for the 5th and 7th frets, and then back to the Am7 fingering for the last 2 chords. All of these chords are harmonically related, notice how they all share the open G string. This chord combination are called "Polytonal."

submission: I keep touching the chord in between.

Teacher:
Submission, try these chord slowly at first and make adjustments to your hands positions.

skip: Is this the style of Wes?

Teacher: Skip, very good point, Wes Montgomery used octaves all the time, this is signature to his sound. This brings up the part for applying sliding to classic riffs. Our 1st riff is a Hendrix style riff.

Part 4 - Hendrix Riff 1

Part 4 - Hendrix Riff 1

Teacher: This riff uses the Major Pentatonic scale pattern which is great for sliding. Here's the basic scale pattern in G Major Pentatonic.

Part 3 - Slide - G Maj Pen 1

Part 3 - Slide - G Maj Pentatonic

Teacher: Here's the next Hendrix style riff.

Part 4 - Hendrix Riff 2

Part 4 - Hendrix Riff 2

Teacher: Wes Montgomery had a big influence on Hendrix as you can see by these octaves.

rick:
How do you hit the 2 strings without hitting the middle one?

Teacher: Rick, make sure the 1st finger mutes the 4th string. Here's another Hendrix style riff.

Part 4 - Hendrix Riff 3

Part 4 - Hendrix Riff 3

Teacher: Notice in this example you slide from a D chord that uses a 5 note on the 6th string, this adds more to the sound.

Teacher: Here's a Stones style riff, notice how the slides accent the overall riff.

Part 4 - Stones Riff 1

Part 4 - Stones Riff 1

Teacher: All the notes in this riff are related to the D chord, the sliding intervals make the riff sound very cool and signature to the Keith Richards sound. Here's another example.

Part 4 - Stones Riff 2

Part 4 - Stones Riff 2

Teacher: This example uses the same type of intervals. Well this concludes our lesson, see you next time!

skip: Great Job

dh: thanks

Audio: thanks...

Teacher: See you next lesson!

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