In this guitar lesson, we will be taking a look at the Full Pride and Joy TAB. We will break this Stevie Ray Vaughan classic blues track down into 12 bar chunks and learn the entire song one piece at a time. Pride and Joy has it all. Blues rhythm guitar at the highest class, an exhibition of blues lead guitar but most importantly, it sounds incredible and you’ll sound incredible playing it. If you want to sound awesome, learn this Stevie Ray Vaughan masterclass today!
Pride and Joy is a song from the 1983 Texas Flood album and is considered by many to be Vaughan’s greatest song. It was his first single and it follows the 12 bar blues chord progression throughout. This is good news for you because it’s easy to remember where you are.
In fairness, the song isn’t particularly difficult technically either. There’re a few tricky licks but nothing over the top or crazy so you don’t need to be a virtuosi to play this one. What you will need though Iis a whole bunch of drive and determination. There’re a lot of little things to remember so if you want to sound like the record, you’ll need to put some work in.
You can, in places, use the TAB as a guide. Rather than playing it note for note, you can (at certain points) simply follow the vibe.
It’s ultimately up to you though. Let’s take a look at the TAB in chronological order. We will naturally begin with the intro but just one last thing I need to point out.
The tuning isn’t standard. Pride and Joy uses E flat tuning (half step down tuning). You can play in standard, but not alongside the record or it will sound weird.
Oh, one more thing. This isn’t a beginner guitar lesson so don’t expect a hand holding process. I will simply be providing a brief overview of each part.
Pride and Joy TAB and Guitar Lesson
Pride and Joy TAB – Intro part 1
So we begin naturally as you’d expect with the intro and I’ve just noticed that I’ve immediately broken my promise of breaking the song up into 12 bar chunks. Sorry.
We all know what this introduction sounds like and in terms of playing, there isn’t much to it so learn the couple of bars below and you’ve already made a start! Just a few double stops and a couple of bends at the end there.
Pride and Joy TAB – Intro part 2
I decided to split the intro TAB into two sections because this second part follows a full 12 bar blues progression. It’s virtually all rhythm and it contains a lot of those distinctive Stevie Ray Vaughan open string parts as you can see in the TAB. This can take some getting used to I won’t lie but it sounds cool when you get the hang of it.
The final parts of this section sound scary on the record but it’s mostly triplets and it’s easy when you break it down and learn it bit by bit. There is a fiddly part but listen to the record closely and you’ll get it.
Intro is now done. We’re now moving into the verses. Well done.
Pride and Joy TAB – Verse 1
We’ve now arrived at the first verse and for me at least, this feels easier than what we were doing before as we’ve lost some of those notes leaving the high string mini chords. There’s a lovely sounding little bend there near the beginning which I encourage you to include.
There’s nothing to be scared of this this part at all to be honest. The rhythm is nice and simple with the 8th notes and triplets and nothing is particularly hard to play. The same can be said for the second verse which we shall look at next.
Pride and Joy TAB – Verse 2
Verse 2 follows the same vibe and feel as the previous verse but it’s not a simple repeat. You’ll notice that things have changed in terms of chords for example, the three open strings have been modified to include the G sharp note on the first fret of the G string. Lots of small subtleties in this song for sure.
We’ve a lovely little double stop lick in the 11th bar there which sounds just great. I love it when lead guitar is linked in with the rhythm. It adds so much.
If you’ve managed to get this far, don’t stop. You’re only one verse away from that epic guitar solo!
Verse 3
Verse 3 offers up something slightly different to what we heard in verses 1 and 2. We have a bit of stop start going on at the start which a) sounds amazing and b) allows you as the guitarist to take a break and compose yourself which is always a welcome surprise. This isn’t why this happens, but it’s a nice little bonus. It’s short lived though as we’re back in the swing after a couple of bars which some more great double stop work. In my opinion, the open E notes in bar 4 aren’t all that important so the standard double stop will work find but it’s up to you.
This verse gives with one hand and takes with the other because the second half of the verse is much more difficult than the first part and the previous verses. It’s a little more licky towards the end. There’s some 16th notes in there. I’d advise listening to the record for a feel of how that fits in but apart from that, It’s pretty much all triplet based so take it a few notes at a time.
Pride and Joy Guitar Solo TAB Part 1
We’ve now reached the Pride and Joy guitar solo. This is a 24 bar guitar solo which I’ve separated into 2 sets of 12 bars so that you can digest it easier and I’d personally recommend you break this down further still and tackle this thing 1 lick at a time.
The first 5 bars stick rigidly to triplets so although there’s lots of notes, you probably won’t find it crazy hard. After that, the rigidity is broken, but that triplet sound is never far away. Even the end part stays close to home.
Take it one step at a time and use the recording as a reference. If you want to make tiny changes you can but don’t stray too far if you want that authentic sound for example, the slide at the start of bar 10 is very distinctive so you don’t want to leave that out but if you don’t hit the 17th fret exactly, don’t worry. As long as you capture the intention, you’re fine.
Pride and Joy Guitar Solo TAB Part 2
12 bars down and just 12 to go. For this guitar solo at least. The general advice from the first part of the guitar solo can be carried over to this part.
Part 2 is harder in some parts but there’s still some repetition in there both in rhythm and in actual notes so don’t let the appearance of the TAB intimidate you. Yes there’re a couple of 16th notes in there which are a tight squeeze but you go this. It’s still 90 percent triplets.
Pride and Joy TAB – Verse 4
We’re in the final stretch now. Sort of. There’re two verse left plus a solo/outro but one step at a time. Verse four will feel like a cake walk compared to the guitar solo. It almost feels like a break or a chance to relax and regain your composure.
Lots of gaps and lots of repetition.
Verse 5
We’ve reached the very last verse of Pride and Joy which is the second to last section that you need to learn. This is another nice an easy part. Couple of licks there, but nothing to worry about. There isn’t really anything else to say. We’ve seen this kind of thing through the entire song before.
Pride and Joy TAB – Second Guitar Solo and Outro Section
Here we are. The final section of the Pride and Joy guitar TAB. Well done for getting this far. Your reward is a very fun little guitar solo outro section which is a joy to perform. The first four bars are a complete breeze as they consist of triplet double stops only and then, there’s that bend Good lord this sounds good and if you hit it just right, you’ll sound like a guitar god I can promise you that. If you know the song, you know how good that bend sounds.
Your adrenaline of being near the end of the song will carry you through the rest of this and the part that’s technically the outro is very simple anyway. Hold that chord for the correct amount of time and then hit that final E flat note.
Little advice on that final note. You can get a kind of twangy sound by lifting that string up off the fretboard and letting it slap back down. Give it a try. This sounds way more impressive and more impactful than simply picking it.
Conclusion
And that’s that. Ten snippets of TAB later and you’ve learned one of the greatest blues guitar songs ever composed. That statement almost made this sound simple but it isn’t. If you’ve managed to complete this song, well done. Seriously. Learning a song like this that has so many tiny little variations is no simple task so good work! If you managed to learn this one, you can play.
I’m not sure how this has happened to be honest, but Pride and Joy is the first ever 12 bar blues song I’ve even written a guitar lesson for here at Eat Sleep Guitar Repeat. Well, that’s a lie, I do know why but either way, there’s no way of me naturally linking to a similar song.
What you could do is take a look at a couple of other classics such as these.
Elvis Presley Jailhouse Rock TAB and guitar lesson
Hello. My name is Ryan J Mellor and I play the guitar. I’m also the creator of Eat Sleep Guitar Repeat. I’ve ben a guitarist for many years and my guitar playing has been described as “above average”. My guitar and music knowledge is somewhat impressive but most importantly, I have a passion for creating great guitar and music related content.