Stevie Ray Vaughan: The Texas Bluesman Who Redefined Modern Guitar Playing
Stevie Ray Vaughan grew up listening to the old blues masters—particularly Albert King—alongside the British Blues Boom led by Eric Clapton.
In June 1983, he released his debut album Texas Flood, the same year David Bowie dropped Let’s Dance. Off the back of these two releases, Stevie Ray Vaughan became world famous.
With incredible tunes like Couldn’t Stand The Weather, Love Struck Baby, Testify, Lenny, Mary Had A Little Lamb, Crossfire, Tightrope, and legendary covers of Jimi Hendrix’s Little Wing and Freddie King’s Hide Away, SRV quickly established himself as one of the all-time greats.
Perhaps the most taught modern blues tune, Pride & Joy is for some reason the go-to blues standard in guitar lessons worldwide.
Is it the open hammer-on and pull-off licks that invite repetition? Or maybe it’s the way this track introduces the concept of really digging into the strings—something essential to sounding great. Perhaps it’s both!
Not quite as well known as Pride & Joy, Texas Flood is the title track from the debut album. As always, SRV delivers a delicious tone—much cleaner than most blues players would ever dial in.
But it’s not just about his tone. There’s so much to learn from this tune in terms of note choices and phrasing.
As always, dig deep. Copy those licks with intention, and you’ll be richly rewarded. Sandy Buglass recorded both of them for Spytunes back in 2010—follow the links below to find out more.
Stevie Ray Vaughan Tunes | Related Pages
Let’s Dance | Chords + TAB
You can learn how to play Let’s Dance by David Bowie using chords, lyrics, chord analysis, a chord chart, and the original recording.
| Bb7sus4 | N.C | Bbm6 | N.C |
Let’s dance. Put on your red shoes and dance the blues…
Check out the full TAB lesson here: Let’s Dance (David Bowie) Guitar Lesson with TAB.
Pride & Joy | Chords + Lyrics
You can learn how to play Pride & Joy by Stevie Ray Vaughan using chords, lyrics, chord analysis, a chord chart, and a Spytunes video guitar lesson.
| E7 | E7 | E7 | E7 |
Well, you’ve heard about love givin’ sight to the blind…
Texas Flood | Chords + Lyrics
You can learn how to play Texas Flood by Stevie Ray Vaughan using chords, lyrics, chord analysis, a chord chart, and a Spytunes video guitar lesson.
| G7 | C7 | G7 | G7 |
Well, it’s floodin’ down in Texas, all of the telephone lines are down…
Tube Screamer
The Tube Screamer is the world’s most copied overdrive pedal. Ironically, it started out as a copy itself and wasn’t even built by Ibanez.
Check out the playlist in this article comparing all the different versions of the Tube Screamer pedal, as well as detailing its complex history.
Stevie Ray Vaughan on the web
