Techniques of the heroes: Rory Gallagher part 3

Techniques of the heroes: Rory Gallagher Part 1
Techniques of the heroes: Rory Gallagher Part 2

Okay, in this lesson I will be going over one of the most popular versions of one of Rory Gallagher's most popular tracks, I’ll be going over the stage struck live version of ‘Bad Penny’. Now I won’t go over it absolutely note for note all the way through as that will be a very long lesson and quite boring to read but I will go over as many of the guitar phrases that are unique to this version as possible. He always played it differently depending on what mood he was in each night, and actually built practically his entire reputation on his sheer energy as a live performer. I will start out by giving you the key that this song is in and the scale(s) used to write it so that you can get the best idea of just how he did it.

Before anything else, I’d also like to mention the Rory Gallagher always used one of two fender Stratocasters he brought to concerts apart from his acoustic guitar, and for this song he used some kind of phaser albeit on a very low setting.

This song is in the key of D, and this is the minor pentatonic blues scale he used for soloing over it(don’t worry about the name of it if you don’t know what it means. All you need to know is that if you play Bad Penny in the same key and same tuning as Rory Gallagher then you can use this scale to solo over it spontaneously):

E||------------------|------------------||------------------|------------8---10-|
B||------------------|------------------||----------------8-|-9----10-----------|
G||------------------|-----------5----7-||-7----9----10-----|-------------------|
D||----------------5-|-6----7-----------||------------------|-------------------|
A||-5----7----8------|------------------||------------------|-------------------|
E||------------------|------------------||------------------|-------------------|

 Tab key:-

--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

-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

First he starts by completely palm muting a chord so that all he gets is a sort of “chwip” sound. This is essentially him setting the tempo of the song so that the rest of the band knows what speed to play at. The chord that he is muting is the first chord of the song, which is a D minor. Which version of D minor you use is really up to you, but Rory Gallagher used the full chord version to get the best sound out of his fender Stratocaster (you know which one).

Intro

E||-1--------1-------|---------1--------||------------------|-------------------|
B||-3--------3---3-3-|---------1--------||-1--------------3-|-------3---3---3p1-|
G||-2--------2---2-2-|---------2--------||-0--------------2-|-------2---2---2---|
D||-0--------0---0-0-|---------3--------||-2----0----2----0-|-------0---0---0---|
A||------------------|---------3--------||-3----------------|-------------------|
E||------------------|-1---1---1--------||------------------|-------------------|

E||-1--------1-------|---------1--------||------------------|-------------------|
B||-3--------3---3-3-|---------1--------||-1--------------3-|-------3---3---3p1-|
G||-2--------2---2-2-|---------2--------||-0--------------2-|-------2---2---2---|
D||-0--------0---0-0-|---------3--------||-2----0----2----0-|-------0---0---0---|
A||------------------|---------3--------||-3----------------|-------------------|
E||------------------|-1---1---1--------||------------------|-------------------|

Main Riff

E||------------------|-8------------8---||-8---8---8--------|-------------------|
B||-----------6--8---|-8b10r8-------6---||-5---6---5h6p5----|-------------------|
G||-7p5h7------------|------------------||------------------|-7v----------------|
D||-0----------------|------------------||------------------|-------------------|
A||------------------|------------------||------------------|-------------------|
E||------------------|------------------||------------------|-------------------|

Unique opening lick done on Stage struck version

E||------------------|-8----------------||------------------|-------------------|
B||---------6-8b10---|---8b10r8-5h6p5-8-||5h6p5-------------|-------------------|
G||--7p5h7-----------|------------------||-----7p5----------|-------------------|
D||------------------|------------------||--------7p5-3h5p3-|-------------------|
A||------------------|------------------||------------------|-5v----------------|
E||------------------|------------------||------------------|-------------------|

Then as he goes into the main riff while he’s soloing he plays these chords

E||-1----------------|-1----------------||------------------|-1-----------------|
B||-3----------------|-1----------------||-1----------------|-3-----------------|
G||-2----------------|-2----------------||-0----------------|-2-----------------|
D||-0----------------|-3----------------||-2----------------|-0-----------------|
A||------------------|-3----------------||-3----------------|-------------------|
E||------------------|-1----------------||------------------|-------------------|

The only different part that he plays while he’s singing is when he sings, “some stormy nights, your memory haunts me, won’t you go away?” below is what he’s playing as he sings this.

  Some lonely nights, your memory haunts me, won’t you go away?
E||------------------|-3----------------||------------------|-------------------|
B||-5----------------|-3---5------------||------------------|-------------------|
G||-5----------------|-0---5------------||-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3--|-3-3-3-5-5---------|
D||-5----------------|-0---5------------||-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3--|-3-3-3-5-5---------|
A||-3----------------|-----3------------||-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1--|-1-0-1/3-3---------|
E||------------------|------------------||------------------|-------------------|

As long as you can memorize where these parts come up in the song then you will be fine. The reason why I’m not going through the entire song in strictly the right order is that there are already a large number of tabs available for Bad Penny, and I want this to be a lesson on achieving his style, not merely mimicking him. The real trick is memorising Rory Gallagher’s style of phrasing. He mostly kept to the scales of the songs he was playing and only ventured outside them when he was absolutely sure he could. Maybe he didn’t use as complicated scales as some people, but he made the very most of what he had.

Also be aware that these tabs are as close as I can get them, but Rory changed his solos every night, so don’t worry if you feel that he played it slightly differently, because he always did.

Phrases from the solo parts that you may want to know

Phrase 1: (don’t worry about the timing, as you’ll know when he plays this phrase, and I had to ignore the bars in order to fit this phrase on the tab chart).

E||------------8-8---|------------------||------------------|-------------------|
B||--------5-6---8b10|(thrash the hell out of chord here)---|-------------------|
G||7-7p5-7-----------|------------------||------------------|-------------------|
D||------------------|------------------||------------------|-------------------|
A||------------------|------------------||------------------|-------------------|
E||------------------|------------------||------------------|-------------------|

E||------------------|------------------||------------------|-------------------|
B||-5h6h8p6p5-6p5----|-5h6h8p6p5--------||------------------|-------------------|
G||---------------7--|-----------7p5-7p5||------------------|-------------------|
D||------------------|------------------||--7p5-5p3---------|-------------------|
A||------------------|------------------||----------5v------|-------------------|
E||------------------|------------------||------------------|-------------------|

Phrase 2: (this one is one that makes his guitar make a staggered kind of sound, and it’s one of the phrases that really made my head spin when I first heard it; once again it’s up to you to discover the feel for this, as the actual timing is quite hard to get across on a written tab.)

E||------------------|------8-----------||--8--8--8--8-8-8--|-------------------|
B||------------------|------8b10(hold bend)-10-10r8--8-8-8p6|-6p5-6p5-----------|
G||---------------5--|-7----------------||------------------|---------7v--------|
D||------------5-----|------------------||------------------|-------------------|
A||-5p3-5--8---------|------------------||------------------|-------------------|
E||------------------|------------------||------------------|-------------------|

E||------------------|------------------||------------------|-------------------|
B||------------------|------------------||------------------|-------------------|
G||-5h7p5------------|------------------||------------------|-------------------|
D||-------7p5-7p5----|------------------||------------------|-------------------|
A||---------------8p7|-5v---------------||------------------|-------------------|
E||------------------|------------------||------------------|-------------------|

Phrase 3: (a quiet bit during the solo where he is playing more gently)

E||------------------|------------------||------------------|-------------------|
B||------------------|------------------||------------------|-------------------|
G||------------------|------------------||------------------|-------------------|
D||-----------5--7---|-5---3---3p2-0----||----2-3p2-0h2-----|-------------------|
A||-5p3-5--8---------|------------------||--3-----------3/5-|-------------------|
E||------------------|------------------||------------------|-------------------|

I hope that this lesson has helped some of you out there. Take care and I’ll see you next time!