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INTERMEDIATE
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S HOW TO PLAY LIKE... RITCHIE BLACKMORE

S BY VINCENT DEMASI

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

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