Lesson 43 - Make Your Guitar Cry

June 14th, 2008

Details

Buy the full 13 minute lesson | Watch this free preview in HD

Lesson 43 presents a simple, yet effective, head-turning technique (volume swells) that can take an ordinary solo and create a much more expressive, soulful sound. Like anything, it should be used in moderation, and only when it fits the song. But this technique, coupled with the right song, and the right crowd will draw some attention

This lesson is beginner to intermediate difficulty, but I didn’t learn this technique until I was a more advanced player. This little volume knob trick can turn heads when people hear it because of it creates a voice-like crying sounds that can really add some expressiveness to your playing.

The free lesson shows you the mechanics of how you do this, and the extended lesson gives specific examples of how this can be used with the SRV style of playing.

Gear

Guitar

Brand: Fender
Style: Strat (mexican made)
Pickups: Rocketfire Guitars
Frets: Jumbo
Tuning: 1/2 Step down (Eb)

Amp

Brand: Fender
Model: Blues Junior Tweed NOS Edition
Mods: None
Tubes: Stock Groove Tubes
Speaker: Stock Jensen

The amp was set with all tone knobs on 10, volume was around 4 or 5, with master volume around 9. For this lesson I’m plugged straight in to the amp, with no pedals used.

Tablature

Here is the free PDF tablature for the lick taught in this lesson. When you buy the full version, you will also get the GuitarPro tablature, which is identical in form, but can be played back in GuitarPro.

PDF Tablature

Buy The HD Lesson

The full lesson is over 22 minutes long and can be purchased in the lesson download store.

7 Comments

Dave Beauregard Says:
August 11th, 2008 at 5:16 pm
Where do you live? I live in Rhode Island,,Doo you give lessons in person?

[Reply]
Anthony Stauffer ( StevieSnacks Teacher ) reply on August 11th, 2008:
I’m based out of State College, PA. I don’t currently have time to run StevieSnacks, and do in-person lessons, but after I’ve had some time to get some of this foundational stuff out of the way, I’ll be looking to start some of that, but it probably won’t be for at least another year.

[Reply]
Chris Freeman Says:
June 15th, 2008 at 11:32 pm
Steve Morse uses this technique seemingly all the time! Its almost like I never see him play without his pinky wrapped around the volume knob. Steve Howe made extensive use of a volume pedal to provide violin type attack on a lot of notes and chords (think Heart of the Sunrise.) I’d be much more likely to use a volume pedal since the knob on my Music Man is a little far from my pinky.

I wonder, is there a real difference between using the knob on the guitar vs. using a volume pedal?

[Reply]
Steve Gill reply on June 16th, 2008:
Walter Trout uses this technique quite abit too.

[Reply]
blues4jesus Says:
June 14th, 2008 at 9:25 pm
Another cool lesson. Digging what ya do here, Thanks for taking the time to do these lessons.

[Reply]
Joe M Says:
June 14th, 2008 at 9:12 pm
Check out Joe Bonamassa doing this voicing technique. Absolutely amazing. it starts at about 4:25 in the video.

[Reply]
Joe M reply on June 14th, 2008:
Oops, I tried to post a video and it didn’t work so here is a link….

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Xc4HfWoTzwY&feature=related

[Reply]