bottleneck slide
A guitar technique using a glass or metal tube on the finger to slide along the strings, producing a smooth, vocal-like portamento associated with blues and country.
In Depth
Duane Allman discovered his signature slide tone using a glass Coricidin cold medicine bottle — the specific shape and glass thickness gave a tone so distinctive that vintage Coricidin bottles now sell for hundreds of dollars.
Related Terms
More in Techniques
Browse allSinging without instrumental accompaniment, with voices providing all musical parts.
The musical background that supports a solo melody or voice.
At the performer's discretion — an instruction allowing freedom in tempo, ornamentation, or inclusion.
An accent created by slightly lengthening a note rather than playing it louder, using duration rather than volume to create emphasis.
A left-hand keyboard accompaniment pattern that breaks a chord into a repeated sequence of low-high-middle-high notes, creating a gentle, flowing texture.
A broken-chord accompaniment pattern in which the notes of a chord are played in the order lowest-highest-middle-highest
The ubiquitous left-hand keyboard accompaniment pattern of low-high-middle-high notes, named after Domenico Alberti, that defines the texture of Classical-era piano music.
A guitar picking technique that strictly alternates between downstrokes and upstrokes.