Mark Peotter takes you step by step through the 3 Minute version of “Breathe In The Air” by Pink Floyd.
The Pink Floyd song features a Lap Steel Guitar. Mark adapts the Song to be played with a Bottle Neck (Brass) Slide on 4 Strings of a Gibson SG Guitar.
Tune your guitar to open G tuning for this Lesson. D, G, D, G, B, D
However, the bottom 2 strings will not be used.
Set your amplifier for a lot of gain, but without a distorted buzzing tone.
You will need a volume pedal. Every note swells up from a silent attack. Develop the skill of ramping up the volume while the notes decay, to achieve the illusion of compression and sustain.
Alternately, you can achieve a similar effect with a good compression effect that includes a slow attack setting.
You should also use a clean echo, or digital delay effect.
Mark shows the Intervals Perfect 5th, Perfect 4th, Major 3rd, and Minor 3rd, which are used in this song.
My tuning of the strings is different than what is found on other Web Sites regarding David Gilmore’s Lap Steel Tunings. On other sites, they say to tune the strings with a high E, instead of my high D. The site claims that the tuning used by David Gilmore was D , G , D , G , B , E (G6 tuning).
Although that high E helps to make the first interval easier to locate on the neck, it also offers 2 important problems. These 2 problems are found in measures 9 through 12 of the first steel guitar section.
The first problem is the Perfect 5th Interval of B and F#, which is clearly heard in the 9th measure. With G6 tuning you could try to play the B and F# on the 5th and 4th strings, respectively, at the imaginary 28th Fret. But, the sound would be poor, due to the use of wound strings playing so high.
Using my open G Tuning, we fix that problem, playing the B and F# on the 3rd and 1st Strings, respectively, at the 16th fret.
The second problem is the Minor Third Interval used in measure 11. With G6 tuning, this interval cannot be played – unless you replace your 4th string D with a 10 gauge plain string, and tune it up one octave higher. The Minor Third Interval could then be played with the 4th and 2nd Strings.
Using my open G Tuning, we fix that problem, playing the Minor Third Intervals with the 1st and 2nd Strings.
Watching David Gilmore play the song live, he plays only the higher note in both of these intervals. I can only conclude that the Studio Version of the song was accomplished by performing an overdub for the harmony notes, or, the Lap Steel was re-tuned to perform these intervals, before the overdubs.
Knowing every note on your instrument is recommended, but not required to understand the lesson. The difficulty level of the slide guitar technique is Moderate. However, combining the Finger Picking, Volume Pedal Technique, and using Notes Higher than the 24th Fret, the difficulty level becomes Advanced.
“Breathe In The Air” (Waters, Gilmour, Wright) appears on the album Dark Side Of The Moon.
