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Alright then: so you know some basic blues stuff that I mentioned in the previous lesson Techniques of the heroes: Rory Gallagher (part1) and you’ve listened to some of Rory Gallagher’s music, so now how to get his style of playing worked into your own.
To give you the best chance of understanding how he played I’ll start by showing you how to play the solo from one of his best known pieces, “shadow play”. This is a relatively simple song, but still very effective, and is really one of the songs that defines Rory Gallagher’s way of playing.
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
--9ap-- = use alternate picking, i.e. pluck the string when your hand moves back up with the pick as well as when your hand moves down with it, to achieve a mandolin-like sound. I will only put this on tab when there isn’t enough room for a lot of repeated notes.
E||------------------|------------------||------------------|------------------|
B||------------------|------------------||------------------|------------------|
G||-7-----7-----7----|-3-----3-----3----||-5-----5-----5----|-5-----5-----5----|
D||-7-----7-----7----|-3-----3-----3----||-5-----5-----5----|-5-----5-----5----|
A||-5-5-5-5-5-5-5-0--|-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1--||-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3--|-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3--|
E||------------------|------------------||------------------|------------------|
Above is the rhythm guitar part that is going on during the solo of “shadow play”. Those of you new to scales and music theory won’t be aware of this yet but these three chords tell me instantly that I can’t use most ‘happy’ sounding scales or modes. How can I tell this? Well the song is written in D natural minor (which can also be described as D Aeolian), which is the scale that Rory Gallagher uses along with an added blue note here and there. Don’t worry if this seems complicated, as I have written out the entire scale in two octaves for you to see below this text.
E||------------------|------------------||------------------|-----------8---10-|
B||------------------|------------------||----------------8-|-10---11----------|
G||------------------|-----------5---7--||-7----9----10-----|------------------|
D||-------------5----|-7----8-----------||------------------|------------------|
A||-5---7---8--------|------------------||------------------|------------------|
E||------------------|------------------||------------------|------------------|
If you listen carefully, then you can hear that pretty much all of the chords in this song have a root note (the note that the chord sounds most like overall, when in doubt it almost always the lowest note there) from this scale. You can almost always tell what scales/modes can and can’t be used over a song by laying them over the track and seeing if any of the notes match up. If you play them and they don’t sound like they fit then the chances are that the scale you’re using isn’t a good one to be using for the particular song you’re playing. If it’s only one or two notes that sound out of place, then try scales that are similar until you have one that fits. There can be more than one scale that fits a song, and many songs have key changes, so don’t be disheartened if this is difficult at first. “Shadow play” is constant all the way through though so you don’t have to worry about it being too difficult.
Now, onto how to solo over this track in Rory Gallagher’s style; one thing that Rory almost always did was have his phrases resolve to the root note if possible. Shadow play is in D, so he would have his phrases return to or end on a D if possible. This is because when you’re playing in any scale the root note will always sound the most complete, and in fact a lot of the time the scale will feel like it’s trying to move back to playing the root note. Rory took advantage of this to give his playing more depth without having to lose any of the feel for the songs he was playing.
Here are a couple of the solo parts from shadow play to give you an idea of how he did this. This first bit is what he plays over his vocals at the very first chorus. Please note that my writing is not 100% accurate on timing, so you’ll have to rely on your ears, but I’m fairly confident that I have the notes right; I’m not going to do a half-arsed lesson on this guy.
E||------------------|------------------||------------------|------------------|
B||------------------|------------------||------------------|------------------|
G||------------------|------------------||-10v-----7-----9v-|-(let note ring)--|
D||------------------|------------------||------------------|------------------|
A||------------------|------------------||------------------|------------------|
E||------------------|------------------||------------------|------------------|
Still, not sure what part I plaaa- -ehay! In this Shadow
E||------------------|------------------||----8---------8---|------------------|
B||------------------|------------------||-8b10------8b10---|-8v---------------|
G||------------------|------------------||------------------|------------------|
D||------------------|------------------||------------------|------------------|
A||------------------|------------------||------------------|------------------|
E||------------------|------------------||------------------|------------------|
Play! In this shadow plaaa- -ehay!
Now moving a bit further on, back into the verse:
E||------------------|------------------||------------------|-------------------|
B||------------------|------------------||--------------8--8|-10-8-10-8-10-8-10v|
G||------------------|------------------||------------------|-------------------|
D||------------------|------------------||------------------|-------------------|
A||------------------|------------------||------------------|-------------------|
E||------------------|------------------||------------------|-------------------|
Well in the half-light,It’s midnight,I hear a voice in time. Well I-
E||------------------|------------------||---------------10h|12p10------10h12p10|
B||------------------|------------------||-----------10-----|-----8h10p8--------|
G||------------------|------------------||------------------|-------------------|
D||------------------|------------------||------------------|-------------------|
A||------------------|------------------||------------------|-------------------|
E||------------------|------------------||------------------|-------------------|
-look back see a half smile Then it’s gone from sight
(repeat the last hammer-on/pull off bit once or twice more just to give it a bit more length for going back into the chorus).
By now you should be getting a good idea of how Rory Gallagher would choose to play. Not the largest amount of notes in the world, but the notes that he felt fit the song. I’m going to skip slightly further ahead to the solo section and give you a couple of interesting licks to play with just so that this part isn’t 50 pages long. If you look closely at these licks you’ll see that pretty much all of them are using the notes I’ve shown you earlier in this lesson, except for maybe one or two licks that could be using an added blues note, which I will highlight. Now obviously this won’t be 100% accurate for two reasons: one I’m not the best guitarist in the world so I can’t put myself perfectly into Rory’s shoes, and two because Rory would always vary his solos except for certain sections of his live act anyway. The bars here mean practically nothing as there not enough room for the notes he puts in each section, so it’s just a couple of quick licks I could pick out.
E||------------------|----------------8-||---8--8-----------|-------------------|
B||----------8-------|---------8-10-8b10||-8b10-8-----------|-------------------|
G||-7---9-10---10-9--|-7--9-10----------||------------------|-------------------|
D||----------------10|------------------||------------------|-------------------|
A||------------------|------------------||------------------|-------------------|
E||------------------|------------------||------------------|-------------------|
E||------------------|------------------||------------------|-------------------|
B||8/10ap-8ap-6ap-5ap|-6ap-5h6p5----5-6-||-5h6p5------------|-------------------|
G||------------------|----------7v------||-------7v---------|-------------------|
D||------------------|------------------||------------------|-------------------|
A||------------------|------------------||------------------|-------------------|
E||------------------|------------------||------------------|-------------------|
Notice how he almost always end a phrase with the root note (highlighted)? This was one of the parts of his playing. For this part of the lesson I’ll finish with how to play the background rhythm he’s laying down during the Outro.
E||------------------|------------------||------------------|-------------------|
B||------------------|------------------||------------------|-------------------|
G||------------------|------------------||------------------|-------------------|
D||------------------|------------------||------------------|-------------------|
A||-5v-------7v---8--|-1v-------3v---5--||-3v(let note ring)|-------------------|
E||------------------|------------------||------------------|-------------------|
That’s pretty much it for shadow play, as the rest is just reassembling little bits of phrases using the same scale. He was very good at being able to go over the same area of the fret-board without repeating himself too often, so if anything, the trick to getting his style of playing is to be flexible even when you aren’t playing that many notes. It’s a tall order, but it’s definitely worth it, because if you achieve it with just a few, it makes it all the more easy when you’re using loads of notes.
Hope this lesson has helped some of you out there, I’ll get the next part up as soon as I can, which will be on how to solo over Tattoo’d Lady. Take care guys and I’ll see you next time!
Techniques of the heroes: Rory Gallagher Part 3
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