Slide in church

Hi,

I thought I'd try slide guitar this morning on a few song, but it didn't quite work out.

Anyone else out there try slide guitar for worship?

I've used pedal steel in church a few times, when its the right song for it.
And I could see myself using lap steel too some time (sacred steel style).
Saw a few of those guys a couple of months back, inspiring !

But I'm no good at slide on a regular guitar, can never get it to sound how I think it should.

Used one on Easter for "Death in His Grave". Worked like a charm, but the song's got a good slide part.

I guess I should just keep trying and wait for songs where it was appropriate. We did one song a certain way during practice the other day so I thought of a slide riff that would fit in. But come Sunday, it ended up being played different so I gave up in the slide.

Used one on Easter for "Death in His Grave". Worked like a charm, but the song's got a good slide part.

Do you have a tab for the slide part? You know one northeast Ohioan to another!

... tab for the slide part?

Looking at this helps. I'd not heard the song before, its good.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JM0a2YNH3gE

You obviously MUST have a touch of overdrive, plenty of delay and cave-like reverb to do this right. Something that I find helps with lap-steel in general.
You can sound like a lot while playing very little :-)

I played slide on this one and it came out wonderfully. I'd never heard of Mindy Smith before and really like this arrangement.


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I was going to use a slide yesterday on Hillsong's "Like Incense/In His Steps", but there was absolutely not time for me to transition from the lead in the chorus to putting the slide on. So I just played without it.

awhile back we were playing a song named "we will be changed" that has a prominent slide part and i actually pulled it off pretty good. but the slide is very simple on that, just slide the bgd strings from the 3d fret to the 12th. i didn't try to play a solo , at least i don't remember trying a solo. if i did, i'm sure i stank up the place.

A recent version (David Crowder?) of How Deep The Father's Love has some understated slide. I think the key is to keep the actual sliding between notes suggested rather than overt, esp in a worship context. It can be quite attention grabbing ie distracting. Intonation needs to be on the money, for this same reason.

"Come to Jesus" rocks

Looking at this helps. I'd not heard the song before, its good.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JM0a2YNH3gE

You obviously MUST have a touch of overdrive, plenty of delay and cave-like reverb to do this right. Something that I find helps with lap-steel in general.
You can sound like a lot while playing very little :-)

Thanks Colin, I'll have to sit down with this when I get a chance.

Used one on Easter for "Death in His Grave". Worked like a charm, but the song's got a good slide part.

Very neat to achieve an e-bow effect...without an e-bow!

Used one on Easter for "Death in His Grave". Worked like a charm, but the song's got a good slide part.

+1
the live version of that song is what inspired me to go buy a volume pedal and start playing slide in church. great stuff.

And yes, i use it as often as i can. Even then thats not as often as id like, though. I probably get to use it for one song or so, every 2/3 services.

I use it with a volume pedal and delay for a very cool ambient type effect. Its one of my favorite things to whip out.

If you want a cool slide woship song, check out "Like insence/step by step" by hillsong. I love it when we get to play that song in service.

I use it when it possible. It can sound great with the right song. In my experience it won't be accepted by all worship leaders so make sure yours is ok with it. I would never just start playing slide unless

a) I had introduced it before the service, in the practice
b) I could play it well (with practice at home if necessary)
c) the WL was cool with it

Slides great, until someone from the back yells; "Freebird!"

I use a lapsteel for In the Garden.

Slides great, until someone from the back yells; "Freebird!"

Made me think of our piano player :-)
He is very good at those clever changes from one song into another.
If he's improvising at the end of a service, he often drifts between worship songs that were in the service. But sometines he also manages to, ever so subtly, include a theme from a secular piece in between. Only the musicians notice it I think. Usualy the drummer and I look up, then at each other, then at him with a smile and he magcally drifts back to the worship theme. He's a talented guy so it goes real smooth and it does not feel out of place. A bit like adding a bit of humor as the woship leader might do during the service.

We've not haf Freebird (yet) but he's done pop/disco things that wouldn't usually find their way into a service.

"How Great" (Not How Great thou Art) by Jami Smith uses a slide intro and solo and sounds awesome. We are playing it this Sunday night at a fund-raising event. It's pretty Rawk-ish!

I play alot of slide guitar. But almost never in church.

The reason is VOLUME. If you can't hear yourself perfectly and clear you can not make your intonation accurate. Its easy to just press frets and assume you are in tune. But slide is very ambiguous - because you are SLIDING.

For me if there was a special item song that fits with the message - yes - I love that Mindy Smith BTW, one for the to learn list.....
For most situations in church though I probably would not, because in our context, most music is about congregational singing, and the band, or pianist support this. The emphasis is on support.

For me if there was a special item song that fits with the message - yes - I love that Mindy Smith BTW, one for the to learn list.....
For most situations in church though I probably would not, because in our context, most music is about congregational singing, and the band, or pianist support this. The emphasis is on support.

Good point. It's important to remember the reason you're up there. What you're doing should never draw attention to yourself. Be subtle.

And I'm sure we've all heard the pianist who plays in a flowery, busy way that's distracting. (There's a technical name for that style that I can't remember.) It's usually the older one who's grown up playing hymns, as the only instrument.

For me if there was a special item song that fits with the message - yes - I love that Mindy Smith BTW, one for the to learn list.....
For most situations in church though I probably would not, because in our context, most music is about congregational singing, and the band, or pianist support this. The emphasis is on support.

Just because you're playing slide doesn't mean you're not supporting. The small amount of slide I play is literally a few notes within certain sections of a couple of songs. Probably not noticeable to any non-guitarists and very definitely in a supporting role.

Just because you're playing slide doesn't mean you're not supporting. The small amount of slide I play is literally a few notes within certain sections of a couple of songs. Probably not noticeable to any non-guitarists and very definitely in a supporting role.

That is a fair point. I think it also depends on the size and the culture of the worshipping community, plus our situation and my own bias are in play here.

Two years ago when I first moved to my current congregation we had three pianist/organists and one guy who came occasionally and played some guitar. We are now blessed with a designated music team each week of each calendar month with multiple instruments and singers.

Until a few years ago our village was mainly rural families around wine and fruit growing activities. Now we are becoming a bed-room community for 30-40 something professionals with small kids.

For some of our older people at first even the sight of an acoustic guitar was too much and would attract negative comments from the minority [thankfully]. The traditional perception of any guitar for some is that it is a 'showoffs' instrument. We are a small church and everything we do stands out.

As minister/pastor, I also have a pastoral responsibility to those with negative voices, so when choosing music I tend to ensure there is a little something for everyone, and that nothing is too over the top. Worship is blended and pitched to the 5 to 95 set. Nothing we do currently would really work well with slide, so perhaps this is part of my own bias.

Personally, I love slide as a main accompanying instrument, and loud like George Thorogood. Two of my own guitars are set aside just for slide but currently only in non-Sunday-morning-church contexts, such as Youth and/or outreach ministries. I write mainly my own material for these.

"How Great" (Not How Great thou Art) by Jami Smith uses a slide intro and solo and sounds awesome. We are playing it this Sunday night at a fund-raising event. It's pretty Rawk-ish!

Jami's guitar player is amazing and uses slide frequently. You've just got to pick songs where it fits. Check out her stuff for some inspiration..... Salt and Light is one my favorites.

Been thinkin' about covering "My Sweet Lord" it has a simple slide intro...
Love the song and the words, but I know George wasn't exactly singing about Christ, although I'd like to think all inclusive rather than exclusive... that's been my dilemma.

You obviously MUST have a touch of overdrive, plenty of delay and cave-like reverb to do this right.

And a volume pedal.

And a volume pedal.

And maybe a little compression. Although the volume pedal might help with that.

I played slide on a solo once. In the pre-rehersal notes, the WL mentioned how there was such a cool slide solo in the song. Mind you...I do not play slide....ever. I managed to learn the solo, which wasn't true slide guitar, but simply using the slide to travel between the notes. Maybe that is slide.....but like I say....I don't play slide. I tried all my guitars to figure out which one I could play, getting good sound without ending up hitting the frets. I then tried different things to make a slide because I don't own one. Contrary to what I would have thought, my Music Man Axis....with 9's...and 3/64" action was the best one. My slide was a small sized phillips head screwdriver.

A couple other musicians not playing that day came up and laughed about me using a screw driver and telling me that I could borrow their slide any day. I think I'll stick with the phillips head.

I used slide on Charlie Hall's "All We Need" this morning. Things went great until third service when I noticed my slide wasn't on the music stand. Spent two choruses looking around until I spotted it under the stand. Was able to bend down and grab it with out missing a beat and with about a measure to spare before the slide part started.