Why I Suck.. Series 3, Episode 6: Ritchie Blackmore

 Let me candid with you, readers. Have you ever been convinced that you remember reading or hearing an interesting snippet of information, only to find out you were completely wrong?

Well, I have. You see, I was convinced I remembered reading an interview with Yngwie Malmsteen referencing the Deep Purple “Fireball” album as one that was a major influence on him, to the extent that he learned the entire thing by ear, even copying Ritchie Blackmore's pickup changes.. and it wasn't. It was “Made In Japan”. Unfortunately we were 28 days into June before it occurred to me to go and check this.

Sigh.

(EDIT – in fairness to my Swiss Cheese brain, Yngwie has claimed “Fireball” was an influence on him.. just not the one he spent hours learning note for note...)

Still, although I can't claim to be a Deep Purple fan, I've definitely picked up a few tricks. Ritchie Blackmore often gets overlooked in the pantheon of British 60's and 70's guitar heroes relative to the likes of Clapton, Page, Jeff Beck and so on, but he occupies an interesting position as guitar techniques start to move away from bluesy pentatonics and embrace more exotic sounds, but before the Van Halen revolution that kick started the 80's shred era.

Born April 1 945 in Somerset, Blackmore took up the guitar aged 11, having been given one on the condition that he learned to play it “properly”. To this end, he spent his first year taking classical lessons – because of course that is the only “proper” way to play the guitar... - however, by 15 his interests had broadened and he was studying with studio legend Big Jim Sullivan (who was also something of a mentor to Jimmy Page).

Around this time, in 1960, he left school and began playing with session band The Outlaws, who were essentially the house band for legendary producer Joe Meek. They would perform as backing bands for pop singers including Glenda Collins and the Monster Raving Loony himself, Screaming Lord Sutch. In 1967, at the invitation of musician Chris Curtis, Blackmore joined proto-hard rock/ psychedelia outfit Roundabout – ironically, Curtis was forced out before the band was fully finalised. Blackmore suggest the name “Deep Purple” as it was his grandmother's favourite song, and after a few more changes of line up, they recorded the first album “In Rock” in 1970 – following the riff-based hard rock trail laid out by Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath. Much of this material was based on jams and Blackmore described his playing as simply wanting “to make as much noise and play as fast and as loud as possible.", which is something my teenage self would very much have related to.

“Fireball” was released in 1971, by which time the characteristic revolving door of band members had already begun – the core of Blackmore, keyboard player Jon Lord and bass player Roger Glover being joined by vocalist Ian Gillan, and was a roaring success, hitting No. 1 in the album charts and staying in the charts for over a year – and with that, let's pull the potted history up short and take a look at a few licks.

This first example is not really a lick at all, but the “Ritchie Blackmore Scale” - although fundamentally a pentatonic-based player, elements of classical music made there way into Blackmore's soloing, so this scale takes the minor pentatonic framework and blends in the 2^nd, b6 from the natural minor (although he would occasionally veer towards the major 6^th from the Dorian mode) and the b5 from the blues scale. I've presented it here in the key of A minor as it's a nice accessible key bang in the middle of the fretboard:

The second example takes the same ideas and moves them into the key of B minor and is taken from “Strange Kind Of Woman” - notice the use of the D# (8^th fret G) major 3^rd on the run up, as well as the position shift at he end to bend the E (4^th) into the F# (5^th).

I couldn't cover Ritchie Blackmore and not include something from “Smoke On The Water”, could I? This is a fairly conventional lick based around the “3 magic notes” template, but expanded on to contain the 2^nd (A) and b6th (Eb) notes from the G natural minor scale. Note as well as the quick position shift to get the A at the 2^nd fret G string, the use of repeated, repicked bends – another Blackmore hallmark.

The final example takes us back to A minor and Blackmore blasts through a run based around the A blues scale – notice the mix of picked (staccato) and pull-off (legato) approaches here. Overall I think he veers more towards a staccato approach, a clipped precision possibly with it's roots in his classical training. Note the use of the chromatic passing note G# - shouldn't work, as it's a major 7^th played in a minor blues context, but as it flashes by momentarily we only really experience it as “seasoning” to the main run before ending on an A root – the moral of the story being, it's not what's in the middle, but what's at the start and the end that counts!

So overall this has been an interesting look at a transitional stage of rock guitar, certainly one that arguably cracked open the door for the era of neoclassical shred that became popular in the 80s.

And speaking of such.. best get yourselves limbered up, as next month we Unleash The Fury with the one and only Yngwie J. Malmsteen! See you then.