| Slide Guitar Basics, Part 2: Damping |
Slide Guitar Basics, Part 2: Damping
It should come as no surprise that when you rub a metal slide against metal strings, a lot of noise is produced. To control or reduce the noise, or at least get the notes louder than the noise, slide guitarists use a technique called damping, or blocking, which Orville explains and demonstrates in this lesson. There are three ways to do this. One involves laying the fingers of the fretting hand down on the strings behind the slide. Another is using the palm of your hand to damp the bass strings. And the third, a technique called pick blocking or pick guarding, is done by muting the notes you’ve just played with the fingers of your picking hand.
