Stevie Ray Vaughan Guitar Lesson
This article serves as an introduction to the styles and techniques of the late blues guitarist Stevie Ray Vaughan. SRV was one of the most expressive guitarists that ever lived and has inspired countless other guitarists, from fusion/blues guitarist Scott Henderson to John Mayer as well as Kirk Hammett and many others. Since it’s not hard to dedicate many hours of guitar lessons with material on the topic of Stevie’s playing, let’s simply start with the beginning; his main guitar techniques. These techniques will give you the tools to add power to your guitar playing and will open the door to a high level of expressiveness.
Stevie Ray Vaughan/Albert King Style Bending Technique
The person that inspired Stevie Ray Vaughan to develop his highly expressive bending technique was blues guitarist and singer Albert King. Before we look into SRV’s style, it pays to learn Albert King licks and techniques. In this first tab you’ll notice the full bend and use of the minor pentatonic scale, which are both signature tricks of Albert King as well as Stevie Ray Vaughan.
Stevie Ray Vaughan’s Muting Technique
One of the most noticeable elements in SRV’s playing is the raw power he uses to hit the strings. If you want to add this aggressive touch in your playing, you’ll need a developed left hand muting technique to stop the strings you don’t need from ringing.
If you would play one note (or several notes) as loud as possible, it would sound thin if we compared this sound to what Stevie Ray Vaughan considers loud when he would play the exact same note. To develop the ability to hit the strings very hard, you need to practice muting the strings with your left hand.
For instance, take this D-note from the tab above. If you would only play the G-string you would miss out on all the potential of power that lies in hitting all six strings of the guitar. In the example on the right of the tab you see this same note but with the other strings muted. This is how SRV would make a note sound very loud. All the strings are being hit, but it’s only the G-string that produces a pitch, all other strings sound dead.
The most common way of establishing this very important guitar technique is to mute the three lowest strings with your thumb and use the back of the finger that holds down the G-string to mute the first two strings (this is being done by very lightly touching the string, without pressing it down). This technique takes a lot of practice to develop, but it’s well worth the effort to put in, because once you master this technique you’ll be able to open up a much larger dynamic range in your guitar playing. Here are some exercises that you can start of with.
Stevie Ray Vaughan’s Licks
The A minor pentatonic lick in the above tablature is a great place to start exploring some licks in the unique style of SRV. As you can see, there is no rhythm notation in the above tablature. I purposely left this out, because there are so many ‘feels’ to play with. One of the most recognizable elements in Stevie his playing was his ‘rubato’ feel, else known as ‘floating rhythm’. The best way to get a sense of this feel is to listen closely to his records. The note at the 6th fret on the high e-string (the Bb note) is used here as an out-of-key ornamentation note. The blue note from the blues scale is also being used in this lick; you will find this note on the 8th fret of the G-string.
SRV his solos are full of long licks that contain a lot of notes. There are many ways in which we can approach this, but one of the most common ways to achieve this is by expanding licks across the fretboard in a diagonal movement. In the tab below you’ll see that in this second lick we connected the first lick to an extended pattern on the lower strings.
Stevie Ray Vaughan’s Tone
There are many factors that contribute to SRV’s tone, but the most important one comes from the fact that he is playing with a hard grip. To experiment with this tone you have to press down hard on the strings. This also applies to the right hand; when you play the blues there are times that you need to pick softly, but it’s also very important to be able to play with a hard attack. In order to do this you need to practice holding the guitar with the proper left-hand muting technique while you really ‘smash’ the strings with your pick.
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