How To Play Like... : Ritchie Blackmore

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L

INTERMEDIATE
E

S HOW TO PLAY LIKE... RITCHIE BLACKMORE


S BY VINCENT DEMASI

O Although best known for the beefed-up blues the G major scaledescending in thirds.
riffs of FM rock anthems like Smoke on the The funky swagger of Ex. 2 is accom-
N Water and My Woman from Tokyo, ex-Deep plished by juxtaposing a Baroque-ish, sweep-
S Purple speed king Ritchie Blackmore has picked Fm7 arpeggio figure in the pickup bar
always infused his guitar playing with a healthy (and again at the end of bar 1) against the
dose of classical flair and Bach-approved minor bluesy pentatonic phrasing that completes the
melodicism. Blackmore, the Strat-wielding example. Listen to Blackmore burn on the
black knight of 70s heavy metal decadence, extended intro to Purples Lazy to catch the
was a major influence on neo-classical shred- vibe.
heads worldwide, including, most notably, Yng- After parting company with Purple in 1975,
wie Malmsteen. And Blackmores fretboard Blackmore formed Rainbow, a group that
virtuosity inspired its fair share of arena-sized retained the British guitar heros penchant for
cigarette-lighter ovations. grand-scale classical drama. The sturm und
Ex. 1 recalls the climactic build-up to drang of Ex. 3 is drawn from the operatic block-
Blackmores solo odyssey on Deep Purples buster Stargazer, and boasts a fusillade of
Highway Star. The first three bars are built rapid fire pull-offs culled from the B Phrygian
around a series of arpeggios (Em, Am, and dominant scale (B, C, D# E, F#, G, A). Some-
G6) that snake up the neck while retaining the times called the snake-charmer scale, this is
open E string as a common tone. The dizzy- actually the fifth mode of E harmonic minor, and
ing comedown in bar 4 is based on an E nat- is characterized by its exotic Middle Eastern fla-
ural minor scale (E, F#, G, A, B, C, D), also vor. Roll over Beethoven, for sure! g
called the E Aeolian modethe sixth mode of

EX. 1

B7 9
Driving rock
 = 152
   
G6
   
Em Am
   
 4                            
 4


0 3 7 0 3 7 0 3 7 0 3 7 0 5 8 0 5 8 0 5 8 0 5 8 0 7 10 0 7 10 0 7 10 0 7 10 12 0 0 8 0 0 10 0 0 7 0 0

A
B

3
Fast rock shuffle   =  
EX. 2
 = 186 Fm7

4                    ( )  ( ) ( )
3

 4 
 
    
3 3 3
3 3 hold
B B-------
1 1
T
1 4 2 1 1 1 4 2 1 2 1
A
1 3 1 3 0 1 3 3 (5) 3 (5)
B
1 3
3
EX. 3
Slow majestic rock
 = 90 B
 4                          
 4
  HUH?
Sturm und Drang is a German musical term

B R  that translates as storm and stress. Its usu-


ally associated with operas of Wagnerian
4 0 5 0 7 0 8 0 7 0 5 0 7 0 5 0 4 0 5 0 4 0
T
A
5 4 5 4 proportion, but it can also, of course, be
B applied to rock riffs of similarly mammoth
size, scale, and emotional intensity.

S E P T E M E B R 2 0 0 5 G U I TA R P L AY E R P H O TO : M I C H A E L P U T L A N D

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