Slide guitar

just to know if anyone has some techniques or helpfull tips on how to play slide guitar and the basics; tunnings, not to dos, dos, etc.

from what i know about slide you'll need to raise your action and tune to an open chord like d or g. that's really all i know.

You don't have to tune to an open chord. Having high action does make it a lot easier. My Schecter had fairly low action and that make it sounds brutal. A pro told me that when playing slide guitar his bread and butter was sliding into chord tones. So if there was a C7 chord, he would slide into the C, the E, or the Bb. (apparently 5ths aren't as interesting) Thats about all i know. OH! One last thing. Apparently sliding always sounds better if you use a beer bottle. Whether thats because you have to drink the beer to get to the bottle, or it actually sounds good, i have no idea.

Alot of slide guitarists dont use picks so they can mute notes with their right hand that they dont intend to hit, otherwise you will end up with strings vibrating from moving the slide. You can also mute the strings with your left hand if you want to use a pick, using your pinky finger to mute the higher strings, and your middle or index finger laying across the strings behind the slide to mute the lower strings (that is if your using the slide on your ring finger which is most common). Also, if you lay a finger across the strings behind the slide, it will give you a cleaner sound. If you dont do this, you will end up with a bluegrassy sound. I usually use open E tuning because i find it easier to find chords, since the bottom string is the same as in standard tuning, so if you want to play a G major, you would place your slide at the 3rd fret.

slide is REALLY something that is a taught skill. our musical lexicon is not fat enough to contain proper answers to questions with 3 or more 'right' answers.