Stevie Ray Vaughan - Texas Flood Pt.4 - Verse 3 - Guitar Lesson

About Texas Flood Pt.4 - Verse 3

Verse 3 of "Texas Flood" sits deep in the slow, churning feel that makes this song one of the more demanding slow-blues workouts you can take on. In E minor at a deliberately unhurried tempo, the challenge is not speed but control: sustaining fat, vocal bends on the high strings without losing intonation, and keeping your picking hand relaxed enough to let the notes breathe. Stevie Ray Vaughan played with extremely heavy strings and a high action, which is part of why his bends carry so much weight, so expect the physicality of this passage to surprise you even in E Standard tuning. The Blues Rock vocabulary here centres on quarter-tone and full-step bends, vibrato width, and careful phrasing space. Use the Practice Toolbar to loop Verse 3 slowed down and focus on matching the pitch of each bend before worrying about feel. Once intonation is solid, bring the tempo back up and let the groove do the work.

• The song sits in E minor in E Standard tuning, letting you access open-string resonance to fatten up chord stabs between lead phrases.
• The core technique demand in this verse is slow, wide vibrato and precisely pitched string bends, both of which reward looping the section slowed down.
• Vaughan favoured heavy-gauge strings (.013 sets) which adds significant finger pressure to every bend, so lighter strings will change the feel noticeably.