John Mayer, Stevie Ray Vaughan, and Rhythm

The new Guitar Player arrived in the mail this weekend. John Mayer, one of my favorite musicians, adorns the cover so I immediately turned to the feature on him. Jude Gold interviews Mayer and they talk a lot about Mayer’s move from the world of pop to that of blues. It isn’t yet available online, but here’s Mayer talking about his idol, the late Stevie Ray Vaughan:

The thing you end up realizing is that he [Vaughan] was actually more dedicated to rhythm than he was to the actual sequence of notes in a riff. He never broke the rhythm. Ever. He’d break the melody line before he’d break the rhythm, and that is the exact way it’s supposed to be.

This is a much better way of saying what I was trying to say the other day. As for Vaughan’s rhythm playing, just listen to a song like “Pride and Joy” or any of his treatments of Jimi Hendrix (another brilliant rhythm player) tunes to get an idea. The guy always was on time.

Incidentally, and having nothing to do with Mayer, Vaughan, or Hendrix, you can view and hear lessons at the Guitar Player web site. This is a terrific resource and I’ve added a link to the sidebar. May it serve you well!

On this day…

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• 2005: Ankle Tattoo Blues: Schedule —
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  Feb. 6: program arrangement (rhythm section, synth) on PS5
  Feb. 10: record guitars
  Feb. 15 - 17: [...]
• 2005: Ankle Tattoo Blues: Challenges — When deciding the order in which to record this collection of songs, I chose to put the ones that need [...]
• 2005: Ankle Tattoo Blues: Lyrics — These lyrics were originally written in March 2004 at a cafe in San Luis Obispo. The verses are an amalgamation [...]