Music Lesson: Aggressive Guitar Playing Techniques

There I was, kind of dampening the strings quite a lot, so you get that kind of short attack. But you can just as easily play it more openly, which gives it a lot more aggression in terms of feel.

Stevie Ray Vaughan's Impact

Stevie Ray Vaughan kind of took that even further. He hit all the strings at once, resulting in a very rhythmical, sort of percussive sound. Its roots trace back to:

• Jimmy Reed
• Lightning Hopkins
• John Lee Hooker

He amplified these influences and made them slightly more aggressive. For instance, he would play things like:

Note: Example riffs here if applicable.

This style takes it up a notch from what we were doing on the acoustic guitar. It's still all the same ingredients, but it creates a feeling of more space when you add the extra components in the middle.

Playing in a Trio

I think partly Stevie did that because, when playing in a trio, he was the only one holding down any rhythm. This is slightly different if you're with a bigger band, but in a trio setting, it fills a lot of space and frequencies.

You can really trace that back to John Lee Hooker. It's the same idea, playing the beat and the bass line all on one guitar.

Key Technique: Picking Out Notes

One thing to bear in mind when playing this kind of stuff is the ability to:

• Hit all the strings at once
• Pick out one single note

Although it might seem aggressive, it's quite intricate to execute. You need to:

• Be able to scrape all the strings to get that full, meaty sound,
• Block off the other strings as you play.

I don't really think about it too much now, but wherever you are on the neck, you should practice picking out a string.

Riff Example

Without the percussive elements, your riff sounds like this:

Basic riff notation here if applicable.

But with those elements, you can incorporate all the extra nuances:

Enhanced riff notation here if applicable.

So, it's worth spending some time practicing the technique of picking out individual notes!