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Everything you need to know before playing ‘Couldn’t Stand The Weather’

Couldn’t Stand The Weather was released in 1984, building on the success of Stevie Ray Vaughan’s debut album Texas Flood the previous year. The title track captures the blues great at the top of his game, showcasing his funky side but still featuring a blistering solo with SRV’S instantly recognisable ‘melting power tubes’ guitar tone.

By no means an easy song to play, and featuring a broad mix of full/partial chords, blues harmonies, and rhythm and lead techniques, we’d say Couldn’t Stand The Weather is likely to keep you on your toes. If you’re going to learn it, you’ll want to break it down into parts you can manage!

Start with a look at the chords. They’re fairly straightforward and once you’ve got a feel for the BM-A-G7-F#7#9 progression it’ll be easier to map out Stevie’s lead work over the top. Also make sure to refer back from the tab to the scale shapes for a clearer idea of how those licks are constructed.

YVaughan’s sound is a hotly debated topic. He is alleged to have set up over 30 amps in some recording sessions. In the early days, he used Fender combos and Marshall stacks (often using the Marshalls for his clean tones), soon including a Dumble Steel String Singer head in his tonal arsenal. Opt for a clean channel on your amp with the gain dialled in high and pair it with an overdrive pedal – Stevie typically used Ibanez Tube Screamers including TS-808, TS9 and TS10 models. Remember, the idea is to increase the sustain and ‘singing’ quality of your clean sound without too much distortion. If you’re dead set on authenticity, you’ll also need a Leslie style chorus effect for some of the rhythm parts and a wah pedal for the solo. ou’ll need to be familiar with the B minor pentatonic scale shown here. Stevie uses this extended shape, occasionally adding 9th, major 3rd or intervals for colour. In the intro, he plays the corresponding minor pentatonic scale over each chord: B minor pentatonic over a Bm chord; A minor pentatonic over A, and so on – just move the scale shape to match the chord positions. In the solo Stevie switches to the D minor pentatonic and blues scales over the D7#9 chord. This time, when the chords change to Bm, A, G and F#7#9, he sticks to B minor pentatonic. This simple approach is much easier than moving with the chords.