People ask me "how do you do slants with such perfection ?"
Lots of practice i say but there is more to it than just practice.
For example, doing 'forward' slants on the first five frets are more difficult than on the frets closer to the bridge. Also slants going from left to right are easier than the right to left ones.
Have any of you out there commented on this subject before ? What are your thoughts in this ? Does the bar size come into play at some point ? How about the type of pick you use ?
It's a work-in-progress for me.
During practice, I sometimes "freeze" my slant positions and check with a tuner to see how close I am on the 2 notes in question, as my ears sometimes deceive me.
I use vibrato a lot to mask imprecision.
As you note, forward slants near the nut are harder for me than toward the bridge.
The length of the bar is not as big an issue for me, as is the bottom radius. When I go from a Scheerhorn bar to a Beard Waves bar (and vice versa) it takes me some adjustment, as the visuals are different and the bar "bottoms out" at different points.
For reverse slants, I pivot the bar with my index and thumb to achieve the angle. It's higher risk but more precise for me. I don't have the wrist flexibility to do the wrist hinge method and achieve the angle, especially up near the 12th fret and higher.
I love slants for the right occasion, for the right tune. One of the more classic Dobro moves IMO.
Funny you should bring up slants. I just went back to practicing Gene Wooten's version of Poison Love this morning. I never could play it and I still can't, but it makes for a good practice. I play the first line or two over and over with the cd and that's about as far as I get. I love Gene's playing.
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