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"and with a slide of the guitar..." by Rhodri http://timewasting.net Before the pitch bend wheel, lo, there was the fretless electric bass guitar. Before the fretless electric bass guitar, there was the musical saw. And before the musical saw, there was the slide guitar. That's probably totally wrong, chronology was never my strong point. But three bullet points always get you off to a good start, so I'm not going to panic about it. Anyway, this is all about learning to love your microtones. Pianos got rid of all those spaces in between the 12 notes we all know and love. Orchestral string and wind players know full well that those grey areas exist, but during their education they're warded away from them, like inquisitive babies kept away from the cut crystal glasses. But it's such an obvious area of musical expression and one so much ignored. Guitars are still omnipresent in all rock music and still the fretboard rules the roost. Press down hard, make it major, make it minor, make it something. Forget it! Make it wobble. Make it seasick. Make it lurch. You've got the opportunity NOT to quite hit the note, and it's going to say more about you than strumming that barre chord, or for that matter pressing middle C on your Korg M1. It may be a slightly pointless kind of freedom but it's there to be grabbed. Robert Johnson played his acoustic guitar with a knife handle or the neck of a beer bottle. You won't find either implement for sale on Denmark Street, don't bother looking. People often talk about instruments being an extension of the person, but this is the real deal. By all accounts he was a complete bastard and died in his 20s, but without him, there'd be no Shakin Stevens. Joke. But it's probably true, unfortunately. Captain Beefheart had two slides going at once on his meisterwerk Trout Mask Replica, a glass finger and a steel appendage. These in tandem, along with the man himself - who recorded his vocals without being able to hear the backing track - makes for an incredibly random, unique and beautiful world of sound. I was spurred on to write in praise of the slide by hearing Gilded Lil's forthcoming LP, they are from Edinburgh, they are possibly the best rock group in the country, and exhibit all the things that make the slide guitar so fantastic. It made me remember all the gigs I went to in the last 10 years with scruffy guitarists wrestling with these small metal tubes.... Silverfish had Fuzz, a dreadlocked blur of bony fingers, taking his slide and rocketing it up the guitar neck, while playing through about a dozen Boss foot pedals with wires hanging out... Jesus Lizard! - while David Yow got his cock out for the umpteenth time, it was Duane Denison who rocked my world ... And The Noseflutes, delicate and sublime... Here's an mp3 with some clips. It's only 500K or so, so don't panic. Learn to love the slide. Learn to love the slightly flat, the over-sharp. Maybe learn to play bass with a biscuit tin. 0:00 - Captain Beefheart, from Trout Mask Replica 0:07 - Robert Johnson, from the Complete Robert Johnson 0:15 - Silverfish, from Fat Axl 0:27 - Captain Beefheart, from Safe As Milk 0:32 - Noseflutes, from Mellow Throated 0:40 - Gilded Lil, from Corpus Delicti 0:44 - Jesus Lizard, from Goat 0:53 - Noseflutes, from Zib Zob and his Kib Kob Rhodri's site is at http://timewasting.net comment on this article e-mail this to a friend start a discussion 
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