In this lesson we’ll take a quick look at adapting some slide (a.k.a. bottleneck) guitar techniques to your blues banjo playing.

The slide style of blues playing utilizes a small cylindrical implement known as a ‘slide’.

Usually made from a piece of glass or metal tubing, the slide is worn around a finger of the left hand and moved up and down the strings, creating a host of very unique and expressive sounds.

Early blues players were fond of removing the necks from glass bottles to be used as slides, which explains the common use of the term ‘bottleneck’ when referencing the slide style of stringed instrument playing.

These days, you can purchase a pre-made slide online or from your local music shop. There are slides of virtually all shapes, sizes, and materials available and each specimen will produce a slightly different result, sonically speaking.

For now, I wouldn’t worry too much about finding the perfect slide, just get your hands on one.

Any slide will do during the early learning stages. The only thing you’ll need to make sure of is that the ring and/or pinky finger of your left hand will fit comfortably inside of it.

Once you’ve got a slide of your own you can use this lesson to apply it to your playing.

Once that's accomplished, move on to the next song study, which incorporates some lovely slide passages...