In the fascinating 1989 video below, Stevie Ray Vaughan sits down for a frank interview with a U.K. reporter.
During the interview, Vaughan, who is clutching his Number One Strat, launches into "Hideaway," an upbeat instrumental blues classic from 1960, demonstrating how Freddie King (who wrote it with Sonny Thompson) and Eric Clapton (who recorded it in 1966) played the song differently.
He also plays his own upbeat instrumental blues classic, "Rude Mood," while the camera catches almost all of his left-hand fingering up close. Later, he plays the main riff to his popular version of Stevie Wonder's "Superstition."
Although this video is often mislabeled as a "Stevie Ray Vaughan Guitar Lesson" on YouTube (I mean, he's not saying, "OK, gang, put your index finger on the second fret"), it is among the best available footage of Vaughan's hands (well, fingers, to be more precise) in action.
If you don't want to sit through the interview, head to 1:02 for "Hideaway," 2:26 for "Rude Mood" and 6:16 for "Superstition."
“A lot of guitarists who can play killer leads get real sterile on their rhythm stuff – they’re all too careful about playing their chords dead straight”: Dimebag Darrell wrote 42 lesson columns for Guitar World. Here’s the best advice he shared
It’s a soloing strategy that T-Bone Walker, B.B. King and Albert King all used, and will instantly make your blues solos sound more pro – learn parallel pentatonics and you will set your playing free
