IT'S BEEN RUMORED UP ON THE MOUNTAIN THAT ON HEARING THE SWEET MOTIFS OF A SOUTHERN SLIDESMAN    THEY INSPIRED A NO-COUNT, CHEATING, STEALING, LYING MAN    TO STAND UP AND CONFESS HIS PURE SOUTHERN GOSPEL TRUTH TO THE LORD TO WASH AWAY HIS SINS                                              IMMEDIATELY FOLLOWING THE NO-COUNT, CHEATING, STEALING, LYING MAN'S PUBLIC BEATINGS AND HANGING          THE TOWN'S MAYOR ORDERED THE PLAYING OF SLIDE BLUES MUSIC INSIDE THE COURTHOUSE          WHILE COURT WAS IN SESSION            TO INSPIRE TRUTH    FAIRNESS    HONESTY    AND SWIFT JUSTICE                      NOW    TWO YEARS AFTER THE MAYOR'S BLUES LAW TOOK HOLD                            THE LAST PRACTICING LAWYER IN TOWN WAS HUNG LAST TUESDAY EVENIN'                AS ELMORE JAMES' BLUES ANTHEM: "LOOK ON YONDER WALL"        WAS BROADCAST OVER A PEAVEY PUBLIC ADDRESS SYSTEM TO A CHEERING, STANDING-ROOM-ONLY CROWD OF DIE-HARD BLUES FANS.
 
TUNINGS: PART I: On this page I'll be discussing the open tunings I use and the bottle neck slides I work with. For the player who already is a slide player, you might not make any new discoveries with the info on this page, but for someone who is just starting out on slide you may want to keep reading. The popularity of using objects to slide on strings as it applies to the blues genre pretty much came about through the influence of Hawaiian musical troupes touring the US in the 20's & 30's. Blues musicians began experimenting with slack keys they picked up from the travelling musicians, particularly open G & D and their variants.

G tuning also is referred to as Spanish, Slack Key, Hawaiian or Sabastopol tuning. The strings are tuned as follows: D G D G B D.

D tuning is known as Vestapol tuning. Strings are tuned as follows: D A D F# A D.

Though there is an endless stream alternate tunings to be had, these are the two tunings I primarily use at this time. I never tune my guitars "up" to A or E tunings because I don't like subjecting my guitars to higher string tensions as a rule. The quickest and most convenient way to play in the key of A or D is to capo at the second fret in G or D tunings respectively.

Without going into a deep dicussion about bottleneck slide technique and style, I'd like to recommend to anyone that is just beginning on bottleneck slide to consider doing themselves a huge favor and get Bob Brozman's videos or DVD's on playing bottleneck blues. His 3 instructional pieces will help you create a solid foundation in style and most importantly, techniques that are associated with good sounding slide playing. Bob focuses mostly in G tuning, but folks like Mike Dowling's instructionals works you out with D tuning and a lot of fingerpicking. There are also websites that have chord generating software for alternate tunings that are pretty cool too. You'll find those links on the link page.

SLIDES: PART II CLICK HERE