Stevie Ray Vaughan - Pride And Joy - 1st Two 12 Bar Progressions - Guitar Lesson

About Pride And Joy - 1st Two 12 Bar Progressions

Few songs teach you more about Texas blues rhythm guitar than the opening of "Pride and Joy." Stevie Ray Vaughan drives the two 12-bar progressions with a relentless thumb-over shuffle, muting the low strings with his picking hand while simultaneously comping chords above, essentially playing bass, rhythm, and fills at once. The song sits in E major at 120 BPM, but the tuning is Eb Standard, so if you want to play along with the recording you need to tune every string down a half step. That half-step drop loosens the strings just enough to allow the big string bends and heavy vibrato that define the feel without fighting the guitar. Getting the shuffle groove locked in is the real challenge here, not the chord shapes themselves. Use the Practice Toolbar to loop each 12-bar progression slowed down until your thumb-mute thump and your chord stabs land at exactly the same time. This is Blues Rock rhythm playing at its most physical and most rewarding.

• The song is played in Eb Standard tuning, one half step below concert pitch, so retune before playing along with the recording.
• The signature challenge is Vaughan's thumb-over technique, where the fretting thumb mutes the low E string while the fingers voice chord shapes above.
• At 120 BPM the shuffle feel must sit solidly behind the beat, and rushing the triplet subdivisions is the most common mistake beginners make.