A break down of one of the great modern blues songs as performed by Stevie Ray Vaughan.
The album "Texas Flood" was Stevie Ray Vaughan's debut album that featured the slow burning number by the same name originally written by Larry Davis and Joseph Wade Scott. The entire song is a basic blues progression in the key of G and is in 12/8 time. 12/8 time is basically a fancy way to write swing without messing about with triplets. Instead of showing triplet after triplet in tradition notation, 12/8 allows the implied feel of triplets and therefore swing.
Note that if you want to play along with the original recording, its in the key of F# because of Vaughan's half-step lower tuning. My jam track is in G.
Introduction
The introductory lick is arguably the most recognized part of the song, so lets start there. The introduction is basically a shell around a I-IV-I-V chord progression that leads quite nicely into the full blues progression.
There are a couple really interesting things that Stevie does that I'd like to point out. If you'll refer to the numbers:
- Stevie grabs a bar across the 5th fret here. These notes elude to a G13 or a C6 which give a nice motion to an otherwise bland bar chord. He does the same later with a bar across the 10th fret.
- Right here he plays a G, B, and E over a G chord which implies a 6th chord. The blues love 6th and 7th chords.
- A nice passing tone in a quick triplet makes a fat lick.
- Bending on the minor 3rd is always popular in the blues.
- Ending on the root is a great way to finish out a lick.
- And here is the classic turnaround with a standard D7 chord shape.
Just paying the bills:
Improvisation
Most would like to see a breakdown of Stevie's solo but I'm not going to show that. I may do that as another lesson (let me know in the comments if you agree), but today you should study the intro and the use of other notes per chord. If you extrapolate that into your improv using the G blues scale.
Make sure to play around with alternate chordings (ei: G13 or G6 instead of G7). Use those extra notes (the 2nd, 4th, and 6th) to add a little color to an otherwise usual blues scale (although that will be easy to do).
If you want to start with the blues scale, try the box containing the b7th, root, b3rd and the 4th. The fourth is the note most commonly bent up to the 5th. View the box below for a quick example.
Bending on the b3rd and 4th is an effective way to play the introductory solo similar to how Mr. Vaughan performed it. Listen to some sample licks from my video to get a feel for it.
More importantly...
Listen to the original and then try to recreate it, you'll be surprised how fast you can pick it up once you know what their using to solo. Check out the Jam Corner for the free blues backing track that you can play over. As always, visit me in the forums for any suggestions or questions that you may have. Enjoy!
This site is FREE! If you enjoyed it, consider supporting the site by donating or by logging in to hide the ads.mfBeer Joomla! Plugin
|
