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2
This next lick in Fig. 3 is literally the
“root” of rock ’n’ roll. You can find traces of
this lick from Muddy Waters and Hubert
Sumlin to Jonny Lang and Warren Haynes. It
has swagger and attitude, and it grooves hard.
Also, it has inspired a ton of tunes, most
notably would be Hendrix’s “Voodoo Chile
(Slight Return).” As a result, I teach this to all
of my students. It’s important to sit into the
groove right on this one and the bend/pull-off combo can be a bit challenging. If all you
do for the next few days is perfect this lick,
you’ll have done yourself a great favor.
I am such a sucker for the shuffle feel in
Fig. 4—not to mention the sound of those
big ringing open chords combined with a
little bluesy riff. This one plays up that great
sound of mixing the scale’s lowered 3 and
natural 3. An important element to getting
this to sound right is not to play too softly.
Really smack the crap out of the strings.
Also, don’t gain out your amp too much—
you want to keep the clarity of the chords.
We could easily devote a whole column to
Stevie Ray Vaughan’s rhythm style, but you
can get a good idea of the feel he typically uses
on tunes such as “Pride and Joy” and “Cold
Shot” in Fig. 5. Basically it goes between E
and A while adding some of that classic Texas
shuffle. When first trying to play this, I stumbled on a happy mistake: Over-barring with
your 1st finger on the A chord lets you catch
the F# on the 2nd fret. Whoa! This not only
sounds cool because you form an A6 chord, it
also makes the riff easier to play. Your picking
hand plays a huge part in this lick by constantly swinging the eighth-notes and muting
the strings. Not sure what I mean? Just watch
almost any video of SRV and all will be clear.
No roots lesson would be complete without a good train beat. I love this feel, but
soloing over it really kicks your butt because
the tempo demands some ripping. Fig. 6 is
basically just an A chord, but the hard part
is keeping the low A pumping on beats 1
and 3. I also use hybrid picking on this, so
my pick plays the low A and my middle and
ring fingers pluck the 3rd and 2nd strings,
respectively. Not easy, but super cool.
I hope you enjoyed some of these
roosty blues licks. They’re a big part of my
playing and hopefully they’ll open a few
doors for you.
