Cliff Gallup's Cruisin' Solo 1

Here's Cliff Gallup's outstanding first solo from Gene Vincent's "Cruisin."   This solo features his famous triplet pull off's and cool syncopated double stops over the IV (C chord).  I'm having a hard time distinguishing whether the chord in bar 10 stays on D or drops to C but this solo sounds okay when played either way.  If I get time I'll to put up the other two solo's over that course of the next week.

Scotty Moore's solo on Presley's Shake, Rattle and Roll

Here is a very cool solo from Scotty Moore on Elvis Presley's version of "Shake, Rattle and Roll."  This solo starts with some double stop pull offs.  There is also some Travis picking and a neat B6/9 arpeggiated run of over the B chord.

Danny Gatton's Drivin' Wheel Solo

Below is the first  solo by Danny Gatton on Robert Gordon's Live version of Drivin' Wheel.  The comes from an album call the Humbler which I believe unfortunately is out of print.  Here is a you tube link for the song.  I 'm pretty sure this is the same version and is available on an import album called Robert Gordon with Danny Gatton Live from Berkeley Square

This solo is not too difficult to play.  It features double stops alternating with open strings.  Anyway it's a pretty nice solo to have in your repertoire.  This solo is in E and follows a fairly standard 12 bar rockabilly format.

I'm Left, Your Right She's Gone verse picking

Here's a bonus holiday rockabilly guitar lesson. After this I probably will only post once a week. Here is the verse Travis style picking of Scotty Moore from "I'm Left, You're Right She's Gone." I think when most people think of rockabilly guitar,  most likely it is Scotty Moore's patented Travis Style picking that they think of.  Of course Scotty could do much more than Travis pick and some of his predominantly single note solos are pure genius (see Hound Dog's solo's, Hard Headed Woman, Shake Rattle and Roll etc).

Here is what I transcribed on the first verse to the best of my ability and to the limitations of the recording. Quoting Keith Richards "I'm Left She Right She's Gone-That one stills foxes me."

One thing to note is  that Scotty Moore does not typically alternate the same bass note for each chord like this:

He generally is more improvisational and rarely plays anything the same way, verse to verse, let alone measure to measure.

I've seen transcriptions like the above and I've also seen transcriptions where the bass note have been entirely omitted. I do think the bass notes are difficult to hear and likely frequently are overlapping with the slap bass but I believe he is playing them.

I am by no means a virtuoso on guitar but one thing I would recommend when playing rockabilly is to learn to play using a flat pick held between your thumb and first finger to play the bass notes and using you middle and ring finger to pick the higher string. Scotty, I believe predominantly used a thumb pick and songs like this will be easier to play if you use one as you will be able to use yourfirst finger to pick, but I believe a flat pick allows more versatility especially if you want to play single note solos in between the verses. Some people, Brian Setzer for example, tuck the pick up into their palm when they switch to finger picking.  This is too complicated for me and I think I  get better a "cluck" with the palm muting when I use a pick on the bass notes.

The first transcription is the first verse to the song to the best of my ability. After that I have included a "simplified" version. This version uses fairly strict and consistent alternating bass notes.  If you are new to this type of picking I would recommend learning this one first. Also if you were playing this live you might want to play a version like this as sort of you core template as it will be much easier to remember.  There are 4 measures of acoustic guitar before Scotty Moore comes in...

Easier version below:

As a bonus I included the first few measures of the second verse. This may sound familiar as John Fogerty borrowed this for Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Bad Moon Rising."