Slide guitar playing in blues music had been popular for many years but not many people understand how this guitar playing style originated and the techniques used to produce this fascinating guitar sound. In the early twentieth century many American blues players began their careers playing music on a single string instrument called a diddley bow. This was a kid’s toy consisting of a wire stretched between two screws. It seems logical that without access to store bought instruments the emerging adult musicians would develop an instrument based on what they played music on as children. Of course the early blues players did use conventional guitars but a guitar played with a slide made from a knife or a bottle neck more readily complemented the vocal style and blues harp techniques the people used to express their lives in music.

Blues guitar players who took up slide guitar and influenced other musicians to do so were Muddy Waters and Elmore James. Both of these guitarists were driven by the music of Robert Johnson, built on his legacy and further influenced electric blues players like Johnny Winter and Duane Allman. Elmore actually started his musical career on the diddley bow when he was twelve years old. A confirmed individualist, he played a modified acoustic guitar to sound like a solid body electric.

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