Techniques of the heroes: Rory Gallagher

Rory Gallagher was probably one of the most overlooked guitarists out there. Gary Moore and Slash absolutely idolised him, and he was known for being one of the sweetest guys out there with practically no ego. His heart and soul were in the blues, and in this mini-series of lessons I’ll be showing you how to pull off some of tricks as well as how to play some of his most well-known songs.

Rory Gallagher’s guitar of choice was his infamous fender Stratocaster almost completely devoid of paint; the reason for this being that he had a very acidic blood type which actually peeled the paint off it when he sweated. This is probably the biggest component of his signature throaty sound, as he used amps from Vox and Marshall and managed to retain his tone with both.

Now onto his home turf: the blues.

Tab key:-

--4-- = pluck the string shown while fretting the string on the fret numbered

--h6- = hammer-on your finger onto the string on the fret numbered, doesn't require the string to be plucked

--p2- = pull-off your finger from the string shown to sound a note while fretting the string on the fret numbered

-8b9- = luck the string shown while fretting the string on the fret numbered, then bend the string until the note sounded becomes the same as the note sounded on the fret shown to the right of the b. E.g., 8b9 means pluck the string while fretting the string on the 8th fret, then bend the string one semitone/one fret higher in pitch.

-8b9r8- = same a regular bend but allow string to return to regular position on fret numbered; think of b as meaning bend, and r as meaning relax

--t12- = tap on the fret numbered firmly with one of the fingers in your plucking hand

-t9r5- = tap on the fret numbered firmly with one of the fingers in your plucking hand then release your finger from the string either by simply pulling it off or twanging it, but fret the string on the fret numbered to sound that note after the finger tapping the string has been removed

-mb7- = bend the string slightly after plucking the string number shown, but don't bend it so that raises the note in pitch by a fret.

/ = Slide finger(s) up the fret-board to the fret shown

\ = Slide finger(s) down the fret-board to the fret shown

--9v- = use vibrato by wavering the string up and down by bending it to get a sort of wavy sound

Here is the minor pentatonic blues scale in two octaves. This was a favourite of Rory’s, and he often would blend bits of this scale like the blues note into other scales; in other words, he nicked the part that sounded bluesy, and shoved them onto other bits of theory that he knew. This isn’t being lazy, it’s being intuitive. Most of the theory that people use is an amalgamation of bits and pieces that they’re heard or learnt and that they’ve rearranged to sound the way they want it to sound.

E||------------------|------------------||------------------|-----------10---12-|
B||------------------|------------------||--------------10--|-11---12-----------|
G||------------------|----------7----9--||-9--11---12-------|-------------------|
D||---------------7--|-8----9-----------||------------------|-------------------|
A||-7---9----10------|------------------||------------------|-------------------|
E||------------------|------------------||------------------|-------------------|

Now here’s the Dorian mode which he also used from time to time, but also combined with the scale above.

E||------------------|------------------||------------------|-----------10---12-|
B||------------------|------------------||---------------10-|-12---14-----------|
G||------------------|-----------7----9-||-9---11---12------|-------------------|
D||---------------7--|-9---11-----------||------------------|-------------------|
A||-7---9---10-------|------------------||------------------|-------------------|
E||------------------|------------------||------------------|-------------------|

Now this is going to be lesson broken down into pieces, so the main focus of this lesson will be how to understand what Rory Gallagher did to get his signature style of playing. The first thing would probably be that he wasn’t the kind of person to be overly technical. He would use the blues scales repetitively but was able to write or phrase it in such a way that it didn’t become boring.

Now here’s a trick he often used when playing to get a nice bluesy sound; it’s a form of unison bending that works well if pulled off correctly in certain songs. Here are a few examples of these bends that you could put in if you were playing using the scale above in the key also shown earlier in this lesson

E||------------------|------------------||-7----------------|-------------------|
B||-10----13---------|-8----15----------||-7b10-------------|-------------------|
G||-9b12--12b14------|-7b9--14b16-------||----------7-------|-------------------|
D||------------------|------------------||----------7b9-----|-------------------|
A||------------------|------------------||------------------|-------------------|
E||------------------|------------------||------------------|-------------------|

Now one of the reasons this is done on the thinner strings is that they’re easier to bend, and another reason is that they have to be bent away from the next thinnest string, which is also being fretted. This makes this technique impossible to execute on some of the thickest strings as you run out of fret-board. Now for those of you using a Floyd rose style bridge system, I am afraid this technique won’t work until you lock the bridge somehow. This is a result of the springs in the Floyd rose system constantly compensating for any added tension, but isn’t a problem for those of you using a vibrola system, or those of you that are familiar with the tremol-no system.

Now in the next lesson I will be giving you an example of how to use this technique along with others such as alternate picking, economy picking and basic tapping to get a real feel for his style. Most of Rory Gallagher’s reputation came from his spontaneous live playing, so being loose is probably the best advice anybody can give you when trying to become more like him.

That’s it for this lesson but I’ll bring up the next one soon. I hope this has helped some of you out there, take care and I’ll see you next time!

Techniques of the heroes: Rory Gallagher Part 2
Techniques of the heroes: Rory Gallagher Part 3