Lenny Guitar Lesson

Thank you so much to Jed for the incredibly detailed breakdown of this guitar playing dream of a song! There's a lot to get our teeth into here, so let's start by checking out the video:

Set up

Before launching into the notes, it's really important to cover the guitar tuning, and SRV's infamous choice of string gauge! The most important point is that we're tuned down half a step to Eb Standard, meaning our strings from low to high are Eb Ab Db Gb Bb Eb. If you're used to playing with lighter strings, 9s for example, you'll probably find this makes them too rattly and buzzy, which is why we recommend going for heavier strings. SRV famously used 13s for much of his playing, but this can make bends extremely tough, even with the dropped tuning, so bear that in mind. You may prefer to find a middle ground like Jed and go for something like 11s.

Intro

We kick off this song with a wonderful E major 13 chord, and as Jed demonstrates, we can leave out the root note to allow room for the bass player. You can of course play the E on the 7th fret of the A string if you prefer that sound - SRV definitely does both! That's followed by a lovely E Major 6th (which we'll write as E6) voicing up around the 12th fret. Here are the shapes:

We then finish with an open E string followed by an open 12th fret harmonic on the E and B strings. To make a harmonic ring out you need to touch the string just above the fret wire, not where you'd usually fret. And don't press down hard, just touch the string, when you take your finger away the harmonic should still be ringing out!

This then leads into a lovely E major pentatonic run across boxes 5 and 1. Here are the shapes:

Main theme

From here we introduce the main theme that we keep returning to throughout the tune. It's based around two beautiful chords which are E Major 13 and A6. These names may sound intimidating, but the extra numbers are just telling us the additional notes to add to the basic major chords to give more flavour. As Jed mentions, the E Major 13 is really an E major 7 with a 6 added in. Here are the two voicings we'll be using for these chords:

Notice that the two shapes are the same as we used in the intro. The A6 is the same shape as the E6, just shifted down to the 5th fret.

We join the chords together with some very tasteful E major pentatonic lines, all based around shape 5 and 1. Here are those shapes again for your reference:

We then repeat the same progression, but with some subtle variations in the connecting lead parts. Jed takes us through these variations in the video, but the underlying chord and scale shapes are the same. Try to be aware of them as you're learning the specific notes!

B Section

After playing around the E Major 13 to A6 progression we move to the B section of the main theme, and we do that with a chromatic movement from the A6 through Bb6 up to a B6, arpeggiating the chords as we go. The shape remains the same, we're just sliding it up two frets to get up to that B6 shape. Here's how that looks on a fretboard:

For the entire B section we are using the same chord shape, and using slides to shift it around the neck to give us the rest of the progression. The whole progression goes like this:

A6 Bb6 B6 D6 G6 Bb6 A6

So, if we're using the same shape to play each chord all we need to do is place the root note on the correct fret. In this shape the root note is on the E string, so as long as we know the notes on the E string we can play all of these chords! This is a very good opportunity to learn those notes if you're not sure of them yet.

We then use boxes 4 and 5 of E Major pentatonic to play a lead line that takes us back into the A section. Here are those boxes:

First solo

The solo is played over the E and A chords from the main theme, with the important caveat that we are playing over just the bass, which deliberately leaves a lot of ambiguity when it comes to the tonality of the chords, mainly playing root notes only. This allows the lead to use major and minor scales without fear of clashing with a chord tone!

We start off with an E major pentatonic idea, but instead of using the boxes as before, SRV plays it up and down a single string. It's a great way to give some variation to your phrasing. Here are the notes on the fretboard:

From there we switch to E minor Blues scale in box 1, with plenty of double stops! Double stops are when you play two notes at once and it's a very common technique in blues playing. Here's that box:

From there we're into some classic SRV major/minor crossover with some chromatic notes thrown in too. This is a very long lick, so watch the video as Jed takes you through it, and try to visualise the different shapes on the fretboard as you play through it. If you can be aware of when you are playing minor, major or chromatic 'in between' notes you'll be able to take these ideas into your own playing! Here are the main notes we're using:

We stay in this position on the neck for the rest of this solo, and as Jed says, there's a lot to remember here! Take it slow and try to break it down into chunks, while remembering the scale context - this will really help!

Sting that note!

Another important point to remember when playing this or any SRV tune is to pay attention to your dynamics. Some notes will want to be played soft, while others need to be hit hard. This is probably something that will come later as you're learning this solo but it will really take your performance to the next level if you can get it!

Final thoughts

After that huge solo we can take a breath as we go back into the main theme! Thank you so much to Jed for taking this one apart for us. There is a lot to learn here, far beyond just the order of the notes. Try to think about the context of every phrase so you can use it to influence your own playing, and remember to have fun!