Muddy Waters

• Slide in standard tuning — Waters did not always use open tuning. Standard tuning slide requires targeting specific string frets that correspond to chord tones
• Push the amp to natural breakup — the tone should be slightly overdriven, not clean. Small tube amp at high volume produces this character
• The slide rests on the strings without pressing — the slide should touch but not press to the fretboard. Too much pressure mutes adjacent strings and changes pitch
• Damping with the left-hand fingers behind the slide is essential — unused strings must be muted or they ring sympathetically and create noise
• The Les Paul's neck pickup is used for leads — thick, warm tone. Reserve bridge pickup for rhythm crunch
• Learn the Chicago I-IV-V shuffle — Waters' rhythm playing uses a specific shuffle pattern on the bass strings that is the foundation of electric blues
• Vibrato on the slide is done by moving the slide rapidly up and down the string — unlike finger vibrato (sideways), slide vibrato is along the string direction
• Listen to "Mannish Boy" and "Hoochie Coochie Man" for the definitive rhythm approach — these two songs contain the core Chicago blues vocabulary
• The vocal phrasing mirrors the guitar — in Chicago blues the guitar responds to the vocal like a second voice. Listen to how the guitar fills the spaces after the lyric

Muddy Waters invented electric Chicago blues — amplifying the Delta slide tradition and creating the vocabulary that became rock and roll. His slide playing on a Les Paul and his thick, swampy rhythm playing are the blueprint for everything that followed.