Sliding Techniques Every Guitar Player Should Know

Sliding Techniques
Every Guitar Player Should Know

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Welcome to part 2 of this two-part series dedicated to enhancing your soloing and improvisation skills on the guitar.

Our goal is to teach you how to incorporate creative phrasing elements into your playing, enabling you to add more depth and emotion to your guitar solos and improvisations.

One of the most effective ways to add flair and speed to your playing is by mastering the sliding technique.

We'll be covering five ways to use the sliding technique, allowing you to to express yourself better while soloing or improvising.

The best way to learn those sliding techniques, is to either:
-Stop and practice each one individually.
-Go through the entire lesson, and then come back and start adding those.

Let's go!

Sliding Technique #1: The Unison Slide.

To perform the unison slide, we're essentially:
-Playing the note.
-Sliding right back into it.

Check out min @ for a quick demonstration.
It's worth mentioning that you can perform the unison slide from below, or above.

Check out min @ for a quick demonstration.

Disclaimer: You don't necessarily need to slide from nowhere. Instead, sliding from 2-3 frets away can produce the same desired effect.

Sliding Technique #2: The Unison Slide On Different Strings.

With this sliding technique, we play a note and then slide into the same note on a different string. This differs from the previous sliding technique where we slid towards a target note on the same string.

Check out min @ for a quick demonstration.

Just like in the previous sliding technique, we can perform this sliding technique from below, or above.

Check out min @ for a quick demonstration.

Sliding Technique #3: The Backslide.

We're essentially just sliding into a note from nowhere, so this very closely resembles the unison slide on one string. The main difference is that you don't play the note before sliding into it.

Check out min @ for a quick comparison between the two.

The backside is a really cool way to switch things up when you're soloing.
Incorporating this sliding technique can add variety to your playing and capture your audience's attention, more on that in this step by step guide to ''Instantly Improvise Better'' on guitar.

Sliding Technique #4: The Vibrato Slide.

Just like the name suggests, the vibrato slide mimics the sound of a vibrato using slides instead of the typical finger vibrato technique.
Despite sounding very similar to a regular vibrato, the vibrato slide is a unique and powerful phrasing element

Check out min @ for a quick demonstration.

Sliding Technique #5: The Octave Double Stop Slide.

For the octave double stop slides, we're doubling the same note by simultaneously playing:
-The note
-It's higher octave

Check out min @ for a quick demonstration.

A small variation you can do here is slide between both octaves instead.
Note: You can go back and forth between the 2 examples for even more soloing freedom.

Check out min @ for a quick demonstration.

Final Words

Mastering these techniques will help you be more expressive and add more flavor to your guitar solos and improvisations.

Take your time to practice, and gradually incorporate those sliding techniques to your everyday playing.

Did you miss part 1? We covered ''5 essential bending techniques every guitar player should know''.

If you want to learn a few licks to incorporate all these sliding techniques in your playing, this ''advanced minor pentatonic licks'' lesson, sliding across different pentatonic positions, all over the guitar fretboard does exactly that!

Want to sound less boring when jamming with others? Do you want to create beautiful melodies and express yourself more freely on guitar?

Then you need to check out our premium guitar training program "guitar elevation'', it might be just the thing you've been missing!

 

 
Author: Jack Haddad
Jack Haddad is an expert Guitar educator and teacher and has been helping guitarists, through his innovative methods, get incredible results on the guitar, whether they want to jam with friends or rock out on the big stage.

You can find out more about Jack Haddad's teaching here: https://www.jhguitarschool.com
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