How to Play Rainy Day Woman, Waylon Jennings [B-Bender Lesson!]
Well, Telly Smellers, it’s been a hot minute, and I’m excited to make a new post! Today we’ll be breaking down how to play Rainy Day Woman by Waylon Jennings. Plus! If you own a b-bender, this lesson is tailored to you! Our first EVER b-bender lesson is here, and it includes tons of pedal steel licks. These licks will have your friends wondering where you figured out how to play Rainy Day Woman.
Below, you’ll find the tablature for this Waylon Jennings classic, and b-bender licks galore. Note, these b-bender licks are specifically intended to imitate a pedal steel sound. As such, this is not your typical guitar lesson. You may need demonstrations and examples. If so, you’re in luck. I’ve got a YouTube lesson to accompany this post. The lesson breaks down each lick, plus it includes Waylon’s solo! Want the tabs?! No problem. You access them by becoming a supporter on Patreon https://www.patreon.com/smellytele. Our if you prefer one-time purchases rather than a subscription, you can also purchase the tabs at SMP Press https://www.sheetmusicplus.com/title/rainy-day-woman-digital-sheet-music/22262220.
Gear Corner
When learning how to play Rainy Day Woman, we want our guitars to sound bright, clean, and loud to imitate that pedal steel sound. The best news for us? Before Leo Fender began manufacturing guitars, he was actually manufacturing Hawaiian lap steel guitars and amplifiers. Wait…why is that good news? Because Broadcasters and Telecasters were the first guitars that Fender made, and these guitars used the same or similar parts. Because the parts were similar, they produced a similar sound to lap steels. But instead of being lap steels, the Telecaster and Broadcasters were guitars with frets and and they were tuned to E standard. With a fretted sounds and different tuning, the electric guitar sound revolutionized how music was made for decades. Before I further digress into a detailed history lesson, let me cut to the chase…
To sound like a pedal steel guitar you’ll need a Telecaster (or if you have a deep pocketbook, a Broadcaster), with your bridge pickup selected. You can roll the tone knob back a little bit to take some of the pop and spank out of the bridge pickup. Then, combine your Telecaster with a Twin Reverb (for a large hall) or a Deluxe Reverb (for a small room). This guitar and amp combination closely resembles some of the early Fender guitars and amps. It’s the most affordable way to get that early Fender sound, and it will provide a great sound for imitating pedal steel! Make sure to keep your volume at a reasonable level. As guitar players we are used to getting a little bit of fuzz and dirt out of the amps. For pedal steel guitar though, you want the sound to be clean, clean, clean!
The Chords
Nashville Numbers
Rainy Day Woman is a 2 chord song, and it follows one of the most common progressions in popular music. The song is in the key of A, and the progression is simply I-V (1-5) The song alternates between these two chords. In the key of A will use the A and E chords. How did we find these chords? Play the notes of your A major scale and assign a number to each note in ascending order. In A major, your 1st note is A, the second is B, 3rd is Db, 4th is D, and the 5th is E. So highlighting the 1st and 5th notes in the A major scale will give you the A and E chords. Simple.
Chord Diagrams
Below you’ll find a couple of basic chord diagrams. These are two of the basic “cowboy chords.” If you’re a country fan and a beginning player, you’ll want to get these into your arsenal right away.
Pedal Steel Time!
Or more accurately, it’s b-bender time. I don’t know why b-benders did not become mainstream. I hear them plenty enough in country music, and there’s a small sampling of b-bending in rock n roll. Who knows, maybe this post drums up some new excitement for benders! Ok, that’s enough of my blabbing. Let’s start putting some pedal steel players out of work.
One B-Bender Tip
Please be sure to remember that this tip is just a tip, and by no means is it a hard and fast rule. When learning how to play Rainy Day Woman, you’ll want to make sure you’re using the bender in a way that sounds like a pedal steel player. How do we do this? Well, the YouTube video above demonstrates it best, but I’ll do what I can with written word.
When playing a note that gets “bended,” you want to make sure that you hear two distinct notes. The first note needs to be heard and established before any bending motion takes place. Whether the note is pre-bent, or has yet to be bending, let that note ring for a beat before starting to bend. Think of it like this. You pluck the string once and let it ring for a whole quarter note (no more plucking). This quarter note is made up of two eighth notes. The first eighth note, you allow the string to just ring. NO BENDING! Then, when that first eighth note is over and the next eighth begins, you will bend the string up or down to the next note. That’s it! Conceptually simple, but in practice this takes a bit of discipline.
Intro
The opening lick is a classic country opener. And I mean classic. Learning how to play Rainy Day Woman is going to give you a few variations of openers, but let’s focus on the first one. The lick below uses a D chord shape, where the root note of the chord shape is A and played at the 7th fret of the D string. Now, you’re not going to play the root note in the intro. Even though you can forget this information for right now, I do think it is important that we recognize how this chord shape (in this case the open D chord shape) is exactly the same if you move your root note up to the 7th fret of the guitar.
To start this lick though, go ahead and use your first finger to get the 9th fret of the G string, and your second finger to get the 10th fret of the B. You’ll notice that if you use your first finger to bar the G-B-E strings, you are playing a D chord shape. Cool!
The first four notes of the intro can be played to start any country song or any country guitar solo in a major key! Remember, any time you see a bend on the B-string in these tabs, you’re going to use the b-bender.
First Chorus
These licks are similar but slightly different throughout the song. They mirror the intro a bit, and for intermediate players, this should not induce any headaches.
First Verse
Here’s the great news! During the verses, you can take your foot off the gas and relax a bit. These licks are similar to the previous ones and should be much easier to play. So enjoy your coffee break and have fun listening to Waylon sing.
Second Chorus
Much like the first chorus, the second chorus repeats a few of the same licks with a couple minor modifications. One of the cool things about this song is how many times a lick comes back with a slight modification. It may sound and feel like all the licks are the same, but many of these licks are never being played the same way twice!
SOLO TIME, BABY!
You can’t learn how to play Rainy Day Woman and neglect to learn the solo. And what’s great about the solo is introduces a brand new lick that sounds SOOOO pedal steely. After the first two bars, you’re going to drop down to the 7th fret of the B string and 10th fret of the E string. Out of your E chord, you’re playing the high 7th, and you’ll bend from the 2nd up to the major 3rd. It sounds so country and is a great pedal steel imitation lick that I haven’t seen too many players implement. The other elements of this solo should look familiar by now, so jump in there and get playing!
That Was Awesome, BUT WHAT ABOUT WAYLON’S SOLO!
I gotta a fever. And the only cure is MORE SOLO! This was one of my favorite solos to learn this year, and it could be one of my favorites since I created this website. This solo captures that Waylon Jennings sound and will give your playing a spark. When you hear this solo, it sounds simple. But in practice, it’s tough to pull off. If you’re used to fingerstyle guitar, you will pick this up quickly. But if you’re a flat picker, it could prove to be tricky. I recommend using your thumb and fingers to pick this one out, but I am aware that it is possible to flat pick this if you prefer.
Last Chorus
Here we go loop-dee-loo. I really like the little pre-bend on the 12th string to open up the last chorus. Other than this, the chorus licks remain relatively unchanged.
Outro / Solo
And, then we’re out. The outro follows much of the same licks we’ve already learned, so most of this will be familiar to you now. While the steel guitar player in this song doesn’t seem to play anything exactly the same way twice in this tune, the licks below are all based out of the same chord shapes and voicings. If you’ve made it this far, you’ll have these down in no time.
That’s It!
Now you know how to play Rainy Day Woman! If you’re looking for more songs by Waylon Jennings, check out our lesson for Only Daddy That’ll Walk the Link (smellytele.com).
Remember, if you would like to support this webpage, please become a patron on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/smellytele! A perk of being a patron? You’ll be able to download the practice track, backing tracks, and tabs so you can follow along with the video lessons & our lesson posts!
Also, go and check out some of our other electric guitar lessons! We have more country guitar lessons for Billy Joe Shaver like Georgia On A Fast Train (smellytele.com) and for You Just Can’t Beat Jesus Christ (smellytele.com).
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