How To Play Soul To Squeeze
In “Soul to Squeeze,” guitarist John Frusciante uses a slide and an unusual tuning – open Dm7 (low to high: D A D F A C) – to play soulful lead guitar melodies and fills over his standard – tuned rhythm guitar parts. As is often the case with slide players, Frusciante no doubt chose this tuning to help facilitate playing melodies conveniently in and around certain positions, with notes on different strings occasionally ringing together.
Playing slide guitar well requires sensitivity more than any other attribute. The slide should be held against the strings with just enough pressure to make solid contact with them and create a buzz-free tone, but without ever causing them to touch the frets. This requires a consistently light touch, which can take a bit of practice to acquire. The lower your guitar’s action (the height of the strings from the fretboard), the trickier it is to maintain just the right amount of pressure against the strings with the slide. Raising your action will widen that ideal pressure zone; in fact, many guitarists who play slide have separate guitars set up specifically for it, with both the bridge and nut raised.
Other important and challenging aspects of playing slide guitar are achieving good intonation (pitch centering) and producing a pleasing vibrato. To zero in on the “target pitch” (the note you want to sound) you need to position the slide directly over and parallel to the fret, rather than behind it, as you would when playing without the slide.
To produce a vibrato with the slide, wiggle it back and forth over the fret, allowing the slide to swing out above halfway to the next fret above and below that of the target note. Try to perform the technique with a very light, relaxed grip on the guitar neck, almost as if your fret hand were floating over the fretboard.
To help reduce string noise and eliminate unwanted notes/overtones coming from other strings as you play, try muting the strings behind the slide with any available fingers of your fret hand. Most slide players wear the slide on any digit but the index, so they’ll have at least one finger available to lay across the strings behind the slide for such muting purposes. Wearing the slide on your ring finger usually produces the best results, as it enables you to mute the strings with both your index and middle fingers while keeping the slide close to the center of your hand. You can also use the palm and/or fingers of your picking hand to mute any idle strings, as the very act of dragging the slide up and down the neck can cause them to vibrate sympathetically.
