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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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