Rory Gallagher was a beast. Probably best known as an electric blues guitarist and singer, but he could also turn his hand to acoustic guitar, harmonica, mandolin and a host of other instruments. (Not unlike our own Seamie O’Dowd, who was heavily influenced by Rory.)

This is a lovely little acoustic fingerstyle tune of his called Unmilitary Two-Step. Loosely based on the Travis style, but with many variations (as you’ll soon see!)

When I set out to record this recently, I realised I’d been playing certain parts of it incorrectly. This often happens when you learn a tune by ear, play it for years, but don’t listen to the original for a long time. Lots of little variations had creeped into my version, so when I went back to listen to the original, I had to modify my own quite a lot. And any musician will tell you – it’s damn hard to unlearn a piece you’ve been playing a certain way for many years! So this was a nice extra challenge for me.

Transcription available HERE.

(There are a few slight errors in that tab, and also a few further small variations that crept into my performance. Sign up for some lessons with me and I can go through the piece and transcription with you in detail!)

Score calls for 140bpm. I played at about 129 (no click) because I think it sits a little better at that tempo.