Beyond Basics: Acoustic Slide Guitar: Guitar DVD

Wyatt's approach to slide guitar instruction cuts through vague terminology and shows you exactly where your hand goes, how the physics of the slide change your tone, and when to deploy these techniques in actual playing contexts. The DVD format lets you watch his hands move in real time, which is essential for understanding slide placement and the subtle pressure adjustments that separate fluid playing from clumsy execution.

Slide guitar opens the acoustic palette in a completely different way from fretting. The sound glides between pitches with a warmth and expressiveness that standard technique can't quite reach, and the learning curve is steep but rewarding once your fingers understand the physics of it.

Acoustic guitarists with solid standard technique who want to add slide to their vocabulary, whether for blues, folk, or fingerstyle contexts. Players who learn better from video instruction than tablature alone will benefit from seeing hand position, angle, and pressure demonstrated in motion.

• Experiment with different slide materials and weights before committing to one; the slide's mass affects your control, sustain, and the speed at which you can move between positions.
• Practice open tunings separately from standard tuning for several weeks; muscle memory for slide positions is tuning-specific, and your fingers will fight you if you jump between them too quickly.
• Record yourself playing a simple blues progression in slide to hear where your intonation wavers; slide guitar exposes pitch inconsistency immediately, and listening back reveals problems your ear misses in real time.
• Use vibrato as an expressive tool after you nail intonation, not as a cover for it; the wobble should enhance a note that's already in tune, not rescue one that isn't.

Use this as a self-paced resource for guitarists in your program who want to deepen their acoustic skills. It works well for ensemble members looking to expand their individual capabilities or for anyone building a personal recital repertoire that includes blues or slide-driven styles.

• Proper slide selection and hand positioning for consistent intonation
• Open tuning navigation and the differences between common tuning systems
• Coordinating capo placement with slide techniques
• Vibrato control and when to apply it expressively
• Muting strategies to eliminate unwanted sustain and string noise
• Mixing slide technique with standard fretting for fills and accompanying
• Special intonation adjustments unique to slide playing