Stevie Ray Vaughan's Gutsy Move When A String Breaks Live

There’s this mind-blowing video one of my students sent me of Stevie Ray Vaughan breaking a string onstage.

It’s from his concert film Live in Austin. Which I would consider required viewing for every aspiring blues guitar player.

He’s in the middle of wailing a solo on the song “Look At Little Sister”. The band is digging in. Stevie’s at the helm playing breathtaking licks. He's commanding the stage with a thunderous presence.

But then suddenly... something happens…

SNAP

You see, a tiny flashing glare from a steel string going haywire in the air. 

If you’ve ever broken a string…you know…it just SUCKS. There’s no other way to put it.

So what does Stevie do?

He switches to the other strings and keeps on shredding! Pushing and pulling on the notes to bend them and compensate for any tuning issues that often arise when you break a string.

Then his brilliant guitar tech, René Martinez, deserves a massive award for instantly picking up on what happened. Runs out onstage with a replacement guitar, and they are able to switch it out without missing a beat.

They go to a part in the song that has rhythm breaks, like so many blues guitar songs do. Stevie keeps singing. He straps in the backup guitar and then jumps right into the next section. If you weren’t looking at him, you wouldn’t even be able to tell this happened.

To be honest, it’s one of the most insane guitar moments I’ve ever seen. It really shows how much of a beast Stevie was.

If you would like to play like Stevie Ray Vaughan, one of the things you have to do is learn the blues scale. I've put together a PDF guide that shows you the 5 easiest and fastest ways to play the blues scale anywhere on the neck. 

If you want to get your hands on it. Go to:

www.jonmaclennan.com/bluesscales

Jon MacLennan