Master Gary Moore's Stormy Monday Bass Line | British Blues

Added: 2026-05-17

[00:00:00]Welcome to the video where we're going to look at Gary Moore's version of they call it Stormy Monday. This song fits in perfectly with my British blues step of my blues roadmap. If you want to find out more about that, that will help with your blues bass plan, then check out the link below in the description. In the description you'll also find a link to a transcription of this bassline. I've done a note-for-note transcription and you'll get that in standard notation and tab.

[00:00:31]>> [music] >> Stormy Monday originated as a 1947 T-Bone Walker blues standard. It's been covered by loads of artists and Gary Moore covered it on his 2001 album Back to Blues. So, this is a really strong blues rock version of Stormy Monday.

[00:00:56]The bassist on this version is Pete Rees who plays an uncomplicated bassline without too many over-the-top fills and he uses a P bass which is perfect for this solid type of bassline.

[00:01:12]This version of Stormy Monday is in G major.

[00:01:16]Now, as I've said the original version's by T-Bone Walker and that chord progression is a basic 12 bar blues chord progression with the quick four change in bar two.

[00:01:28]So, that's just a bar of G, a bar of C, two bars of G, two bars of C, two bars of G, a bar of D, a bar of C, a bar of G, and then a bar of D where we've got the turnaround.

[00:01:43]Gary Moore still uses that 12 bar progression as the basis for his version, but he adds in more chords. So, he has a bar of G, a bar of C, and then two bars of G, that's the same as a 12 bar, and then the second line, two bars of C, and then we have half a bar of G, half bar of A minor 7, half a bar of B minor 7, and half a bar of A sharp minor 7. So, there's this sort of chromatic step up, so it steps from G to A, and then to B, and then to A sharp or B flat.

[00:02:18]And then the last line, we've got a bar of D, and then he goes up this chromatic step to D sharp for half a bar and back to D.

[00:02:27]All right, then he's just got this turnaround, which is the 1 4 1 5 turnaround, so G7 C7 G7 D7. So, it still has this the kind of essence of this 12-bar, but it's got a few extra chords in there.

[00:02:43]There are many other versions of this song, and I cover the live version of Albert King and Stevie Ray Vaughan in my Walk the Blues course. So, I look at that. That's got a kind of different bassline in it as well.

[00:02:55]So, if you want to look at that course, then just click here, or there's a link below in the description, or on my website, gbshed.com.

[00:03:06]Stormy Monday is a slow 12/8 blues. Most slow blues are in 12/8, so that's the time signature. It's different to 4/4.

[00:03:15]12/8 has four beats in a bar, but each bar can be divided into three, so you have this kind of pulse going, so ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba.

[00:03:28]So, you always keep that going in your head, and you'll hear some of that on the drums will help you with that. So, one two three four. Okay, so that's really important to keep that in your head when you're playing this bassline. What I'm going to do is I'm going to show you the first chorus, and that's the basis for the whole bassline.

[00:03:47]So, it is varied as it goes through the song, but once you know that basic chorus, then you can just use that for all the courses. But afterwards, I'll show you some little bits throughout the baseline where this um original first course baseline is changed.

[00:04:05]Pete Rees uses mainly these um dotted quarter notes where you count for three beats. 1 2 3 1 [music] 2 3 1 2 3. Okay, so that's really common for this style of 12-8 blues baseline. Okay? So that that actually a lot of it's based on core tones. So that's just root, third, fifth. Okay?

[00:04:27]>> [music] >> And then All right, so you often have this kind of uh more movement on beat four. And this is just stepping up to G.

[00:04:39]>> [music] >> Okay, and then back down to C in the next bar. So >> [music] [music] >> All right, so if you've seen my other videos, you'll know about blues walk-ups and walk-downs. That's just a walk-up from C >> [music] >> to G in the next bar. Okay?

[00:05:06]>> [music] >> All right, so the walk-up would just be the three frets below. But we've got this open E, so just E F F sharp G. And then we've got dotted quarter notes. 1 2 [music] 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3. And then we're outlining the core tones again.

[00:05:24]>> [music] >> All right, and you've got that movement at the end of the fourth bar from the flat seven. Okay? So we've got root, major third, fifth, flat seven.

[00:05:37]All right.

[00:05:38]>> [music] >> Okay, so that second bar of G7 there is the same as the first bar, the whole first bar of the bassline.

[00:05:49]>> [music] >> Okay, so there's lots of repeated material in this bassline. When you have 12/8 blues, there's not a lot you can do with it.

[00:05:59]There's some obvious choices and they're used a lot. Okay, then we're down C.

[00:06:04]>> [music] [music] >> Okay, so for these C7 bars, Pete Rees kind of generally uses the C, the walk up to G, [music] or the E G, okay, [music] that pattern.

[00:06:27]E G >> [music] >> Okay, at the end of the bar, on the beat four, 1 2 3, okay? So, instead of do do do, that kind of rhythm, it's 1 2 3 1, okay? 1 2 3 1. [music] >> [music] >> Okay, so he introduces another rhythm here. What this is is a tie, so it's tied and you don't play the second beat, so 1 2 3 2.

[00:07:01]>> [music] >> 1 2 3 2 2 3 2 >> [music] >> 1 2 3 2 Okay, so that's quite common. So, the second beat, 1 2 3 2 do do do [music] do do 3 1 2 do do and then that at the end of the bar, the A7, 1 2 3 2 2 3 3, okay?

[00:07:24]So, it's held on quite long and you just play a note again at the end. So, I'll play the G7 bar to the A minor 7.

[00:07:35]>> [music] >> And this bar.

[00:07:39]>> [music] >> Okay, so when you're playing this, you can use open A's like this.

[00:07:45]>> [music] [music] >> All right, you can do it all down the bottom end of the bass there, or I just actually tend to fret those notes and play it like this.

[00:07:58]>> [music] >> Slide up.

[00:08:05]Like that, and then it's all kind of around this part of the bass. Doesn't really matter where you play it. It's entirely up to you. I've written that down on the tab, but you can just play it wherever you want. And then And then you're up to D.

[00:08:17]>> [music] >> Okay, so that pattern there >> [music] >> is just the root fifth, sorry, the root, third, fifth.

[00:08:28]All right? Root, major third, fifth.

[00:08:30]Root, third, fifth, but you're playing the third and the fifth below. So, it's just that pattern. Cool tones again.

[00:08:36]>> [music] >> D sharp.

[00:08:41]>> [music] >> D.

[00:08:45]Okay, so I'll play that from the start of the D7 line.

[00:08:48]1 2 3 >> [music] [music] >> Okay, I'll play it once more. So, it's going a bar of D7 up to D sharp 7, back to D7.

[00:09:12]>> [music] >> And then we've got the turnaround, 1 4 1 5. G C G D.

[00:09:25]>> [music] [music] >> All right, so 1 2 3 da da da 1 2 3 da da da 1 2 3 da da >> All right, so you've got to hold it on to the next beat. 1 2 [music] 3 2 1 2 3 2 1 2 3 2 >> [music] >> 1 2 3 2 All right, so there's just some different rhythm things that you need to get your head round, especially with these ties. So a tie, when you have that curved line, it just means you don't play the the um the second note of the tie, you hold it on. So on the on the tab, you don't actually see that second note, all right? But if you're looking at the notation, you can see that. I'm now going to play through the whole of the first chorus. So play along with me, or just have a listen, it's up to you.

[00:10:19]Okay?

[00:10:20]I'll count you in two beats. 3 2 3 4 2 3 >> [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] >> And that would be at the next chorus. If you're enjoying this video, then don't forget to subscribe to my channel by clicking the red subscribe button on the bottom right-hand corner of the screen.

[00:11:39]And if you click the bell and select all, you'll get notified as soon as I release a new video.

[00:11:46]I'm now going to show you some variations to the baseline as we go through it. I'll show you some odd bars that have got some nice bits in there that Pete Rees played. Um you can use this first course and just keep repeating it, but it's nice to add some variations in. We'll look at bar 19.

[00:12:02]This has got some 16th notes and a grace note. A grace note is a quick note.

[00:12:09]>> [music] >> All right, you normally hammer it on, but you can slide it sometimes.

[00:12:13]Or you can actually pluck them both, but I normally hammer on.

[00:12:16]So, I'll play it's on the A minor 7 bit.

[00:12:18]So, I'll just play that bar.

[00:12:20]>> [music] >> Okay? So, without the grace note, >> [music] >> you've got these faster 16th notes. 1 2 3 2 >> [music] >> Okay, with the grace note. 1 2 >> [music] >> Okay?

[00:12:42]So, it's quite fast.

[00:12:45]Keep that um D down and then just hammer on.

[00:12:50]>> [music] >> But it's about the timing. It's a little bit tricky. 1 2 3 1 >> [music] >> 1 2 All right, I'll play that bar again.

[00:13:04]4 6 >> [music] >> Okay, so make sure you have um you don't play on beat 4.

[00:13:16]3 2 3 4 >> [music] >> So, that's really nice, but he uses some of these 16th notes as he goes through the baseline. The baseline just gets a little bit busier, especially as we get into the guitar solo. There's a really nice lick in bar 46 on the D sharp seven chord. It's like this.

[00:13:36]>> [music] >> Okay?

[00:13:41]So, that's going up to a C sharp with that grace note.

[00:13:45]>> [music] >> All right. Without the grace note.

[00:13:51]>> [music] [music] >> Ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba One, two, three. Ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba With the grace note. One, two, three.

[00:14:09]>> [music] >> Okay, and he plays something similar in bar uh 58. It's just a little bit simpler.

[00:14:21]>> [music] >> Okay?

[00:14:29]So, they're really nice.

[00:14:31]>> [music] >> All right, and the first one.

[00:14:37]All right, so they're kind of similar licks.

[00:14:39]Um they just add a little bit of interest to the baseline. As the guitar solo gets going, if we look in chorus five, then the baseline gets busier. We have to start having this >> [music] >> those added notes.

[00:14:58]>> [music] >> Instead of just having you're just doing one, two, three, one, two, three, [music] one, two, three. And I can hear Pete Rees has got a little bit of a gap, so >> [music] >> All right, so he does a lot more of that in chorus five and six. Just makes the gives more movement to the bassline and it kind of matches the intensity of the guitar solo. As we get towards the last part of the bassline in chorus six and seven, there are some nice open A's when we have the G sharp seven to A minor seven to B minor seven to A sharp minor seven. It's like this, I'll play those. So this is bar these are bars 67 68.

[00:15:46]>> [music] >> All right, so there were the 16th notes.

[00:15:54]So from the A minor >> [music] >> All right, so they're kind of use he's kind of bouncing off that open A. It happens again 79 and 78.

[00:16:08]>> [music] >> All right, and remember that you can use some more open A's throughout the bassline. You don't have to fret it on the E string at the fifth fret. The ending has a classic kind of blues blues riff that everyone does. [music] That's a real classic one.

[00:16:38]>> [music] [music] >> And then you got to try and catch that last stab that everyone plays.

[00:16:49]>> [laughter] >> You've got to guess that.

[00:16:51]Um just before that on the D sharp seven to the D >> [music] >> there's just a stop.

[00:17:01]On the D do do boom boom boom boom, but you can just hear that on the recording. So that's giving you enough to work on this bassline. Remember to grab the free transcription, so the link is below in the description. And also let me know what you thought of this lesson, this bassline, this song. Uh leave me a comment below. I'd love to hear if you got any takeaways from this lesson. Also, if you've got any other really cool blues basslines that you think might make a good lesson, just let me know below in the comments. At the moment, I'm hosting a blues month at Greg's Bass Shed. And there's a specific blues road map to help you to get through all my resources and my free lessons. So, this song just fits perfectly in on that British blues step.

[00:17:47]Don't forget to subscribe to my channel and also to like this video. That really helps me out. And if you felt you got value out this lesson, you can always buy me a coffee. They're $5. The link's at the bottom of the screen here, or you can click the link below in the description. This is Greg from Greg's Bass Shed. Hopefully, see you very soon in the next video.

[00:18:06]>> [music]