Texas Flood Guitar Lesson

Let's watch the video where Jed takes us through this fantastic track:

Huge thanks to Jed for breaking down this awesome intro for us (and what a beautiful voice too!). Jed is certainly an expert when it comes to blues, and has a truly authentic sound whenever he plays. As he mentions in the video, this comes not only from the tone but also the way you hit the notes and your vibrato. Jed calls it 'ornamentation' but it's also referred to as 'touch' or 'feel'. So, while Jed expertly takes you through the notes and theory here, remember to pay special attention to how you hit the notes too, to really get that authentic SRV sound like Jed does! We should mention here that you shouldn't expect to see any tab in this write up - Jed will take you through the notes and rhythms, but we want to you have a fuller understanding, and that only comes by knowing the chords and shapes being used!

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 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.

Once you're tuned down to Eb Standard you'll be ready to go! We're in the key of Gb blues for this song, but it will look like we're in G due to the dropped tuning. Be prepared for the guitar to feel different with lower tuning, and you never know, you might just fall in love with it!

Pre Intro

We're in 12/8 time for this song which is a time signature you absolutely must be comfortable with if you want to play the blues. You can count this in a variety of ways, but the most common ways would be '1 2 3 4 5 6 1 2 3 4 5 6', or '1 + a 2 + a 3 + a 4 + a'. Both of these give you all 12 eighth notes in the bar. If this is new to you practice counting along with the song so you can get a feel for where the bars are.

This tune kicks off with a four bar pre intro, before going into a lead break over the usual 12 bar format. This is all before we get into the more usual blues form. As we're playing a blues we can refer to the chords as I IV or V . So in this intro we have a structure like this:

| G | C7 | G | D7 |

which in Roman numerals is

| I | IV7 | I | V7 |

For this section we're playing over each chord individually as Jed shows us in the lesson.

For the first bar we're using G minor pentatonic shape 1 and G major pentatonic shape 2 in the same position to get that minor major crossover sound. Here are the shapes:

For the second bar we're following the theme but moving up the neck to 8th fret so we can play the same idea over the IV, so we're changing to a C position.

We follow this lick with a C9 chord, (which is our IV chord) up on the 15th fret, but we don't need to play the root. Here's that shape:

After that we're back onto the I chord with a lead break that is pure SRV! We're using G minor blues scale shape 1 with two additional notes, the 2 and b2 that really give this lick that SRV sound. Here's the shape:

And then we finish on the V chord to lead us back into the 12 bar.

Intro guitar solo

Once we've finished the pre intro we get into a lead break over the usual 12 bar blues format. Jed expertly takes us through each lick in the video, so work through it with him, and we'll have the scale shapes here in this write up for your reference.

Before we go into the licks, let's refresh that 12 bar format. It goes like this:

| I | IV | I | I |

| IV | IV | I | I |

| V | IV | I - IV | I - V |

This is a slight variation on the format with with the IV in the second bar, and the slightly more complex turnaround, but it is absolutely a 12 bar format!

Bar 1

For the first section we're playing over the I chord in G minor pentatonic box 2, also known as the 'BB Box' then straight into G minor pentatonic box 1. Once again, pay careful attention to how you're hitting the notes, and try to get those subtle bends in to really sound authentic. Here are the shapes:

Bars 2 - 4

After that we're back to the BB box over the next 3 bars. This time we're adding in lots of subtle bends and chromaticism. Although this lick only uses a small box, there's a lot going on once you throw in the bends - so take you time with this and really try to control these bends. This is a great example of getting a lot out of a scale. Over the three bars we've stayed in one box, but used different techniques to play something really interesting!Bars 5 - 8 (the IV and I chords)

When we switch to the IV chord in bar 5 we're back into shape 1 G minor pentatonic. There is a really nice string skip lick here - watch out for that! Then in bar 6 we're still on the IV chord, but climbing up to the BB Box, aka box 2. After that we have a tasty change to a major sound by bending that minor 3rd up a semitone. Then back to box 1 for another phrase with that nice string skip again!

Bars 8 - 10 (the V and IV chords)

We're back to the comfortable G minor blues shape 1 with the added 2nd and flat 2nd on the high E string, or the 9th if you prefer to think of it that way as Jed does. Either way, having the 2nd and the b2nd is definitely a classic SRV idea so worth spending some time unravelling! Here's that shape again:

From there we go into what Jed calls the slowest bend you've ever done in your life! We're still in G minor pentatonic box 1 here.

Bars 11 - 12 (The Turnaround)

For this part we're still in the same position, based around G minor pentatonic shape 1, but throwing in that major 3rd on the G string too, for a classic blues sound. It's the major minor crossover again! Here's the shape to jog your memory from earlier:

And finally, we finish up with a blues scale run down and a nice trill to lead into the vocal!

Tone

Before we end this write up we have to talk a little about the tone! As Jed mentions in the video, to achieve this tone in the same way as SRV you would need to have a tube amp and seriously crank it. That unfortunately puts it out of reach for most practice sessions! Luckily there are other ways to get close. If you like the tone Jed had in the video you can rest assured that it wasn't dialled in at ear splitting volumes! He used a single coil pickup Fender strat into a Fender style amp simulation with a little bit of drive, a compressor and a bit of reverb, then EQ'd with plenty of treble. Once you're in that realm it all comes down to what Jed calls 'Ornamentation' also known as 'touch' or 'feel'. One particular place to get this sounding right is in the vibrato - as Jed says, it's fast and wide, almost violent! SRV is famous for the incredible feel of his playing - the best way to learn this is to listen to the record and live recordings and try to notice the little touches here and there like small bends, intensity of vibrato, slides, hammer ons and pull offs etc. Jed has truly mastered this, so there is plenty to watch for in this video too!