How to Play a Bottleneck Guitar
- 1). Visit a guitar store and experiment with different bottlenecks/slides to find a sound that suits you. Bottlenecks come in a variety of styles such as glass, metal and ceramic. Glass produces a more mellow tone than the metal ones. The ceramic bottlenecks produce a somewhat thicker and darker sound. They also come in various degrees of thickness and length.
- 2). Tune the guitar to open tunings. Opening tuning involves tuning the guitar to a particular chord. This makes it possible to play a chord simply by placing the bottleneck on the strings. Open tuning also makes it possible to play individual melody notes while easily playing your own chordal accompaniment. The two main tunings for bottleneck guitar are open G and Open D. Open G is D-G-D-G-B-D. Open D is D-A-D-F#-A-D.
- 3). Place the bottleneck on either the third or fourth finger of your left hand. This is a matter of feel. Wearing the bottleneck on the fourth finger allows you to still fret the guitar with the other three fingers. American blues singer-songwriter Bonnie Raitt actually places the bottleneck on her second finger.
- 4). Study chord positions in open G and open D tunings. Since the open tunings change the relationship of the notes on the fretboard, you'll need to relearn the fretboard. This is easier than it seems. The open strings and 12th fret are the I chord, the fifth fret is the IV chord, the seventh fret is the V chord. Strum the strings from the sixth to the first. This is a G chord. Lay your finger across the fifth fret to play a C chord and across the seventh fret to play a D chord. Lay your finger across the 12th fret. This a G chord an octave above the open strings. The same thing applies to open D. Play the open strings or 12th fret for a D chord, the fifth fret for a G and the seventh fret for an A.
- 5). Lay the bottleneck on the first three strings of the 12th fret. Allow the bottleneck to sit on the strings. Don't press down on the strings. Lay the other fingers of the left hand down on the strings behind the bottleneck. This mutes unwanted overtones. Play the three strings and add vibrato by moving the bottleneck back and forth on the 12 fret.
- 6). Learn the blues scale in open G and the blues scale in open D. The G blues scale is G-B flat-C-D-F. The D blues scale is D-F-G-A-C. Take the time to familiarize yourself with the notes on the fretboard. First play the notes without the bottleneck. Fret the notes with your fingers like a regular guitar. After learning the notes, repeat the exercise with the bottleneck.
- 7). Incorporate bass licks into your bottleneck playing. Play the sixth, fifth, and fourth strings with your thumb while playing chords or single notes with the bottleneck.
- 8). Practice with a metronome. The Mississippi bottleneck players all had a strong and aggressive sense of rhythm. Bottleneck guitar is a self-contained guitar style in which the guitar plays the bass and the rhythm while playing the melody line or guitar fills with the bottleneck.