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Andy Aledort breaks down the technique of Gary
Moore, who died four years ago today.
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The Signature Elements of Gary Moore'sInstantly Identifiable Guitar Style VideoPosted 11/24/2015 at 2:10pm | by Andy Aledort
9
In this edition of In Deep, well examine some of
the signature elements of the brilliant blues-
rock guitarist Gary Moores stunning,
immediately identifiable guitar style.
Born in 1952, in Belfast, Northern Ireland,
Moore picked up the guitar at the age of eight,
inspired by the music of Elvis Presley, the
Shadows and the Beatles.
But his strongest influences were John Mayalls
Bluesbreakers guitarists Eric Clapton and Peter
Green, as well as legendary electric blues
progenitors Albert King, B.B King and Albert
Collins. Another important influence was Jimi
Hendrix; Moore would regularly include
Hendrixs slow blues Red House in his live
shows.
Though Moore was often seen playing a
beautiful Fiesta Red 1961 Strat, his signature
sound is more closely associated with the
beloved 1959 Les Paul Standard that he
played for many years. He purchased that
guitar from Peter Green in 1970 and, fittingly,
used it to record his 1995 tribute to his mentor,
Blues for Greeny.
Often, Moore would begin a song using the
warm tone of his Les Pauls neck pickup, with
which he would perform melodic, vocal-like lines, then switch over to the bridge pickup for his solos
to achieve a more aggressive and biting sound.
Moore often employed a fair amount of gaincourtesy of Marshall heads (often JTM45s), 4x12
basketweave Marshall cabinets and Marshall Guvnor and Ibanez Tube Screamer pedalsand
was known for conjuring tremendous sustain, such as the celebrated endless note featured in his
live performances of his classic song Parisienne Walkways.
A great way to approach incorporating Gary Moorestyle licks into your playing is to start with the
most essential scale for blues/rock soloing, the minor pentatonic. FIGURE 1 shows the A minor
pentatonic scale in fifth position.
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The fingering I use for this scale is index-pinkie on the low E string, switching to index-ring finger
for the rest of the scale. One of the unusual things about Moores style is that he preferred to use
his middle finger in conjunction with his index for a great many of his licks, similar to the fretting
approach of Gypsy jazz great Django Reinhardt. When playing this type of scale in this position,
Moore would often use his index and ring fingers on the top two strings and the low E string but
would switch to index-middle for all the other strings.
Occasionally, Moore would stick with the index-middle approach across virtually all of the strings,
along the lines of FIGURE 2. In this lick, I start by barring the index finger across the top two
strings at the fifth fret and use the middle finger to execute the quick half-step bends on the B
string, as well as the fast hammer-ons and pull-offs across the B and G strings.
FIGURE 3 details a traditional fingering for descending the minor pentatonic scale in this position
within groups of 16th-note triplets.
A staple of Moores soloing style was to unleash fast flourishes of notes, executed with free-form
crammed phrasing that rushed over the top of the groove. He would balance these fiery blasts
with simpler, more vocal-like phrases that would effectively pull his improvisations back into the
groove. For many of these runs, Moore would rely on quick hammer-on/pull-off figures between
pairs of notes on a given string, as demonstrated in FIGURES 4a and 4b.
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In FIGURE 5a, I apply this concept to every string as I descend A minor pentatonic in a
symmetrical fashion. FIGURE 5b offers a similar, albeit simpler, idea, and FIGURE 5c presents a
similar approach applied to an ascending lick.
Further permutations on this concept are shown in FIGURES 6ac. Once youve got a handle on
these, try moving to other areas of the fretboard and apply the concepts to other keys, as
demonstrated in FIGURES 7a and 7b.34
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FIGURE 8 offers an example of soloing in Garys style over a medium straight-eighths funk groove
along the lines of his cover of Albert Kings Oh, Pretty Woman.
The title track of Moores hit album Still Got the Blues (a complete transcription of which appears in
the May 2011 issue of Guitar World) featured a cycle of fourths chord progression more common
to jazz than blues or rock.
FIGURE 9 is a melodic solo played over this type of progression in the key of Am. Notice that each
phrase makes direct reference to the accompanying chord by targeting its third. Also, bar 6
features a fast pull-off lick to the open high E string, a technique Moore utilized in a great many of
his solos.
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9 Comments + Add a Comment
Paulie Del ViscoNovember 24, 2015 at 7:55pm
One of all time faves so much feel!!! I assume this is a reprint from Feb this year
andrewarriolaFebruary 09, 2014 at 12:07am
Rockin
rycherFebruary 06, 2014 at 4:30pm
This is so classy of you guys to repeat this on the third anniversary of his untimely death.
He is my all time guitar hero and I think we will never see or hear the likes of him again.
RIP
mikeriJanuary 14, 2014 at 6:33pm
Never knew who he was till i saw him at the Monsters of Rock in Nurnburg, Germany with Dio, Ozzy,VH and ACDC! Never stopped listening since! And yes I miss the videos!!!!!!!!!
danlauramorganDecember 17, 2014 at 11:57pm
I was there too. Great line up. Gary definitely stood out. Was a EVH fan, but startedfollowing Gary after that. I have a live LP of his that rocked. I was there in the US Army.Wow, memories. The best concert ever. Not to mention Motley Cre opening. AlsoAccept playing. Nice to hear from so one who was there.
gdsmithtxFebruary 09, 2015 at 2:13pm
I was at the same concert, I was also there in the Army (stationed in
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I was at the same concert, I was also there in the Army (stationed inErlangen), and that was my intro to Gary Moore as well!
rikersbeardJuly 06, 2013 at 7:53pm
When this lesson originally came out, it had video attached to it. Because Guitar World Digital nolonger works, I don't know how to get the video of Andy playing the lesson. Anyone know where Ican get it?
dizzg1March 17, 2013 at 11:04am
Andy,I keep telling everybody you can play it all! And Slide like a God in Three Hours,All kidding asideGuitar World i hope know how lucky they are to have a player that can do it all without makingGuitarist feel like they will never get it.Thanks for the Great Lessons,Dizzy
classicrockguyDecember 20, 2012 at 10:36pm
Thank you for this. Gary Moore is my favorite guitar player of all time. No matter how many times Ilistern to his cd's or watch his live dvd's I'm still amazed at how phenomenal he was. Greatestguitar tone I've ever heard.
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