Hi guys I'm not very talented but I am despatate to learn slide delta blues on my uke, I have a couple of builds on the stocks one a tenor resonator uke ,plus a pear drop shaped tenor but I am desperate to learn slide.Any imfamation on tuning and I mean basic imfamation and easy ta\bs would be apereciated.Or any local guys that would be willing to help this old guy would be apreciated.Mal (Hull Easat Yorkshire UK )
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Hey Mal, I don't know much about slides(except my older brother plays blues slide on his guitar) but this page from Ukulelehunt should help. http://ukulelehunt.com/2009/04/15/slide-ukulele/
1 Fit your chosen instrument with steel strings.
2 Buy,choose a slide that you like and gives you the sound that you want.
3 Decide on what tuning you want to use on the instrument - Vestapol or Spanish are the two main traditional ones.
4 Check out the how to play section on this website.
I play a lot of slide in and around this locale and no matter how much you learn and how good you get, there is always something new to take on board............................
Give me a call if you get nowhere.
What size ukulele do you use for slide and do you use guitar strings? what gauge and plkease exuse my ignarence
but what is Vestapol and Spanish tuning Mal
Hi there Mal,
I usually use a baritone sized cigar box ukulele for slide, but I have used a tenor sized uke. I use steel strings because they give a much,much better sound than the nylon type of ukulele strings. A baritone ukulele is usually tuned to the top 4 strings of a guitar (that is, low to high, D G B E) so although I use steel ukulele strings, guitar strings can be utilised. The guage is usually about 11 or 12 but I tend to use a slightly heavier "bass" string.
Vestapol and Spanish are two ways of tuning the in
strument. The idea is that the strings are tuned to an open chord. I would suggest that a Vestapol tuning is probably the best for a starter.
As the baritone is tuned D G B E - low to high - I would tune the strings to an open D chord. The notes that fit a D chord (the arpeggio) are D F# and A ( for interest the # means sharp) so the strings would be tuned (low to high) D F# A D. This gives the low D or a chord at the bottom and a higher D at the top in order to play the 'melody'.
This is Vestapol tuning and refers to the order that the strings are tuned.
With the use of the slide on the 5th and the 7th frets will give you the G and A chords which go with the 12 bar progression in the KEY of D. It gets confusing between the arpeggio and the key or scale but trust me, I am a slide guitarist.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!