How to Play Cold Shot on Guitar and Harmonica

How to Play Cold Shot on Guitar and Harmonica

Texas Blues Shuffle with a Blues Harp and Guitar

Stevie Ray Vaughan Cold Shot Lesson on Guitar and Harmonica

Lesson Info

Difficulty: Um...this might take some practice but it sure is a lot of fun when you've got it.

Lesson Length: 21:28

Instructor: George Goodman

Help File

Cold Shot - Harmonica Tabs and notes on solos - PDF Download for educational purposes only

Recommended Gear

takamine-eg541sc acoustic guitar

Takamine EG541SC
I am playing my black tak in this one.

This is a Takamine G Series EG541SC bought in North Carolina when I was playing in a band called Double Take.
Specs:
Top - Solid Spruce
Back - Nato
Sides - Nato
Finger Board - Rosewood
Electronics - TK40
Finish - Gloss Black
Check out more Takamine G Series Guitars

Hohner Special 20Hohner Special 20 Diatonic Harmonica in C

A C harmonica played in second position works great on this.
I am playing a Hohner Special 20 in this one.
On Sale Here

Hohner Harmonica HolderHohner Harmonica Holder

The Hohner Harmonica Neck Holder fits harmonicas up to 7-1/2" long.

With a long-lasting nickel-plated finish, this harmonica rack is adjustable and fits any neck shape.

 

Musical Challenges

Stevie Ray Vaughan's Cold Shot has this classic Texas Blues Shuffle going on. You can play it in any key once you've got it down.

The key of the recording is Ab because Stevie would play the song in the key of A but he would tune his guitar down a semi-tone so that the song was actually in Ab.

This would require a Db harmonica and chances are that you don't own one.

So I've lowered the key another semi-tone to G. Now we can use a C harmonica.

Right? For Blues in G, we need a C harmonica. The C harmonica will produce a G7 chord when drawing on holes -2-3-4-5.

Texas Shuffle

This shuffle requires swinging the eighth notes where the second half of the eighth note pair only gets about a third of the beat.

Because it gets short changed, sometimes we give it a kick in the ass. That's called accenting the off beat.

The melody notes land on the beat and the offbeat is sounded by raking the strings on the up stroke.

Harmonica

I like to start the song out with a little harmonica riff.

When we are on the I chord, a -4-5 chord sounds great.

I like to get solo ideas from the melody, riffs, rhythms or other solos of the song.

The melody to Cold Shot consists of notes in the Blues Scale.

If you've got your Blues Scale down, then you can take your harp to town

Once the rhythm is comfortable and you've got some ideas to try out on harmonica, ah man, it doesn't get any better.

If you need a Hohner Special 20 or any online musical purchase, I encourage you to shop at Musician's Friend using the links provided on this site. It helps keep costs down.

 

HohnerSpecial20CLargeC Hohner Special 20

Get a Special 20 - on sale and FREE shipping to the US.

You can find a downloadable version of the chords, lyricas and harmonica tabs under the Help File link above.

Have fun. Let me know how you make out. Leave a comment.

Peace. Stay in tune.

George


 

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4 responses to “Stevie Ray Vaughan – Cold Shot Lesson on Harmonica and Guitar – C Harp”

  1. Brian O'Dea says:

    Cool lesson! Got some work to do on my bends. Like the shirt,how do I get one?

  2. paul kerans says:

    Just got around to cold shot…ROCKED me right off my chair!!!
    This has taken me the next level. Thank you so much!

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