That is cool! Keep it up. 

Sometimes I wonder if it hadn't been for Howard Duane Allman being in the world for his brief 24 years if we would even know who the rest of the band and even later members are!!  

A while back I picked up a relatively inexpensive lap steel (Epiphone).  Once I learned a few open tunings ... it began to make a little more sense and became easier.  Same tunings apply to a regular guitar.  I'm a long way away from Duane-land, but it's fun! 

I've been playing slide for almost 30 years and the fun part is you never stop learning.

"Slide ain't about guitar. It's about harmonica"

- Duane Allman to Dickey Betts, about how he approaches slide guitar.

Funny is I had a keyboard player in my band that when he first heard Duane on slide he thought it was a harmonica until I told him it was slide guitar...he was like 😱 

@goldtop Yes I remember Dickey relating that in some interviews years ago. Duane listened to harp players for slide ideas and inspiration.

@porkchopbob  that's cool! I have some videos of your slide playing saved on my phone and it's real nice!! 

Who are some of your favorite slide players? 

Dickey always said in the mid 1970's he didn't like to play electric slide and especially after Duane died. 

But I really liked Dickey on slide on Eat A Peach Ain't Waisting Time No More. 

And this live version 1/1/73 by the Lamar/Chuck lineup. 

I have always had a slide but probably the last 23 years, more seriously/ or with more intent. I think I am solid, but that might be a little generous. I keep it in standard tuning, copper plumbing  pipe an old friend cut for me, use it on my pinky on electric or acoustic.

I did have a lap Recording King guitar that I really liked, but got rid of it for some dumb reason. That was fun playing that.

I like this  little talk Warren gives about slide tuning

@robertdee Thanks dude! Kind of you to say. I always liked Dickey's slide playing from that period. Not flashy, but swampy and tasty.

Posted by: @goldtop

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"Slide ain't about guitar. It's about harmonica"

- Duane Allman to Dickey Betts, about how he approaches slide guitar.

Funny is I had a keyboard player in my band that when he first heard Duane on slide he thought it was a harmonica until I told him it was slide guitar...he was like 😱 

Some slide playing is like a harmonica, certainly the way Duane played since you can stay close to a chord and easily bring in and out harmonies. Duane and Doucette's harp on some of the Fillmore songs are nearly interchangeable. "Stand Back", "Done Somebody Wrong", "Don't Keep Me Wonderin'" are all harp-inspired. Then there's "Dreams" which isn't harp-like at all, more like a horn. I was in a band a while back and the guy who said he played keys told us he also plays harp like Coltrane & Miles, like a jazz horn. Well, he couldn't and also he couldn't play keys either. Bizarrely, that actually happened twice with two different players - what is it with harp players?

But then you have players like Derek who are playing completely different, hanging out on one string like a sarod and creating all of these Eastern music layers. Goes to show, just when you think one person has conquered an instrument there's always something new to discover. Now there are a zillion Derek imitators out there.

@porkchopbob Yes you are right. Derek Trucks has taken slide to new places unlike anyone. I have their new albums and really enjoy them. And I've seen them several times and it's always a great show. 

I like Jack Pearson on slide a lot too but he may be too wild at times. 

Hope you will forgive me but personally I think the way Duane Allman played slide on the ABB songs is tops for those songs. Just something about that harmonica style on those songs that is tops for me and it's that ABB sound. Probably because I saw Duane in 1970 and his style and the entire ABB just grabbed me like no other band before. 

Here is a Ry Cooder thing I've always thought TTB could really nail. Susan Tedeshi vocals and Derek's slide. 

@goldtop nice quote about Slide being like harmonica. I heard that interview with Dickey when he talked about that. It's actually my signature at another forum I frequent. Maybe The Gear Page? Or My Les Paul. One of those.

My signature at another forum is Duanes quote from an interview he did a few months before he died. Besides his New Years Resolution, this is probably my favorite quote from Duane. 

What advice would you give a guitarist...today?

I’d tell him to remember that you can’t never play just like anyone else so you ought not to try. You gotta utilize what’s inside you to create what you want to create. You gotta sort yourself out and sort the music you hear out. Then find something to hang your notes on. You hang your notes on your attitude and on yourself. If it don’t come out pure, it don’t come out good. I never took no lessons, but I got that attitude. - Duane Allman Aug 1 1971

"

@jszfunk what surprised me was how simple it was to move from playing a riff in Open E to standard tuning once I learned something in Open E.

When I tried it the first time, it just wasn't clicking for me. Now? Oh it clicks alright lol. Man I couldn't believe how much "easier" it was this time, now that I've got a few years experience in playing. 

@robertdee me? I find myself wondering just how high they would have gone had Duane not been taken from us. IMO, theyd likely be the greatest rock band ever to most everyone and not just to us ABB superfans. Personally, I think Duane is and always will be the greatest guitar player that ever lived. And I'm fairly certain many, many, many others would agree had he gotten more time. I know many people already agree with me today but, IMO, there wouldnt be a question whether he was better than Jimi. I know he was. But everyone else would know, too. 

Duane may not have come up with all the stuff Jimi did but he could play literally anything Jimi could play and he proved it many times over when they covered Jimi before ABB. For me, it's not that which makes Duane better but it's a combination of everything. The fact that he had the chops but never tried to show off in front of ANYONE. He always played for the song. He never tried to outdo anyone. He never tried to be all "hey, man. Check out what I can do that you can't!" and from what I've read he was a incredible person, as well. Inspirational. Driven. Intelligent. Always "trying to bring people up instead of put people down", like Stevie used to say. 

God we really lost a lot when we lost Duane. It still hurts to think about, even in 2023. But I consider myself a special case. I share middle names with Duane and have known that fact my entire life. My parents made it a point to tell me ALLLL the time when I was a kid in the 80's and 90s.

The Allman Brothers and Duane have been such a large part of my life for such a long time that it's almost as if Duane is family to me. That's how often he is and has always been spoken about and how often his music still is and has always been played in my family. I'm sure that sounds crazy but that's the honest truth. I mean...my awesome Dad gave me the middle name of his favorite guitar player of all-time( and eventually mine, too) so that ought to tell you something lol.

Duane is THE REASON I play guitar today. Loan Me a Dime specifically. My favorite song ever and I was born like 12 years after it was recorded lol. But yea, that song really inspired me to learn to play. His playing in that is unbelievable. I've heard Duane my entire life and yet all it takes is for me to hear ANYTHING by him and I'm inspired to pick up my own guitar and play. Doesn't matter what song. Doesn't matter how many times I've heard it. That's how powerful his music is to me. How much it affects me to this day. There's been so many days that my fingers hurt from playing so much...and yet I couldn't stop. I'd listen to another song and be right back playing with tender fingers...again lol. 

@wound_up  Wound up when I saw the Allman Brothers the first time in 1970, the band began with Statesboro Blues. Now my buddy who turned me on the the ABB and I were smoked up some what BUT Duane's slide grabbed me and it felt like it lifted me off the floor. 

There is no question few musicians have the energy and natural ability Duane had. 

And one must remember Duane was just 24 years old when he lost his life. That boy was just getting started. 

There is no way to know with certainty, but I believe the Allman Brothers Band would have been consistently as big as the Rolling Stones or Pink Floyd if Duane had lived, not just the Brothers and Sisters years. 

Of course Gregg, Dickey, Butch and Jaimoe would play a big part in that long term success and I would have Berry Oakley surviving too as his bass was unlike any other. And maybe have Chuck as the seventh member. 

We have some big Derek Trucks and Warren Haynes fans here and I'm one of them. But I won't apologize for this statement. The original Allman Brothers Band was the ONLY lineup which could have been as big as the Rolling Stones for four decades.