Slide Guitar 14
Nobody's Fault But Mine

This 8 bar blues song comes from the great Blind Willie Johnson.

It features some really quick slide movement and single notes (rather than chords)at the 5th fret - the tune stays on a D chord throughout.

To get these single notes you can do one of two things - either R/H damp strings that aren't wanted by resting fingers on the strings or reverse angle the slide so that just the tip of the slide comes into contact with the string you want to play [ this is the method I use ].

Try this with the note found at the 5th fret 5th string ( D ) - hold the slide flat at the 5th fret but with the bottom string open and then lift the end that's on the top string a little bit and try to get the note on the 5th string to come out without any of the others.

In the octave higher version of the tune I angle the slide normally to get single notes on the top string followed by a D note at the 5th fret 2nd string which I get using the tip of the slide.

As in the last lesson there is a rhythm figure using the open strings but this time the melody is too complex to play the rhythm at the same time.

You kind of get the rhythm going and then fit it into any available gap in the melody.

The Tab