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The four examples here are based on Rory's fiery rock solos, soulful blues, open G-tuned slide and hard-hitting, funky rhythm styles. A key to Rory's style is that he would 'push' the tempo with certain phrases so that the on-beat notes were timed either slightly before or after the beat of the drums - usually with a Fender Stratocaster.

We've 'squared up' the timing a little in the notation in places for ease of reading, but you'll be amazed how far you can lay back without sounding out of time. We've also added a little room reverb over the whole mix to give a more 'live' feel.

Example 1: rock lead guitar style

(Click tab to enlarge)

This example demonstrates Rory's fast and aggressive vibrato, pinched harmonics and quick-fire semiquavers, using mostly the E blues scale. We've used three positions of the blues scale in our example but you could improvise all across the neck with this scale.

Next page: audio examples and tab continued

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