R ory Callagher began playing guitar back in County Donegal in 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 The Boards ' - 1970. The band reached their peak at the now legendary 1970 Isle of Wight festiva l - where they shared the bill with J im; Hendrix and Free.

Taste split up in 197 1 and (rom that

point right up until his tragic death in June 1995 at the age of 46 Rory followed his own very successful solo career during which 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 rockl As well as all of these styles there were also

Performance Notes

G: Rory Gallagher

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 looking at his blues/rock approaches ~ you would however, be well advisd to chec k out his albums to hear what a truly versat ile, inspiring and creative player he really was.

Have fun!...

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 muting 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 reminiscent of the sort of rhythm style Kurt Cobain used in Nirvana some 20 odd years later! Once again. watch out for the

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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 coming 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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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 things even more tricky each accent marks the start of a short hammer-onlpull-off phrase - is

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th is ornamentation perhaps a little of RaTy's Irish influence creeping in? Anyway, you may need to practise this slowly along with either a drum machine or a metronome in order to get it 'tight', Also, another th ing to look out for is the 3/4 bar that occurs at bar 7 which can easily catch you unawaresl

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Rory 's music was fu ll of great grooves and th is R&B flavoured idea is certainly no except ion. Notice as you li sten to either the original or the OTCD version how space is left at the end of each two bar phrase to allow the bass to come through -

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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In common wi th Ex 2, this is another riff that to my ears has a along with it, keeping it in time throughout - it's actually certain 'Irish' flavour to it - perhaps it's all those 16th note quite hard not to accidentally rush as you play the hammer·ons triplets? Notice how (aiter the pick·up bar) the main repeating and pull·offs - so take carel riff starts up which is repeated 12 times in a rowl Try playing

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Ex IS Messln' WIth The KId (1.lve Ver.'on} Intro/verse

This up·tempo blues/rock styl e<! track was always a big favourite at live shows and is certai nly one of Rory's but known tunes.

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Technically, there is nothing too hard here: iust aim to keep it 'tight' and play it with plenty of aggression, attack and attitudel

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Taken from the opening track on Rory 's classic 'Irish Tour 74 ' live album, th is is another example which contains quite t ricky phrasing 50 it may be a good idta to lake your time and work through it slowly, bar by bar if neceuary. Notice how this riff is similar in approach to Prttr Crn n's dusic Oh Well riff and

also al how, apart from the \.S bend - 181. i n bar 61, it U~ notu solely taken from the E minor pentatonic :seale:

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Ex 7 Contlnenta. Op - .ntro/ma.n r." This fxample kicks off with an intro which is played in very much a 'cut off' sty le - make sun that you observe the (CO) symbols during this pari. The nut ~eetion which runs from bars 9-16 features a few bars which contain 'six against fOUT '

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phrasing: as you play these you should try to ke~p them as wen as possi ble. (.Isten closely, then play "lung will, eilher tiL. original recording or the OTCD version if you encounter any problems 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 centre 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 straight up. lempo 12 bar boogit woogiefChicago blues in tht kty of C which is p\.ayed in a

~tT)' 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 you play theu 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) should go

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up by a semitone ami the lower note (G string) should go up by a tone. The final fOUT hars of this example again ust double slops only this lime they art played 'stnight' and are used to outli ne a si mp le descendi ng chord progrusion of A7 , CIA, O/F.,

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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!), ) let l that this is a great eIalJlple 01 inventivt chordal embellishment -notice how RoT)' adds many fill, and &u.pens;ons th roughout 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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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 Kr.l.pI' which I think worh nk~y. Fin~l1y. you might notice 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. Sf I,' you then.

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This month 's eumples where taken from the following albums:

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fJ: 5: 'Calling Card' - 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