G: Rory Gallagher

RDr y Callagh er bega n playinj,!guitar back in County Donegal inhis native Ireland at age nine and

when he was 15 he joined the Fonta nashcwb an d and then later on anothershcwband called Impact. His first majorint ernational success however was in1966 with the band Taste . who recordedtwo albums 'Taste' - 1969 and 'On TheBoards' - 1970. The band reached theirpeak at the now legendary 1970 Isle ofWight festival - where they shared thebill with Jim; Hendrixand Free.

Taste split up in 1971 and (rom that

point right up unt il his tragic death inJune 1995 at the age of 46 Rory followedhis own very successful solo care erduring which he recorded around 14albums with combined sales in excess of30 million copies! In terms of style RoT}'covered more or less every bluesapproach imaginable - acoustic blues,Chicago blues, ragti me, folk blue s,bott leneck blues, Texas blues, boogiewoogre. Mississipp i Delta blues,Lou isiana swamp blues, Appalachianblues, modern blues and blues rock! Aswell as all of these styles there were also

elements of both Irish traditional musicand jazz in his approach, particularlyregarding his rhythmic phrasing whichwas often very invent ive and instantl yrecognisable as being his own...

In this mon th 's examples we willunfortunately only scratch the surfaceby looking at his blues/rock approaches- you would however, be well advised tocheck out his albums to hear what atr uly versatile, inspiring and creativeplayerhe reallywas.

Have Fun!...

Performance Notes

Ex 1 Blister On The Moon - Intro sectionThis chord-based intro is made up of three different sections. Thefi rst of these in bars 0-8contains a simple E- DIE passage - as youplay this make sureyou observe the muting indications that appearon the last two 16th notes of bars2, 4, 6 & 8 - these arevital to the'feel' ofthe part. The secondsection found in bars9,12feat uresan E- G- C- 0 progression that is played in a mannerwhich is actuallyvery reminiscent of the sort of rhythm style Kurt Cobain used inNirvana some 20 odd years later! Once again. watch out for the

mutedchordsduringthissection.The third section in bars 13-20 rounds the part off with three

different twobar phrases comprisinga coupleof 1' 1 note chord 'hits'followed by wah wah fills that last for a bar and a half each. Afterplaying through these as written try coming up with some similarideasof your own that also last for thesameduration - havinga setspace to practise fills can often be a very beneficial way of workingon your phrasing.

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Ex 2 What's Going On - Intra/verse

What ); Going On is one of the best known and most popularTaste tracks. The int ra and verse as shown here has an almostlati n feelto it - not ice how the accents fall on 1, 2 & 4 in bar 1and 1, 3 & 4 in bar 2. To make things even more tricky eachaccent marks the start ofa short hammer-onlpull-off phrase - is

this ornamentati on perhaps a litt le of Rory's Irish influencecreeping in? Anyway, you may need to practise this slowly alongwith either a drum machine or a metronome in order to get it'tight' . Also, another thing to look out for is the 3/4 bar thatoccurs at bar 7 which can easily catch you unawares!

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th is is a good arra nging device and certa inly helps to create alitt le extra listener interest. As you play th is one you shou ldaim for a fairly relaxed feel - it's easy to accidenta lly ru sh it ­beware!

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Rory's music was full of great grooves and th is R&B flavour edidea is certain ly no exception. Not ice as you listen to eitherthe original or the OTCD version how space is left at the endof each two bar phra se to allow the bass to come through -

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In common with Ex 2, this is another riff that to my ears has acer tain 'Ir ish' flavour to it - perhaps it' s all those 16th notetriplets? Notice how (after the pick-up bar) the main repeatingriff starts up which is repeated 12 times in a row! Try playing

along with i t , keeping it in time throughout - it's actuallyquite hard not to accidentally rush as you play the hammer-ensand pull-cffs - so take care!

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Ex IS Messln' With The Kid (Uve Version,Intro/Verse

This up-tempo bluevrcck styled track was always ill big favourite atlin shows and is cer tainly one of Rory's best known tunes.

Technically, th ere is noth ing too hard here; jm t aim to keep it'tight' and play it With plentyofaggression, attack andaltitude!

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Taken fTom the opt'ning track on Rory', c!aMic 'Insh Tour 74'live album, th is is another eumple which ccntams qurte Inckyphnslng so It m.ly be a good idea to tan your nme and workth rough II slowly. bar by bar if neceSSolry. Notice how this riff issimilar in approach to Peter Green's class tc Oh Well riff and

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Ex 7 Contlnenta' Op - 'ntro/ma'n riffThis tumpl~ kicks off with an intro which is playtd in wrymuch .to 'cut off sty le - make sun that you obul'Yt the lCO)symbols during this put. The next section which runs frombars 9-16 futu rn a frw bars which contain 'sil log.J;insl lour'

phrasing ; as you play these you sh ould try to ket p thtm as evenas possib le. Listen elesely, the n play along wit h enber theoriginal reronhng or the OT CD version if you t ntounttr anyproblrnu WIth this~l

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Ex B The Loop - Main theme

71lr Loop IS apparrntly the name gtven to the rarsed railwaywhich ru ns round th e centre of Chicago - hence the tra mnoues at the start 01 tnt origmal version! n us piece you maya lso reccgmseas being tnt theme from the TV program ALlttltBII OfFry And Lau rie . It is basedon .to st ra igh t up-tempe 12 barboogie WOOgttIChle.tgo blues in th e by of C which is pla.yd In .to

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basia lly uses the same melodic passagelfingtring thr ouahoutwhich is SImply trarupesed up and down the neck as 1M cho rdschange. On the OTCD I also playd it an ocUw lower to fill itout a bit - )'OU shou ldn't haw any problems in coming up withyour 0'NI1 fingeri ng for u us part.

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Ex 9 Public Enemy No1 - IntrolverseBars } .I:\ of this Texas style blues intra rely fairly heavily onfunk y double-s to p (two-note) bends. As you play th ese youshould use the Side of your RIH third finger to hrre the G andB string.s - assisted by fingers one and two. If played correctly,the upper note 01 each double-stop ten the B strmg) should go

up by a semitone and the lower note fC string) should go up bya tone. The final four bars of this example again use doublestops only this time th ey ar e played 'straight' and are used toout line a si mple desce nd ing cho rd progress tcn of A7,GJA, DlFIt.

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Ex 10 The Mississippi Sheiks - Inbo and 1stverselbrldge/chonls

Thu eumplc is one of my penonaI favourites! The original w nionfeatures Geny McAvoy on baM and Ttd McKenna on drums (who

incidentallyhas playedwith mybanda few times in the past!). I fedthat this is a great example of inventive chordal embellishment _noti ce how Rory adds many fills and suspensions th roughoutwhich always keep things interesting. Another common thing thatoccurs here is the way in which he doubles his vocal 1ine in bars10-11 and 14-15 (he abo did this in the inlro of last month's

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Unplugged pitce OuJOn7he 1t~D71 P£mIJ.Incidentally, on the original w l'$ion the 'scrapes' that II(t\lT at

the start of the piecesound to me like theyma),haw been achievWby using the mic stand as a bottleneell! On the OTCD I used apick scrape which I think works okay. f'inally. you might noticehowsimilar the groove andstructure of this example is to the PearlJam trackAJiue - Jwonder if it wasperhaps an influence?

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Next month we will take il look at H for The Sensahcna l AlexHarvey Band. See you then.

Sounu:This month's esaronleswhere taken (rom the following albums:

Exsl -4: 'Taste' - Polydor Special 2384 076.Ex 5: 'Calling Card' - The c-xenBootleg senes . ESBeD 187Ex6: 'Irish Tour 74' - Fiend CD 120En 7-9: 'ABlue Day For The Blues' _ IRS 72438 3578320Ex l (): 'Pho to Finish ' - Chrysalis CIlR 1170 OT