How to play slide guitar like the world's greatest players

Figure 7. Jeff Beck

Jeff Beck plays slide in standard tuning and wears his slide on his second finger.

Jeff Beck plays slide in standard tuning and wears his slide on his second finger. (Image credit: Mick Hutson/Redferns)

Like Landreth, Beck is a slide innovator. He plays in standard tuning and wears his slide on his fret hand’s 2nd finger. But he will also sometimes hold the slide like a pen in his pick hand, tapping it onto the strings to create very high-pitched notes past the end of the fretboard. 

This unusual technique requires extreme accuracy, as the notes are very close together in this area.

The first eight bars of this example illustrate Beck’s “regular” (conventional) slide technique. In the second section (bars 9-16), you’ll need to hold the slide in your pick hand with the aforementioned pen-like grip. 

Mute the strings by laying your fret hand across them and sound the notes by tapping the slide onto the string on the virtual frets indicated. 

Tip: You can check your pitch by sounding the note an octave lower on the same string, which would be exactly 12 frets lower.

(Image credit: Future)

Thank you for reading 5 articles this month**

Join now for unlimited access

US pricing $3.99 per month or $39.00 per year

UK pricing £2.99 per month or £29.00 per year 

Europe pricing €3.49 per month or €34.00 per year

*Read 5 free articles per month without a subscription

Join now for unlimited access

Prices from £2.99/$3.99/€3.49

Jimmy Brown

Over the past 30 years, Jimmy Brown has built a reputation as one of the world's finest music educators, through his work as a transcriber and Senior Music Editor for Guitar World magazine and Lessons Editor for its sister publication, Guitar Player. In addition to these roles, Jimmy is also a busy working musician, performing regularly in the greater New York City area. Jimmy earned a Bachelor of Music degree in Jazz Studies and Performance and Music Management from William Paterson University in 1989. He is also an experienced private guitar teacher and an accomplished writer.