Rumble

In this lesson Jed takes us through how to play the instrumental guitar hit 'Rumble' by Link Wray. This song was notorious in its day, even being banned from some radio stations because of how raucous it sounds - even without lyrics! It was re-popularised years after the release in the film Pulp Fiction - the song is truly timeless! Let's check out the video:

The key

As always, let's make sure we know what key we're in before anything else. This tune is in the key of E blues, and follows a slightly modified 12 bar blues format. It's a subtle change so the best way to learn this one is to listen to the track and play along. As Jed mentions in the video, it's an 11 and a half bar progression! Now, in a song like this it's all about the attitude and sound, so don't get too bogged down in the counting of this one. Once you get a feel for it you'll naturally be playing with the time signature changes without having to think about it. It's rock n roll, not prog!

The tone

The guitar tone in this song is historic, and one of the first to use distortion, which was apparently achieved on the recording by poking a pencil through the speaker! We certainly don't recommend this, but you can dial in a close replica with a little bit of drive and a some slapback delay.

There's also a tremolo effect on this song. You can hear it as a 'wobble' in the sound. The way this is generally achieved is with an effects pedal, but some amps have it built in.

Tremolo is an interesting word for guitar players as it's used to describe lots of things! It can mean the 'wobble' we hear in this tune (it's really the volume going up and down periodically). Tremolo picking is picking extremely fast on a single note (think Miserlou - another old school guitar classic featured on Pulp Fiction!) and the whammy bar is also often referred to as a tremolo or 'trem'.

The riff

We kick off with an open D5 chord, muting the high and low E strings. This shape precedes each of the other chords in the main riff. We always play the D5 twice, then move to the other chord. Those chords are E, A (or A5) and B7. Here are all four shapes for your reference:

And then to finish off we run down an open E minor pentatonic scale:

Variation

After we play through the main section a couple of times the intensity picks up with a high E major triad. Just strum it as fast as you can without worrying about the exact timing! Here's the shape:

Good luck with this one. There are some simple chords but they are put together in a deceptively complex way. Make sure you listen to and play along with the song enough that you can feel it rather than count it and you'll be well on your way!