4 Simple Slide Cigar Box Guitar Lessons For Your Best Licks Yet

Learning to play slide on your 3-string cigar box guitar can be hard.

But not with Shane Speal's cigar box guitar lessons.

Here's 4-part video lesson series from Shane Speal, the King of the Cigar Box Guitar. 

In it, Shane takes you on a ride from knee-slappin' country licks to sinister murder ballads, giving you the best advice, in the simplest terms, on how to play slide CBG.

As with all his videos, each lesson is turbo-charged with his high-energy personality.

Add to that his uncanny knack for making you feel right at home while watching his videos, and you've got the premier cigar box guitar teacher.

Video Lesson 1

In this first lesson, using a snappy hammer-on trick, you learn a little country hoedown lick that'll have you whoopin' and hollerin' in no time.

Now, the focus in this lesson isn't just the hammer-on trick; the lesson also serves as an exercise for your picking hand, too.

Using clear, step-by-step instructions, Shane clearly demonstrates how to pluck each string and how to hold the slide for maximum effectiveness.

Plus, he emphasizes the need to learn this lick by starting slow, getting the rhythm down, and gradually working up in speed.

And towards the end of the lesson, Shane introduces a couple new notes to the lick to add a little extra something special to show you what's possible.

Get your new favorite slide from our comprehensive collection of the best slides available. 

Video Lesson 2: Hoedown Blues

In this second lesson, Shane demonstrates how to change the country hoedown lick to a heavy blues lick, with a slight change in rhythm, and by merely changing one note.

Throughout all of the videos, Shane uses insightful camera angles and close-ups to demonstrate how to use a slide and a pick.

And with those insanely useful camera close-ups, Shane teaches how to play the picking pattern, too.

His artful use of the camera comes back into play as Shane demonstrates how to use only the tip of the slide for the hammer-on technique.

Then towards the end of the video, Shane demonstrates variations to the lick -- the same variations he plays live in concert!

Don't forget to find your go-to slide for your cigar box guitar playing here. 

Video Lesson 3: Mean Blues Hoedown

This third lesson -- further covering picking patterns and hammer-on slide-techniques -- seamlessly adds to the lessons taught in the previous two videos.

Building upon the heavy blues lick from the second lesson, you learn to play a variation of the classic 12-bar blues.

And to encourage your own exploration of different sounds, Shane alters the chord progression.

Starting with a blues lick, you'll see how he works into a dark, murder-ballad style riff while adding variations to keep things lively.

Here's the best selection of slides to choose from for your deepest blues, yet. 

Video Lesson 4: Murder Ballad Hoedown

Building upon lessons 1 through 3, Shane introduces how to play a dark and sinister murder ballad.

By the time you get this far, you're tying together all the tricks learned in the previous 3 lessons.

In this video, you're reminded that by moving one note in each riff from the previous lessons, you get an entirely new sound.

And in this lesson, you learn another trick: palm-muting.

Shane demonstrates how to make the already menacing lick even more wicked by muting the strings, ever so slightly, with the meat of your picking hand.

It's an invaluable playing technique that's used throughout numerous musical styles, and that works spectacularly here.

Get your slides here, today. 

More Resources

As you can see from these four lessons, you can learn to play several different licks with slight modifications from one lick to another.

And with a teacher like Shane in your corner, it's a sure bet that you'll be pickin' and grinnin' with new material in no time.

After having learned some incredible tips and tricks from these videos, expand your chops with easy to read tablature and chord charts in our acclaimed 3-string cigar box guitar songbook.

If that weren't enough, here's our entire library of printed educational books to guide you from total beginner to well-rounded player. 

With all this invaluable how-to-play information, what do you want to learn next on your 3-string cigar box guitar?