Size

It's nice if the slide fits your finger snugly, but it's not essential (people manage with bottlenecks and Coricidn bottles after all - you just use an adjacent finger to support the slide).

Some companies I'd recommend if you wanted a slide to fit your finger nicely would be - Diamond Bottlenecks in the UK for glass slides, and DaddySlide in Germany for metal slides. I have slides from both these companies and LOVE them.

Material

Glass, brass, stainless steel, ceramic, wood etc etc.

There are SO many materials you can use for a slide and they all have their own sonic characteristics.

Glass is generally a bit warmer than metal, and wood doesn’t sustain as long…
You'll also find that the thickness of the slide impact the tone of it (as well as the weight).

Probably the best place to start is with what your heroes use, if you're trying to chase their sound.

Weight

This is an important consideration for a number of reasons.

A heavier slide will lead to fatigue quicker if you're playing for a long time.
The balance between action, string gauge and slide weight is crucial - a heavier slide means you'll need thicker strings to maintain a lower action.

Finding the right slide for your music is very important - at the end of the day, slides are reasonably inexpensive, so try out a bunch of them and have fun!

There's more info in the free Getting Ready to Slide course HERE.

What’s your favourite slide?!

Sometimes it’s been in a computer file, sometimes in a notebook.

I like to think of three types of practice diaries:

1. Journal - this is after the fact - recording what was practised (including details like tempo, song sections worked on, how I feel about my practice that day, maybe some indication of what to work on next). This is great if you miss some days practising and what to pick up where you left off, or if you just want to look back over the last few months or years.

2. Practice Plan - this is a list of what you are going to work on over the next month (it’s also worth having a longer “laundry” list that contains everything you ever want to work on - this feeds into your month plan over time). If you have tons of stuff, you could divide the month into “A” and “B” lists, which you alternate on a daily basis.

3. Music Notes - this is a manuscript book where you jot down licks, musical concepts, exercises etc. Michael Brecker was famous for his versions of this, and guitarist Carl Verheyen has numerous “lick books” he’s filled up over the years.

Have I missed anything? How do you keep records of what you practise?

Let’s just say, on first meeting, he can be an imposing figure.
He doesn’t suffer fools gladly and made that clear right from the start!

With that said, I owe more to Tronz than anyone I can think of for the future direction of my guitar playing and my conception of music. Over the next 18 months, he opened my ears to how slide guitar (and music in general) could sound.

I experienced first-hand the most intense musicianship I have ever witnessed, both from the stage and in my weekly lessons with him. I spent as much time as I could at his fountain of knowledge, turning up to every office hour he had, and catching every chance I could to hear him play.

I remember one concert with Jerry Granelli’s V16 in particular that was mind-blowing. Every single note Tronzo played burst with intention, emotion and meaning. His playing was untouchable.
A solo set he played before a Club D’Elf gig was out of this world too. It’s no exaggeration to say that I never heard him touch a guitar without pouring 100% into everything he played.

My lessons would often start with Tronzo playing chords to a song and insisting I solo over it, despite my protesting that I had no idea what he was playing (incredible training for building improvising confidence).

Some of the things we discussed weren’t specifically slide guitar related, and sometimes the discussion turned to the doubts we all have as fledgling musicians. I came out of every lesson with renewed confidence and belief in the power of music.

I believe David Tronzo to be one of the most unique musicians I have ever come across. As a slide player he is utterly unique and unparalleled, and as a teacher he is one of the most inspiring on the planet.

Tronzo is pretty old school - he’s not on social media, doesn’t have a website etc. There’s great live stuff on YouTube, and an excellent My Music Masterclass video. I’d also highly recommend renting The Guitar Show episode with him on (episode 35, GS49): https://vimeo.com/ondemand/theguitarshowseries

Check out all the Tronzo Trio records (I particularly love the live album “Yo! Hey!”), Spanish Fly, Jerry Granelli’s V16, the album with Reeves Gabrels, and basically anything and everything that has his unmistakable slide guitar and musical imprint on it.

But, what many guitarists don't think to do is work out other parts played on other instruments...

You can learn an enormous amount from, for example, saxophone, trumpet, piano, bass, drums etc.

And the BIG one is... singers.

Trying to emulate vocal phrasing and evoke that human quality on their instrument is something all instrumentalists strive for. After all, music is expressive, and there's nothing more expressive to us than the human voice.

Trying to find ways of replicating your favourite singers' vocal phrasing with slide guitar is time well spent!

Some singers I have spent time transcribing include - Aretha Franklin, Donny Hathaway, Joni Mitchell and Sam Cooke and more!

Start with “Mary Don’t You Weep” from Aretha’s incredible Amazing Grace album :-)

Set a timer, say for 20mins and write.

Every day.

Before practising anything else.

Sometimes I stumble across a great idea.
Most times I don't.
But I stick with it.

As the picture shows, I spent 7 days just trying to get started - Version (7) finally revealed itself as something worth developing. Which I'll continue doing.

The moral of the story - be persistent, be consistent, and don't stop till you've finished the piece of music.

How do you write your music?!

I’ve found myself listening to Clapton’s “Layla” album again recently. 

In places the singing is as painfully raw as Robert Johnson’s, offering a window directly into a tortured soul. Like Johnson, Clapton plays and sings like he has a “Hellhound on his Trail”, as he struggles with demons and a love for his friend’s wife.

The whole album has these qualities, but take a listen to “Have You Ever Loved A Woman”.

Clapton’s solo after Duane Allman’s slide solo is terrifying. Not because it’s technically advanced. His note choices aren’t particularly sophisticated and rhythmically it’s rather primitive too. But I defy you to tell me that you cannot understand the playing on an emotional level. It’s hairs on the back of your neck stuff (and I speak as someone who’s not a huge Clapton fan).

It’s so powerful that I want to grab my guitar and learn to play it. But I know that just playing the notes and rhythms will never be enough.

What is important is my (and your) reaction to this music. The emotional and expressive quality of improvisation is something you don’t get by just copying the notes and learning the solo. On a superficial level, it’s a way of developing some vocabulary, to give you something to say. But the power of improvisation (and music) lies not in WHAT you say, but in HOW it is said.

What is behind the notes is a man in turmoil. Clapton’s ability to convey this at an extremely deep level through the way he plays is what counts. There have been periods in his career where his status as “Guitar God” has been highly questionable – this isn’t one of them.

Here’s my take on it.

In general, the thicker the string, the fatter the tone.
Which means you might think the best thing to do is go for the heaviest strings you can find.
Yes, and no…

If you want to play “conventional” guitar on the same guitar (this could mean either playing normal chords or melodies/lines without the slide, and/or playing behind the slide), having really heavy strings is going to be challenging.

Not to mention the fact that throwing massive strings on an old guitar (eg a 1930 National) might be a recipe for a broken neck :-(

As a guide, here’s what I use. Different gauges for different tunings (with thicker strings for lower tunings). Note that I always bump up the top string by a gauge or two as I find that string to be rather thin sounding in most cases.

Standard tuning = 12 - 14 - 18 - 28 - 38 - 49 (D’Addario 11s with the top string replaced with a 12)

Open G = 13 - 16 - 24w - 32 - 42 -52 (D’Addario 12s with the top string replaced with a 13)

Open D = 14 - 17 - 26w - 36 - 46- 46 (D’Addario 13s with the top string replaced with a 14)

Open C = 17 - 19 - 26w - 32 - 44 - 56 (Curt Mangan custom set)

These are all standard nickel wound strings (personally, I don’t use flat wound strings, though I know some people like them for slide).

"What could this strange thing be?" he thought.
Shyly, he touched it with his stubby paws.

"PLONK!"
The strange thing made an awful sound.

So, the bear left.
But the next day he came back, and the day after that too.
And for days and weeks and months and years, until eventually...

The sounds that came from the strange thing were beautiful, and the bear had grown big and strong and grizzly.

When the bear played, he felt so happy.
The sound took him away from the forest, and he dreamed of strange and wonderful lands.

It wasn't long before the other bears in the forest were drawn to the clearing.
Every night, a crowd gathered to listen to the magical melodies going from the bear and the strange thing.

Then one night, a girl and her father came across the clearing.
They told the bear that the strange thing was a piano and the sounds it made were music.

(from "The Bear and the Piano" by David Litchfield)

The moral? 
This is exactly like playing slide guitar, whether you're a beginner, or been playing for years. We all have moments when we feel like the bear ("PLONK!"), but stick with it and your persistence will pay off! Music is a wondrous thing... 

• Warm up properly (check out the British Association for Performing Arts Medicine warmup exercises HERE)

• Drink plenty of water whilst practising

• Do stretches after the session.

• Stand up to practise sometimes. Not only does it prepare you better for gigs, but it also helps to counteract poor seated posture.

If you are having problems (eg with RSI, tendonitis etc), you might want to check out the Alexander Technique, or the Feldenkrais Method.

I was lucky enough to study with Mick in 2005, in his last semester before he went on sabbatical. First indications weren’t great - I remember him starting a small alarm clock on his desk as I walked in the door, he expressed great surprise that I was there for a lesson with him in my first semester at Berklee, and then gruffly demanded “what took you so long?” “and what’s wrong with studying in Europe?”

Once the ice had been broken, he was as inspiring as everyone says - I used to practically run down downstairs to the cafe after each lesson to write down everything I could possibly remember, all the words of wisdom in response to my questions (of which there many… I wish sometimes I’d just stayed quite and let him teach me what he thought I needed!)

By the end of the semester, he was talking about his mother, showing me pictures of her and inviting me to pop in anytime at lunchtime to say hello the following semester (which I never had the courage to do, sadly).

I continue to think about what he taught me in person, and in his books The Advancing Guitarist, Mr Goodchord’s Almanacs of Voice-leading etc, and I listen to his music regularly.

A deep, wonderful musician, teacher and human being. Thank you Mick.

In conclusion, just to mention that though the Voice-leading Almanacs are long out-of-print, you can download them in PDF form here (this is an official site, set up by a friend of Mick's after he passed away): https://modernguitarharmony.com/2023/06/03/the-mick-goodrick-almanacs/