Rumble (Link Wray) Electric Guitar Tutorial & Practice Guide
Known as one of the first songs to ever use distortion, this groundbreaking track is simple to learn and perfect for beginners on electric guitar.
This electric guitar tutorial will teach you how to play Rumble, which includes some basic chords like E, A and D, as well as a simple descending minor pentatonic lick.
How I would practice this song:
First, I would work out the chord changes and strumming. This song is unique in the sense that it doesn’t have an explicit strumming pattern. Instead, we just hit a couple chords once or twice each.
Practice this many times, over and over:
So we hit D on beats 3 and 4, then E on beat 1… and we gotta be sure to COUNT OUT LOUD so we don’t skip a beat! We can practice the same thing for A:
Watch the tutorial (above) and I’ll walk you through it all, as well as display some basic diagrams.
Next, I would practice the lick that he plays after the chords.
This is a descending Em pentatonic scale. I recommend learning the notes first, playing them in order, at your own pace.
Then you can begin to count aloud. We count triplets, as seen above: “One and uh – Two and uh – Three and uh – Four and uh” over and over. Then, once you get used to the feeling of it, line it up with the notes.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
- 0:00
- 0:08 – Demonstration
- 1:36 – Rumble chords
- 2:09 – Counting and practicing the chords
- 4:24 – Practicing with Metronome
- 5:12 – Rumble blues line
- 6:12 – E minor pentatonic scale
- 6:36 – alternate picking
- 7:41 – playing triplets
- 9:13 – practicing line with metronome
- 10:04 – practicing Rumble with metronome
- 11:04 – Tips & Resources
