Rory Gallagher - Great Riffs

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

accent marks the start of a short hammer-onlpull-off phrase - is

occurs at bar 7 which can easily catch yo u unawaresl

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