This is a great Deep Purple tune. Based on Michael Moorcock's magical sword (called Stormbringer). Stormbringer had an evil purpose and drained all life and souls that it took. So Deep Purple wrote this merry little ditty about it.
This is one of the easier songs to play by Deep Purple, and has 2 guitar parts - Rhythm and lead guitar. Both recorded by the legendary Ritchie Blackmore. He actually left the band soon after this album, not being happy with Purple's change in musical direction (softer). But the title track Stormbringer, is still a mighty rock classic. He obviously got his way for that one. Here we'll look at both guitar parts.
The Rhythm guitar is the main guitar for the entire song. The Lead only does the solo and a couple of fills, so it's much more important to get the rhythm guitar part down first. That's this ActionTab. If you want the Lead parts, that's coming up next.
The song starts by whacking through this chord sequence, starting at the 7th fret:
E minor - B minor - E minor - B minor - A major - G major
Then straight into the main verse riff! The riff is very repetitive, so once you get it you'll be able to play a large amount of the song already. The riff is quite easy, but quick. This can cause timing and consistency problems. The answer is to use alternate picking (for faster and more regular timing). That means constant down / up strokes with your pick.
Also, always remember the golden rule - go slowly and get it right first before building up speed.
Even though this is the rhythm guitar, there are still some little lead licks to do. These may be a bit of a challenge, and skip them if you aren't ready yet. However, if you are beginning to get lead licks together, you should give them a go. They are actually quite short, sweet and not too difficult.
These lead licks appear during the choruses. The first lead lick starting here. And by the way, the last note of that lick is actually played on the Lead guitar, because this guitar goes straight back to rhythm during that last note! So if it sounds a bit odd, and like something's missing - that's why. It's all down to that crazy Blackmore kid and his crazy guitar layers. If you want to play it anyway, just bend that last G note instead of muting it - hold the bend and use a little vibrato.
After that, it's back into the song here followed by another repetitive and easy rock riff.
From here on you should be fine with the rest of the song parts. Just a couple of pointers for the rhythm guitar during the main solo. The rhythm actually joins in the solo here. So there are 2 guitars doing lead for a short while. The lead for this guitar is very simple. Afterwards, play that crunchy little riff on the A string. (As a tip, you can use palm muting on that part and it sounds great!)
