tony iommi black sabbath geezer butler bill ward 10 Things You'Ve Gotta Do to Play Like Tony Iommi _ GuitarPlayer

8/18/2019 tony iommi black sabbath geezer butler bill ward 10 Things You'Ve Gotta Do to Play Like Tony Iommi _ GuitarPlayer

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10 Things You've

Gotta Do to PlayLike Tony Iommi

BY JESSE GRESS

January 30, 2014

WHEN EDWARD VAN HALEN CALLED Tony

Iommi the master of riffs, he wasn’t just

whistling “Dixie.” Master riffmeister Iommi’s

back story, rise to legendary status, and his

influence on the New Wave of Heavy Metal have

been well documented in the annals of modern

guitar lore (most recently in the cover story of the January, 2010 issue of GP ), but everything

might have turned out differently if Iommi had

not been so driven to play.

After losing the tips of his right-hand middle and ring fingers in a metal

shop accident at 17, which was especially devastating considering it was

his fretting hand, Iommi’s strong will and devotion to his craft led him to

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develop the thimble-like prosthetics he still wears today. Philosophically

inspired to continue playing by Django Reinhardt, and musically smitten

by Blues Breakers-era Eric Clapton, Iommi recontextualized the same

blues-based licks and riffs everyone else was playing at the time into a

much darker and heavier oeuvre that soon became Sabbath’s calling card.

Like a keeper of the flame, Iommi has defined the heart and soul of the

band, from the original ’70s Ozzy Osbourne-fronted lineup, to its later

reincarnations with the late, great Ronnie James Dio as both Black

Sabbath and Heaven and Hell (as well as honorable mentions for Ian

Gillan and Glenn Hughes), with killer riffs and a larger-thanlife sound.

Essential listening includes at least the first five Sabbath albums ( Black

Sabbath and Paranoid [both 1970], Master of Reality [1971], Black

Sabbath Vol. 4[1972], and Sabbath Bloody Sabbath [1973]), a selection

of ’80s and ’90s sides, including Heaven and Hell (1980) and Black

Sabbath: The Dio Years(1998), Iommi’s two solo albums ( Iommi [2000]

and Fused [2005]), and of course Heaven and Hell’s most recent

release The Devil You Know (2009).

Want to follow in the fretprints of the Godfather of Heavy Metal? First, you’ve

gotta...

1. BREAK AWAY FROM THE PACK

While many of his early contemporaries routinely plugged their

Stratocasters and Les Pauls into Marshall stacks and Fender combos,

Tony Iommi has always been somewhat of a renegade when it comes to

gear. (Of course, as a left-handed player, Iommi’s guitar options were

understandably fewer.) He entered Black Sabbath with a good- Strat-

gone bad, prompting a switch to a now iconic 1965 Gibson SG Special just


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in time to record the band’s entire first album, except for “Wicked

World,” which features the Strat. With few exceptions, this guitar paired

with a Laney 100-watt stack (chosen for the company’s affiliation with

Iommi’s home town of Birmingham), was the main instrumental voice of

early Sabbath, bolstered only by two equally off-the-beaten-path

outboard effects: a Dallas Range Master Treble Booster and a Tycobrahe

Parapedal wah. (Fact: Iommi’s oldest go-to acoustic was a Gibson J-45.)

In 1975, Iommi added the guitar with which he has become most

associated to his arsenal. Custom- built by John Diggens and

affectionately known as “Jaydee,” “Number 1,” and “The Old Boy,” this battle scarred SG-style ax sports a mahogany body and 24-fret neck (plus

a zero fret), cross fret markers, a Jaydee special bridge pickup, and a

John Birch-style Magnum XP pickup (also made by Diggens) in the neck

position, and encapsulated everything Iommi was looking for in a guitar.

Similar features eventually appeared on Iommi’s signature instruments,

beginning in 1997 with Gibson’s limited edition Tony Iommi Special SG

(Fact: Iommi still plays the first two prototypes.), and continuing in 2002

to the present with both Epiphone and Gibson Tony Iommi Signature

SGs. The Epi model sports Gibson P94 pickups, while the Gibsons are

fitted with Tony Iommi Signature Humbuckers.

In 2009 with Heaven and Hell, Iommi used an Engl Powerball head in

addition to his GH 100 TI Laney Tony Iommi Signature amp along with

both amps’ respective 4x12 cabs (loaded with Celestion Vintage 30

speakers), replaced his Tycobrahe Parapedal with a Chicago Iron

Parachute wah, and experimented with several additional effects,including an Ibanez Tube Screamer and a Boss OC-3 Super Octave. (See

GP 1/10 for the full lowdown on Iommi’s H & H stage rig.) Through the


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years, Iommi has always favored light-gauge strings—.008- .032 for half-

step dropped tuning, and .009-.042 for tunings below that—and black

Dunlop picks of unspecified thickness. Hey, you’ve gotta keep some

secrets!

2. MAKE SINISTER SOUNDS

Arguably the first band to embrace los diablos en musica,

or the dreaded, churchbanned b5 interval (It’s just three

whole-steps and the center point of the 12-tone chromatic scale, folks.

Honest.), Black Sabbath wasted no time putting this dissonant “devil’s

interval” to work. “Black Sabbath,” the opening cut from the band’s 1970

self-titled debut commences with a thunderstorm that lulls us into the

ultimate b5 riff gloriously notated inEx. 1a. Follow the G5 power chords

with an octave G, and then add the trill between the b5 (enharmonically

notated as C#) and the 5 (D) for the bulk of bar 2. Substitute a lone,

vibrated C# for the trill during every other repeat and you’ve got most of

the song under your fingers. Ex. 1b, a b5-based riff similar to one found

in “Electric Funeral” ( Paranoid ), features a root-5-b5-4-b3 motif—

essentially a descending E blues scale minus its b7—laced with Iommi’s

signature vibrato. For total authenticity, play the first beat as four palm-

muted sixteenth-notes and change the rhythm on beat four to a sixteenthand dotted-eighth pairing. Iommi can sound equally scary without the

b5. The ominous riff in Ex. 1c (also redolent of “E.F.”) relies only on

notes derived from the E minor (Aeolian) scale. Add wah articulations to

each note, play beat one as two eighth-notes, move beat three ahead to its

upbeat eighth-note, and you’re in like Flint. (Tip: Try applying bends and

releases to beats two and four.)

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3. GET (A LITTLE) JAZZY

The first time I heard Sabbath’s music was when a local

band called Rockhouse covered “Wicked World”

(from Black Sabbath) ca. 1970-71, leading me to believe that Black

Sabbath was more of a bluesy British jazz-rock outfit in the vein of John

Mayall’s Blues Breakers, Blodwyn Pig, and the Keef Hartley Band rather

than the forefathers of heavy metal! “Wicked World” opens with a Buddy

Rich-style hi-hat intro (the third to hit Ten Things this year!), followed

by Ex. 2a’s swinging call-and-response riff in the key of E. Iommi’s

signature trills occur between the b3 (G) and the 3 (G#), a common bluesmove that’s often applied to shuffle rhythms and packs extra weight in

this context.

Ex. 2b depicts Iommi’s IVchord figure, which utilizes an

A blues scale line for another round of melodic Q & A.

Play the example twice as written, add three rounds of A5-C5-D5 power

chords using the first three hits of Ex. 2c’s rhythm, break on a seventh-

position E5, and you’re ready to pair the full rhythm shown in Ex. 2c with

the descending E blues scale in Ex. 2d to complete the song’s next riff on

your own. (Tip: Play it three times and land on an open E5.) You’ll find

this lick transposed first up a whole step to F#, and then another wholestep to G# later in the song.

4. GET (A LITTLE) MELLOW

Many Sabbath tunes, including “Sleeping Village” and

“Spiral Architect” are prefaced with Iommi’s moody

acoustic intros. Learn the arpeggiated Em picking pattern

shown in Ex. 3a, and then shift your fretting hand to

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the Emadd9 voicing diagramed inEx. 3b to approximate the former.

And do the same with the Dm chord

and Dmadd9, Em/D, Dm7 , Aadd9, and G/A grids

in Examples 3c and 3d to simulate the latter. (Tip: Play Dmadd9,

Em/D, and Dm7 for a full measure each, and then shift the picking

pattern to the next lowest string set and alternate one beat each

of Aadd9, and G/A over the course of two bars. Rinse and repeat!)

5. FLOAT LIKE A BUTTERFLY, STING LIKE A BEE

Renowned for his lightning fast single-note soloing,

Iommi often accomplishes the deed with a slew of

strategically placed hammer-ons and pulloffs. Let’s examine four typical

phrases built from a 12th-position E pentatonic minor scale and

extrapolate a variation from each one. Bar 1 of Ex. 4a shows a cool run

with one pulloff per beat, while bar 2 cuts off the last note in each beat,

turning it into one of Iommi’s signature start-and-stop staccato motifs.

Similarly, bar 2 of Ex. 4b transforms the run in bar 1 intoa stuttering staccato lick by cramming the first three notes

into a hammered-and pulled sixteenth-note triplet.

In bar 1 of Ex. 4c, we add another sixteenth-note to the

previous lick, and then displace and double-time the

triplet in bar 2.

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Finally, Ex. 4d makes the important distinction between

six-note-perbeat groupings. In bar 1, we have two

accented triplets per beat (3x2), while in bar 2 we find each beat divided

into sextuplets (2x3) with accents on the first and third notes. Try

reversing the rhythms in bars 1 and 2 while keeping the notes the same.

(Tip: Mix-’n’-match ’em as you please!)

6. REPEAT YOURSELF

You’ll find a blizzard of ostinatos, or repetitive, single-note

lines played in unison with or counterpoint to the rhythm

section, evident throughout both the Sabbath and Heaven

and Hell catalogs. Ex. 5a takes us back to “Black Sabbath,” where Iommi

breaks out of Ex. 1a’s b5 riff with this palm-muted, low-register ostinato,

first over a pedal G, and then over a descending G-F-E-Eb bass line.

Iommi turned the common suspended D lick in Ex.

5b into a blazing interlude during “Sweet Leaf” ( Master of

Reality) by starting it on beat four. (Savvy readers will recognize the

notated rhythm motif as half-time version of bar 2 in Ex. 4c.) Sometimes

simple is best, as in Ex. 5c’s Em-based sequence of descending thirds.

(Tip: Try it over other chords from the key of E minor, especially D and

C.) Ex. 5d falls more into the category of hemiola (repetitive 3-against-4

rhythmic patterns) than ostinato, and incorporates three important



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Iommi trademarks: 3-against-4 rhythmic phrasing, a whole-step bend

and release from the root (E) to the 2/9 (F#), and rapid trilling. (Tip:

Check out “War Pigs” [ Paranoid ] for some similar action.)

7. DOUBLE (OR TRIPLE) YOUR PLEASURE

Speaking of “War Pigs,” Iommi often created double- tracking effects in

the studio using tape delay, but this solo was triple-tracked, sometimes in

unison and sometimes not, much in the spirit of Clapton’s “Politician”

solo (the studio version from Wheels of Fire) and most of Jeff Beck’s

Beck-ola. Inspired by this threeguitar solo, Ex. 6 simulates how Iommi

unleashes a controlled chaos of pre-Cream Clapton-isms first with two

guitars in unison (Gtrs. 1 and 2, bar 1), and then by adding a third in bar

2, where each guitar does its own thing for the remaining three measures.

Considering how all three guitars are playing in the same twelfth-position

E pentatonic blues box, the result is pretty remarkable.

8. MAKE IT BIGGER

Though he began tuning down a whole-step much earlier

for Sabbath’s live shows (their first two albums are in

standard tuning), Iommi later dropped his tuning an additional half-step

beginning on Master of Reality. With thisC#, F#, B, E, G#,

C# configuration, songs like “Into the Void” reached new depths of

heaviness, inspiring the likes of Edward Van Halen. Ex. 7a presents the

song’s main riff in all its glory. (Extra Credit: Can you spot the hemiola in

bar 2?)



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For whatever reason, by the time Sabbath

recorded Heaven and Hell with the late Ronnie James Dio,

Iommi and company were back to tuning down only a half-step, but with

heavy-ashell riffs like the one in Ex. 7b, culled from the album’s title

track, who even noticed?

9. BECOME ONE WITH YOUR BASS PLAYER

One of the keys to Iommi’s heaviosity is his tightness with

bassist Geezer Butler. While many shy away from unison

bass-and-guitar figures for fear of redundancy, both Sabbath and Heaven

and Hell embraced the concept in dozens of songs. The intros to Heaven

and Hell’s “Atom and Evil” (Ex. 8a) and “Fear” ((Ex. 8b), both from The

Devil You Know, are prime examples of the power of octave

reinforcement. Both riffs create a sinister vibe via the inclusion of the“other devil’s interval” (I just made that up), the b2/ b9 located a half

step, or minor second, above the root, with the former utilizing root+5

power-chord diads, and the latter relying on single notes. (Tip: Repeat

Ex. 8a as written, but on the second round substitute Db5 for C5, C5 for

B5, G5 for F#5, F#5 for F5, and F5 for the single-note Gto create the full,

four-bar rhythm figure.) Ex. 8c takes us back to where we left off in Ex.

2d. Preface this riff, which is played twice in the lower octave

(downstems) and twice in the upper octave (upstems), with the

descending Eblues lick you built by merging Examples 2c and 2d. For

total authenticity, swap rhythms on the first and third beats, and for

extra credit segue to the F# and G# transpositions discussed back in

Examples 2c and 2d.

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10. DO IT WITH DIADS

Perhaps the most important factor in Iommi’s massive

sound is his use of two-note diads in the form of root+5

power chords, and his insistence on playing them on the bottom two

strings whenever possible for maximum girth. Let’s wrap it up with a

couple of must-know Sabbath classics to illustrate the point. The title

track from Paranoid begins with a trio of grace-hammered double stops

applied to a traditional clave/rock-and-roll, three-plusthree- plus-two

rhythm motif followed by two beats of hammered E pentatonic minor

sixteenth- notes exactly as notated in Ex. 9a. (Tip: Feel it in doubletime.) Precede the bVII-bIII-bVII-I figure shown in Ex. 9b with a bar of

palmmuted E5 sixteenths to construct the first half of the verse rhythm

figure, follow up with E5 held for two beats, C5 and D5 for one beat each,

and another measure of E5 sixteenths, and you’ve pretty much nailed the

whole tune. Hot on the trail of his apocalyptic, whole-step, behind-the-

nut bend and gradual release of the low open E string and Ozzy’s Godzilla

roar, Iommi’s main rhythm figure from “Iron Man” rides the sixth and

fifth strings exclusively with root+5 power diads.

Ex. 9c reveals some minute and often overlooked details

in Iommi’s secondary intro, including sixteenth-noteghost slides (bar 1/beats one and four, and bar 2/beat two) that allow

smooth position shifts, and a strategically placed moment of silence.

(Yes, that’s a rest!) During the song’s verses, Iommi plays a single-note

version of this figure by omitting the top note of each diad, changing the

second sixteenth-note of bar 2/beat two to another F#, and most likely

incorporating both the sixth and fifth strings.

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So, does playing every power chord on the bottom two strings really

make a difference? Check it out and you’ll have to agree that this guy has

definitely been on to something for the past 40 years. Thanks for sharing,

T.!

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tony iommi black sabbath geezer butler bill ward 10 Things You'Ve Gotta Do to Play Like Tony Iommi _ GuitarPlayer