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ESSENTIAL BLUES LESSONS

ESSENTIAL BLUES LESSONS This lesson’s blues-style licks should be
PLAY BLUES LIKE STEVIE RAY VAUGHAN played with a triplet feel, which means you
should interpret them as triplets even if
they aren’t. For parts that have a triplet feel,
WORDS LEIGH FUGE count them as 1 a 2 a 3 a 4 a. When licks
are shown as triplets, play them as such.

The Texan bluesman’s style is as influential as it was unique. Now pick up that Strat, slap on a set of
Here’s how to incorporate some SRV magic into your playing 0.013s, plug in a Tube Screamer and head
down to Austin to kick up a Texas Flood.

he influence of Stevie Ray Vaughan SRV would become so influential that,
on modern blues playing is almost in the decades since his passing, his choice Leigh Fuge is a guitar teacher, touring musician,
impossible to overstate. Although his of guitars, effects, amps and even string and session guitarist from Swansea, in the UK. He
T mainstream career only spanned seven gauge have passed into guitar folklore and has taught hundreds of students face to face and
short years before he died tragically in 1990, are now considered holy grails of tone. As via the MGR Music platform. To find a guitar tutor
the Texas native’s incendiary approach to with all superlative players, though, the real in your area visit mgrmusic.com and follow Leigh
guitar changed the instrument forever. magic was in his brain and his fingers. on Instagram @leighfugeguitar

LICK 1
Here’s a rhythmic shuffle typical of SRV’s technique, and meant to be played with a triplet feel. Break the rhythm into two parts and you’ll have the fretted
note on the beat and the muted note on the ‘a’ before the next. Stevie would apply this muted hit to a lot of his riffs to lend them a percussive feel. Play
the fretted note on the downbeat and the muted note on an upbeat. Don’t worry about muting the strings flawlessly, it’s more of an attitude thing here.
Dig in as you play.

LICK 2
This would make a terrific Texas blues-style opener. Stick to the 1 a 2 a 3 a 4 a triplet-style count across the first three bars. The slide from the
3rd to the 5th fret begins on the first beat and lands on the 5th fret, which you should re-pick, on the ‘a’ just after it.

GUITAR MAGAZINE 139