Chords for How To Sound Like a Pro on Slide CBG (when you're just a beginner)

[Gm] _ _ _ [A] _ [Bbm] _ _ [G] _ _
[Gm] _ _ [C] _ _ _ _ _ _
[G] Howdy folks, welcome back to my channel [N] and welcome to another cigar box guitar tutorial.
And I'm going to be using my three string fretless today.
So if you don't have a three string fretless, you might be able to adapt this to a fretted
guitar but you know, it's really going to shine on the three string fretless CVG.
So that's probably what you want to use today.
[G] And we are tuned G, V, G.
Now as I mentioned, I've posted several of these [N] tutorials.
In fact, there's a playlist of them and I'll link that in the description and they're all
in one location.
Now back in January of this year, I said I was going to try to post a cigar box tutorial
every month for the entire year of 2021.
And guess what?
This is number 12 and it's December.
So I managed to meet that goal for you guys.
So do make sure you check out that list of tutorials.
Hopefully they help somebody.
But what I want to talk about today is how to sound like you know what you're doing on
a three string fretless like this when you really don't.
And the reason that I want to do this tutorial is because I sort of did this haphazardly.
This here is actually my first ever cigar box guitar and I didn't even make this one.
I bought this one at a cigar box guitar festival and I didn't know anything.
I'd never played a slide guitar.
I'd never played a cigar box guitar before.
And I got this one and I was like, okay, I got to figure something out.
And so I just figured out kind of a little a cheat, I guess you'd say.
And then the next cigar box guitar festival that I went to, I was playing that kind of
stuff and people were like, wow, you could really play.
And I was like, no, I'm really, I really I can't.
But you know, I guess it sounds more complex than it is.
And what you're going to do here, obviously [G] your tune G, D, G.
That's your first thing.
Tune her up and get your slide.
And you probably want a short slide like this one because it makes it a little easier to
do some of, [N] you know, hit like the middle string without hitting the top or the bottom string.
So I recommend that.
But some people prefer a longer slide.
So again, that's kind of up to you.
But here's what you're going to do today.
So first of all, get your amp.
I got an amp down here and give yourself a [G] nice dirty tone. _
_ _ _ Like not anything off the hook, not like crazy overdrive, but _ just a dirty tone.
And then we're also going to kick in the reverb and here, listen to this.
There's no reverb there.
Now watch. _ _ _ _ _ _
Already [N] sounds like I know more about what I'm doing, right?
Just put just a little bit of dirt on your signal and a little reverb.
And that just really helps everything sound smoother.
And what you're going to do here is I realize that this one doesn't have fret lines like
some of the fretless guitars do have fret lines.
This one does not.
So you just have to trust me here.
But your second [Bb] fret line and your third fret line [C] and your fifth fret line, [Fm] that's it on
all three strings.
Second, third, [Em] fifth, second, third, [N] fifth, second, third, fifth.
That's all we're going to use today.
And the fifth, we're only going to use every now and again.
We're really going to live down on that second and third on all three strings.
And what you want to do is just occasionally do a little [Gm] slide.
_ [D] See how good that sounds?
[Gm] _ _ Sliding from the second to the [A] third.
[Gm] _
But it sounds good on all [E] strings.
[Fm] _ _ _ [E] _
[F] _ _ _ [A] _ [Bb] _ _ [A] _ [Bbm] _
_ [Eb] _ So all we're going to do is we're just going [G] to kind of strum the whole guitar and then
occasionally throw in a little slide note [D] on [Eb] one of the strings.
It doesn't really matter which order we do them in.
It [Cm] always just seems to work.
And even if we hit multiple [A] strings, if we hit two, [Bb] _
that still works.
Or if [A] we hit all three, [Bb] _ _
that [A] still works.
And kind of do that little, when you get to [Bbm] the note, do that little shake like that.
That [N] gives a little extra too.
And then one other thing, you're also going to want to throw in some dead strings where
you just kind of throw a finger across the strings so you mute them.
And then between [Gm] just a strum, an occasional slide, _ _ [G]
and a dead string or two with that
reverb, you get something like this.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ [Gm] _ _ _ [G] _
_ _ _ _ [Bb] _ _ _ [G] _
_ _ _ _ [Eb] _ _ _ [G] _
_ _ _ _ [Gm] _ _ [A] _ [G] _
_ _ _ _ [Bb] _ _ _ [G] _
_ _ _ _ [Gm] _ [Bb] _ _ [G] _
_ _ _ _ [C] _ _ [G] _ _
_ _ _ _ [Bb] _ _ _ [G] _
_ _ _ [Gm] _ _ [Bb] _ [G] _ _
_ _ _ _ [Gm] _ _ _ _
[G] _ _ _ _ [C] _ _ _ _
_ _ _ [Bb] _ [G] _ _ [Gm] So
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ [B] _ something like that.
And it really doesn't [Gm] have to be prescriptive.
You can be _ _ _ _ like_
[Bb] _ _ [A] _ [Bb] _ _ [Cm] _ _
[G] _ [Bb] I mean, it doesn't really matter.
As long as you kind of follow those guidelines.
Second, [Am] third, second, [Bb] third, second, third.
[C] And then throw in that fifth every once in a while.
_ [Eb] And again, you [C] don't have to strum all three when you hit [Dm] that fifth.
You [G] can just be _ _ [F] _
[Gm] _ _ _ _ _ like_
[Bb] _
_ [C] _ _ _ [Gm] _ _ [Ebm] So [F] that's the thing, is this formula just really works.
[Em] _
It makes it sound like you know what you're doing when all you're doing is going second,
third, third, second, second, [Gm] third, third, second, [D] fifth, fifth, second, third.
You know, you're just doing like just a [C] little improvising using those notes and it really
just always seems to come out well.
So that is a great little secret on the three-string fretless here.
And these are just really fun instruments.
And like I said, just kind of hang out there.
Don't [B] put too much thought into it and just kind of mess around with that second and third
sort of fret line.
_ [Bbm]
Get that wonderful little blue note.
_ _ [Ebm] And [Gm] make it happen.
_ _ Sounds something like this. _ _
_ _ [Cm] _ _ _ [Gm] _ _ _
_ [C] _ _ _ [Gm] _ _ _ _
_ [A] _ _ [Bb] _ [Gm] _ _ _ _
[C] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ [G] _
_ _ [Gm] _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ [N] _ Thanks for tuning in, guys.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _