Why I Suck... Series 5, Episode 4 - Gary Moore!

 As a young whippersnapper learning my craft on the working men's club circuit (remember them?) back in the 90s, there was always one song that a drunk punter would request as we were packing away.. "You, young man.. <hic> you should do Paris <hic> Parizh <hic> Parisienne Walkways, that Gary Moore" before stumbling off in a haze of pipe smoke and cut price brown ale.

So I duly learned it, or tried to - only to be consistently stymied by the MAD widdly bit in the middle - despite all the tabs, all the scales I practiced, I could never, ever get the bastard thing right. And so - to my shame - I grew to hate Gary Moore and the overblown gurning high drama widdliness of his playing...

And then in early 2011 he died at the age of 49, and I looked back and realised, hold on, he's actually really rather good. And by all accounts, a remarkably nice, unassuming chap too... arguably someone who, like Rory Gallagher, never quite got the widespread mainstream success he deserved.

I'll say this for the Irish, they breed a fearsome blues guitarist. Shame they don't make them last longer.

So it was with the idea of righting a wrong and getting some of Gary's ferocious pentatonic blitzes under my belt, I set about transcribing some of his greatest licks and solos, some of which I'll be sharing today.

First, as is customary, a little potted history - born in Belfast (great city, by the way) April 4 1952, infant Gary's first exposure to live music came at the age of 6 when his dad invited him onstage to sing "Sugartime" wih a showband.. this clearly spurred something as his first guitar came at age 10, and despite Gary being naturally left-handed, he learned right handed - I think we can attribute some of his legendarily ferocious attack and vibrato to the fact that his strongest hand was on the fretboard doing the cool stuff.. when you think about it, the guitar is a ridiculous instrument!

His Career began with The Beat Boys who played Beatles covers and along the way befriended Rory Gallagher - and at 16 moved from Belfast to Dublin, joing Irish blues rock band Skid Row, fronted by one Phil Lynott. After what seems to have been quite a complex disagreement within the band, it imploded and Gary decided to start a solo career - but before this could get going in earnest, Lynott invited him to join the first incarnation of Thin Lizzy, a band that would become famous for (among  other things) the remarkable quality of their guitarists.He would, however, return after Brian "Robbo" Robertson injured his hand in a bar fight, and recorded the bands' best-selling album "Black Rose" in 1979 before leaving again in 1983. He & Lynott would remian firm friends until Lynott's death in 1986, with Lynott contributing vocals to "Out In The Fields" amongst other tracks.

And there we will leave it! To business - let's get the elephant in the room out of the way - here is the widdly bit to Parisienne Walkways:

As you can see, we're in A minor and Gary is basing this roughly around the A minor pentatonic scale, but notice the added B (2nd) and Eb (b5) so we're getting  little hybrid Blues scale/ Aeolian mode flavour, but what really sells it is the sense of drama that is at the heart of all Gary's playing - the soaring bend that builds the tension that is then released with the blistering flurry of legato. Take this slow, broken down into small sections and with a lick like this it's really worth taking it through every key - kee an eye on the YouTube channel for the demo video where I'll expand on this concept. 

Blistering pentatonics juxtaposed against searing held bends are a key part of Gary's style, and this next lick taken from his cover of Albert King's "Oh Pretty Woman" is a cracking example of this.

 Built from the C Blues scale, Gary milks a bend on the 11th fret E (Eb, minor 3rd) bending the b3 into the 4th and then a quarter tone tweak in between minor & major 3rd (E) before hammering his way through the blues scale like a freight train, finishing the phrase with more powerful held bends on the A string, bending the F (4th) into G 5(5th) before finishing on a low root note. As always with Gary's stuff, pick hard and wring every drop of emotion from your bends and vibrato!

It's not all pentatonics, however - the shred era of the 80s left it's mark on Gary as well - his solo track "Out In The Fields" features the kind of shred run that wouldn't have been out of place on a Yngwie Malmsteen track!

This is the D natural minor scale sequenced in 3s across the octaves, but Gary creates rhythmic interest with the "hemiola" idea- essentially a different number of notes in the melodic grouping to the one in the rhythmic grouping. In this case, melodic groups of 3 notes are placed into a 16th note rhythmic pattern - 4 notes to the beat - meaning a different note of the melodic group  falls on the beat each time. Be careful with the tricky position shifts and make sure to practice this idea slowly and in all keys, as it's a really useful lick to get down. And hit that last bend like you mean it!

I couldn't do a post about Gary Moore and not put in something from "Still Got The Blues", could I? So to round off, here is a glorious little run down hidden away at the very end of the track as free time "cadenza" idea.

Even a brutal lick like this can still trace a lineage back to the Three Magic Notes - I'll demonstarte this in the video - but notice how skilfully Gary weaves the 2nd and b5 notes from the natural minor and blues scales into this pentatonic format, as well as the characteristic bluesy perfect 4th finger rolls.

This one has been a LOT of fun, and I've gained a huge amount of respect for the sheer force of nature that was Gary's blues playing and his "take no prisoners" attitude combined with devastatingly accurate technique, and I'm looking forward to returning to analysing more of his playing in the future. 

Keep an eye on the YouTube channel for the demonstration video and see you next month for Albert Lee!