You’ve heard it a thousand times right – blues guitar is as much about when you play the notes as the quantity of notes you play on the guitar.  After all, it is the combination of steady, infectious rhythm with creative melodies crafted with an instinctive sense of timing that creates the masters of the blues guitar.

Think Freddie King’s 1961 hit “Hideaway” brilliantly written for blues guitar and you immediately think of the different levels of melodies with impeccable timing on top of a very powerful shuffle rhythm.  Seeing Freddie bop to the rhythm while he played the instrumental on his bright red Gibson ES-335.  No doubt Freddie received much of his training in melody and unique finger picking style from his mentor Jimmy Rogers – an early member of Muddy Water Band in the 1950’s.

In today’s era of playing louder and stronger it is still nice to hear guitar players who master the 3 critical factors of rhythm, timing and melody.

Case in point – someone I’ve been drawn to increasingly in the last few months is Jimmie Vaughan, brother of the late great Stevie Ray Vaughan and guitar master behind the original Fabulous Thunderbirds where he helped mold the modern Texas blues sound.

Listen to Jimmie in this version of “Don’t You Know” from his Strange Pleasure CD

Notice how choosy Jimmy is with his note selection – every note means something in terms of melody to the song.

Now everyone marvels at Stevie Ray Vaughan’s incredible attack and fast playing, but what really made him great is that combined with the sense of rhythm, timing and melody that he shares with his older brother Jimmy.

Anyone who listened at all to the Fabulous Thunderbirds knows what an amazing rhythm guitar player Jimmy is – but for those who want a reminder, listen to this powerful, hard-hitting rhythm Jimmy uses on his recent CD titled “On the Jimmy Reed Highway”

When I think of Jimmy I think of the Groove Man…I could listen to that rhythm all day, it’s good for the soul:

What do you guys think – isn’t this the way guitar was meant to be played?