This is a growing collection of free lessons that I've been building since I started StevieSnacks in Oct. 2007. I've attempted to organize them into categories and difficulty levels which you'll see listed on the left.
Wednesday, March 10, 2010 at 9:48PM | in Advanced | tagged Licks, Song: Say What | Bookmark or Share One of my favorite SRV licks of all time, from a live performance of "Say What" on Saturday Night Live in 1986. Use of a wah-wah pedal really brings out the subtle rhythm in this lick nicely.
This lesson breaks down the funky rhythm technique used by Hendrix on songs like Izabella. I'm not nearly as familiar with the Hendrix style as some others, but this is one thing I remember being pretty jazzed about when I figured it out.
Wednesday, February 24, 2010 at 6:27PM | Bookmark or Share Learn several modifications to standard chord forms to sound more like Hendrix or SRV.
Tuesday, February 16, 2010 at 9:58PM | in Advanced | tagged Licks, Song: Leave My Girl Alone | Bookmark or Share If you've wondered why Stevie's performance of "Leave My Girl Alone" at his '89 Austin City Limits performance sounded so different (and awesome), it's because he was playing certain signature licks slightly differently than usual. In this lesson I'll show you how they were different and teach you one of the fastest licks from that performance.
This video used to be sold as a premium lesson, but it got lost in the shuffle as I put out more and more lesson series, so I'm dusting it off and putting the entire 20 minute lesson out as a free lesson. The first part of the lesson focuses on what notes to play, and the last half (the part that used to be 'premium') focuses on some the nitty-gritty details that make it sound the way it does.
Wednesday, November 25, 2009 at 10:35PM | Bookmark or Share This video teaches you the basic chords to a ballad style backing track I created, and then at the end, you can play along, playing rhythm as I solo and vice versa. My way of saying thanks on Thanksgiving for all the support and kind words.
A viewer sent me an mp3 of Stevie playing "Lost Your Good Thing Now", the classic B.B. King tune, and pointed me to an incredibly fast lick in the middle of the song. With the help of Capo, I think I got most of it figured out. I still can't play it with the correct accents and play it cleanly at nearly the speed Stevie did, but in this lesson I break the lick into small parts that will make it easier to play at any speed.
Tuesday, October 27, 2009 at 11:10AM | Bookmark or Share A remake of a lesson I did a long time ago, which had a few things not quite right. This time should be better, hopefully :-)
One of my favorite parts of this Freddie King cover by SRV is the awesome sliding double-stop chords that occur a few choruses into the song. I've been playing this wrong for many years, but I decided to figure it out, and teach this lesson on it.
Saturday, October 3, 2009 at 8:54PM | in Advanced, Intermediate | tagged Licks, Song: Voodoo Chile' | Bookmark or Share This lesson explains the sliding chords that you hear near the end of Voodoo Chile Slight Return, from the Couldn't Stand The Weather Album. While none of the chords is more than two strings, the changing fret distance between the notes and the changing picking rhythm makes this a tricky sequence to play. Not to mention the highest note you can reach to cap it off.
