There is nothing like the feel of a bottleneck sliding across your strings nor the sound that comes forth as it screams, growls and moans. What other tool can create the sweat or raw emotion of the human voice? But some believe that there is a sort of mystery behind the use of a bottleneck slide, but the reality is, anyone can learn to do it.

In this lesson Tom Feldmann teaches you the very basics of how to play with a bottleneck slide. Starting with the most important step, producing a single note, Tom then takes you through many simple exercises getting you comfortable sliding on single, double and multiple strings.

Starting in Open D (Vestapol) tuning, Tom uses Bukka White's Jitterbug Swing for the single string slide exercise, Robert Wilkins' I Wished I Was In Heaven for double string exercise, an Elmore James style shuffle for a multiple string exercise and closes with Guitar Rag by Sylvester Weaver which brings together all of the elements in one wonderful instrumental.

Since the basics were covered in Open D, the lesson closes with two songs in Open G (Spanish) tuning; Charley Patton's I'm Going Home and Bobby Grant's Nappy Headed Blues. These two songs will give you a solid foundation for single, double and multiple string slide in Open G tuning. Vibrato, left and right hand dampening, as well as alternating and monotonic bass are discussed in detail and used throughout the lesson. A detailed tab/music booklet is included as a PDF file on the DVD. In addition the original recordings of all the tunes are included.

115 minutes - Level 1/2 - Detailed tab/music PDF file on the DVD

Bukka White's Jitterbug Swing

Robert Wilkins' I Wished I Was In Heaven

Elmore James style

Guitar Rag by Sylvester Weaver

Charley Patton's I'm Going Home

Bobby Grant's Nappy Headed Blues