G: Rory Gallagher ory Callagher began playing guitar back in County Donegal in
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his native Ireland at age nine and when he was 15 he joined the Fonlana
showband and then later on another showband called Impact. His first major international success howevH was in 1966 with the band Taste, who recorded two albums 'Taste' - 1969 and 'On Th e Boards' - 1970. The band reac hed th eir
peak at the now legendary 1970 Isle of Wight festiva l - where they shared the bill with Jim; Hendrix and Free. Taste sp lit up in 197 1 and (rom that
point right up until his tragic deat h in June 1995 at the age of 46 Rory followed his own very successful solo career d u ring wh ich he recorded around 14
albums wi th combined sales in excess of 30 million copiesl In terms of style Rory coveHd more or less cvery bl ues approach imaginable ~ acoustic blues, Chicago blues, ragtime, folk blues , bott lenec.k blues , Texas blues, boogie woogie, Miss issipp i Delta bl ues, Louisiana swamp blues , Appalachian blues, modern blues and blues rock l As well as all of these styles there were also
elements of both Irish traditional music and jan in his approach, particularly regarding his rhythmic phrasing which was often very inventive and instantly recognisable as being his own ... In t his month's examples we will unfortunately only scratch the surface by look ing at his blues/rock approaches ~ yo u would however, be well advisd to chec k out his albums to hear what a trul y versat ile, inspiring and crea tive player he really was.
Have fun !...
Performance Notes
Ex 1 Blister On The Moon - .ntro section This chord·based intro is made up of three different sections. The first of these in ba~ O.a contains a simple E ~ DIE passage ~ as yoo play this make sure you observe the muti ng indications that appear on the last two 16th notes of bars 2, 4, 6 & 8 ~ these are vital to the 'feel' of the part. The second section found in bars 9-12 features an E - G ~ C - 0 progression that is played in a manner which is actually very remi ni scent of the sort of rhythm style Kurt Cobain used in Nirvana some 20 odd years later! Once again. watch out for the
muted chords during this seclion. The third section in bars 13-20 rounds the part off with three different two bar phrases comprising a couple of II. note chord 'hits' followed by wah wah fills that last for a bar and a half each. After playing through Ihese as written try comi ng up with some similar ideas of YOUT own that also last for the same duration ~ having a sel spau 10 practise fills can often be a very beneficial way of working on your phrasing.
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Ex 2 What's Going On - .ntro/verse Whats Going On is one of the best known and most popular Taste tracks. The intro and verse as shown here has an almost latin (ee l to it - notice how the accents fall on I , 2 &. 4 in bar I and I, 3 &. 4 in bar 2. To make th ings even more tricky each
th is ornamentation perhaps a little of RaTy's Irish influence creeping in? Anyway, you may need to practise this slowly along
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with either a drum mach ine or a metronome in order to get it 'tight', Also, anot her th ing to look out for is the 3/4 ba r that
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Ex 3 Same O.d Story Rory 's music was fu ll of great grooves and th is R&B flavoured idea is certainly no except ion. Notice as yo u listen to either the original or the OTCD versio n how space is left at the end of each two bar phrase to allow th e bass to come through -
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th is is a good arranging device and certainly helps to create a li ttle extra listener interes t. As you play th is one you should aim for a fairly relaxed feel - irs easy to accidentally rush it bewarel
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Ex 4 MornIng Sun - MaIn repeat rl" figure In common wi th Ex 2, this is another riff that to my ea rs has a certain 'Irish' flavour to it - perhaps it's all those 16th note triplets? Notice how (aiter the pick·up bar) the main repeati ng riff starts up which is repeated 12 times in a rowl Try playing
along with it, keeping it in time throughout - it's actually quite hard not to accidentally rush as you play the hammer·ons and pull·offs - so take carel
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Ex IS Messln' WIth The KId (1.lve Ver.'on} Intro/verse This up·te mpo blues/rock styl e
Technically, th ere is nothing too hard here: iust aim to keep it 'tight' and play it with plenty of aggression, attac k and attitudel
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through it slowly, bar by bar if neceuary. Notice how this riff is
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also al how, apart from the \.S bend - 181. i n bar 6 1, it solely taken from the E mi nor pentatonic :seale:
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G: Hory Gallagher Ex 7 Contlnenta. Op - .ntro/ma.n This fxample kic ks off with an intro which is played in very much a 'cut off' style - make sun that you observe the (CO) symbols during this pari. The nut ~eetio n which runs from
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phrasing: as you play these you should try to ke~p them as wen as possi ble. (.Isten closely, th en play "lung will, eilhe r tiL. original recording or the OT CD version if you encounter any probl ems with this aspect.
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Ex B The Loop - Ma'n theme The Loop is apparently the name given to the raised railway whkh runs round the cen tre of Chicago - henu the train noi5eS at the start of the original version! This piece you may
also recognise as being the theme from the TV program A Little Bit Of Fry And Laurie. It is based on J straigh t up. lempo 12 bar boogit woogiefChicago bl ues in tht kty of C which is p\.ayed in a
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Jany 'swmg' mannrr, As you can see from the mU!!c ,I t basically uses the 5amr melodic pa.ua.gelfingering throughout which is simply tl'lUlsposed up iUld down the neck a.s tht chords change, On the OTCD I also played it an octa~ l~r to rill it out a bit - you shouldn't ha~ any problrms in coming up with your own finge ring for this part,
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Ex 9 Public Enemy No1 - Intro/verse Bars J-8 of this Texas style blues inlro rely fa irly heavily on funky double-stop (two- noll' ) bends. As yo u play th eu you
dlould use the side 01 your RIH third finge r to barre the G and B strings - auisled by fi ngers one and two. If played correctly. the upper note of each double-stop (on the B string) shou ld go
up by a semitone ami the lower note (G string) shou ld go up by a tone. The final fOU T hars of this exa mp le again ust double slops on ly this lime they art played 'stnight' and are used to o utli ne a si mp le desce ndi ng cho rd progrusion of A7 , CIA, O/F.,
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Ex 10 The MIssIssIppI SheIks - .nfro and 1st verselbrldge/chorus This example is one 01 my ~nonaI ~urirul The original version features Gerry McAvoy on bass and Ted McKenna on drums (who incidentally has played with my band a few times in the past!), ) letl that this is a great eIalJlple 01 inventivt chordal embellishment notice how RoT)' adds many fill, and &u.pens;ons th roughou t
which always keep things in teresting. Another common thing that occurs here is the way in which he doubles his vocal1ine in ban 10- 11 and 14-15 (he also did this in the intro of last month 's
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Unplugged piece Out On The WesJOInI Plom) . Inddmtall)" on the original vtrsion the 'scraptS' that occur at the start of the piece sound to me like they may have been achiewd by using the mic stand as a boltlenecld On the OT CD I used a pick
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how similar the groove and structure of this example is to the Pearl Jam track Alive - I wonder if it was perhaps an innuence?
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Next month we will take a look at H for The Sensational Alex Harvey Band. SfI,' you then. SoURIS:
This month's eumples where taken from the following albums:
£Is 1-4: 'Ta.5te' - Polydor Special Z384 076. fJ: 5: 'Calling Ca rd' - The G-Men Bootleg Seriu · ESBCD 187 E1: 6: 'Irish Tour 74' - Fiend CD 120
En 7-9: 'A Blue Day For The Blues' - IRS 72438 35783 20 Ex 10: 'Photo Finish' - Chrysalis CHR 1170 OT
