10 Things You've Got to do to Play Guitar Like Tom Morello ~ Guitar Chalk | Lessons, Articles and Resources for the Modern Guitar Player

Tom Morello's unique approach to the guitar can never be truly duplicated, nor should it be. Instead of seeking to plagiarize Morello's style, what we want to do instead is learn from it, draw from his tendencies and put what he's doing into our own creative niche and produce something equally entertaining.

For more background, check out this short case study article on Tom Morello's Style.

Morello's work with Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave is characterized by a lot of bizarre sounds that you never would have thought a guitar could make, along with more conventional, yet rhythmic, heavy chorus riffs. These two aspects of his playing represented a lot of the trends and tendencies that you'll find throughout his music.

In order to draw from those tendencies and learn from them, we need to examine what he's doing and exactly how he's doing it, a little bit closer.

That's what this article is about. Digging up the specifics of what a proven professional guitarist is doing and applying it to our own body of knowledge.

Let's do work.

What gear does Tom Morello use?

Now before you go out and spend a lot of money, I want to say up front that you don't need to have the same kind of gear that Morello has. You need gear that is decent in terms of quality, and having some of the right effects will help, but you don't need to match his rig item for item.

That said, it is beneficial to know what he's using, when you're studying how he's using it, so we'll cover the three basic categories: Guitars, amplifiers and effects.

Check out these guitargeek articles for a full list and picture of Morello's rig.

Guitars

The guitars used by Morello are in some cases highly customized, though his most typical guitars are simply a modded Fender Telecaster and Stratocaster. Here's a list of his most commonly used guitars:

The "Arm the Homeless" Guitar

As you can see, Morello's sound isn't really dependent on a particular brand of guitar. He's pretty much a traditionalist in the sense that he sticks with Fender and Gibson guitars, with the odd "off-brand" thrown in there to keep it interesting.

Amplifiers

As far as I know Morello has only every used a Marshall JCM800 head and has bounced back and forth between different types of cabinets. Any Marshall amp should do a good job of emulating Morello's signature tone.

Morello's JCM800 Head

You can get some specifics on his tone in this article where I cover Morello's amp settings.

Effects

From listening to his wide array of strange guitar sounds, you might think that Morello incorporates a lot of effects into his rig. That's actually not the case.

Morello's Pedalboard

He definitely has some, but like his guitars, it's nothing too out of the ordinary. Here's a list of everything from both his RATM years and his Audioslave years:

So we can see that Morello's effects aren't off the wall or anything unusual. However the way he utilizes them is a bit unique, and we'll take the time to delve into all the specific of how he does it.

With the gear covered, let's dive into the specifics of what you have to do to play guitar like Tom Morello.

1. Get really cozy with the basic pentatonic scales.

Morello didn't exactly reinvent the wheel when it came to the guitar, at least not in terms of the bulk of his main riffs. His innovation is typically more noticeable during the intro and bridges of the tracks he's contributed to; the rest of it, is primarily derived from pentatonic modes.

In fact, most of Morello's riffs can be pulled right out of basic pentatonic scales, as he often uses short three to five note segments in the form of single, low notes or power chords.

Let's look at a couple good examples of this.

Set it Off by Audioslave

After the intro, the guitar breaks down into the follow chorus riff:
E|---------------------
B|---------------------
G|---------------------
D|--------------4-/-7--
A|---------------------
E|--0--2--0--2---------

Now take a look at this scale. It's a pentatonic minor scale in the key of F# and I've highlighted the corresponding notes in blue, while the rest of the scale notes are red.

Key of F#

So the concept is simple enough, and once it's all said and done, we only need four notes to create the tabs for the chorus riff. As a "student" of Morello's technique, we would want to look at the process in terms of these steps:

Learn the scale's pattern and positioning.
Learn the scale's key and train our ear to recognize its sound.
Tie in various notes from the scale to create riffs in the same key, derived from the pentatonic mode.

Again, not a complicated process, but in order to play like Morello, you have to at least have a basic understanding of what he's doing with pentatonic scales, so that you can do the same thing. The best thing you can do here is to not over-think the process. It's pretty simple.

Typically, this part of songwriting happens during improvisation and as a natural extension of knowing your modes well.

Let's try another example from Audioslave.

Cochise by Audioslave

Once again, you have to wait through the intro before getting to the actual chorus riff. Once you do, the tab goes like this:
E|--------------------------------------
B|--------------------------------------
G|--------------------------------------
D|--------------------------------------
A|--7--5-----5-----------7--5-----------
E|--------7-----7--3--0--------7--3--0--

Just like in the above tab, we take a segment from the pentatonic minor scale (this time in the key of E) and use it to create the main chorus riff.

Key of E

Morello's tendencies and style of play during choruses is usually pretty consistent. Most of the time he'll utilize this same style of riff, whether he uses single notes, power chords or full bar and open chords.

That being said, if you know the pattern and method he's using, you can apply the same thing to your guitar playing and/or songwriting.

2. Learn the art of simplicity.

For all the speed and technical proficiency that Morello possesses, his riffs are not that complex. His success is a testament to the guitar and music being able to pull their own weight.

In a sense, Morello has mastered the art of letting his guitar do a lot the work for him. Thereby instead of pushing his creativity, he creatively pushes good music.

We can learn a lot from this part of Morello's approach. He's creative, sure; yet he doesn't use creativity as a vehicle to push things that don't sound good. When it comes to firing off a great sounding chorus, he just plays what sounds great and he does it effectively.

We've already talked about some of the specifics, but lets list them off here:

Heavy choruses.
Dropped-down verses.
Rhythmic, simple riffs.
Power chords.
Simple fills.

All Morello does is take a few notes that sound good out of a pentatonic scale and apply one or more of these canvases to it. You can't go wrong by following suit.

3. Lay down some power chords for your choruses.

Now that we've established a lot of the transcendent aspects of Morello's playing, we can get into some of the gritty details about what he does and when.

To play like him, you need to learn to lay down some heavy power chords on the choruses.

The best way to learn this is to just look at some song examples like we did up top. I'll list the song, tab and corresponding chords; though keep in mind we're focusing on just the choruses of each song.

Guerrilla Radio -- Rage Against the Machine

In this song, the intro riff is pretty much the same as the chorus riff, and in keeping with Morello's style, it's pretty basic. Here's the tab for the chorus.

Power Chord -- 1st Fret Form

E|-----------------------------
B|-----------------------------
G|-----------------------------
D|-----------------------2--4--
A|--2--4--4-----4-----4--0--2--
E|--0--2--2--0--2--0--2--------

So all you're using here is a simple two-note power chord which I've displayed in the first fret form. Again, it's nothing complicated, and it's typically how Morello approaches most of his choruses.

We'll look at another example in drop-D.

Show Me How to Live -- Audioslave

This time, Morello is in drop-D, again using basic power chords for the chorus riff. The intro riff is the best part, and you can check out the entire tab here.

Power Chord -- 2nd Fret Form (Drop-D)

Otherwise, here's the riff for just the chorus:

E|-----------------------------
B|-----------------------------
G|-----------------------------
D|--2--5-----------------------
A|--2--5---------------5h7-----
D|--2--5--0--2p0--2p0-------0--

I hesitate to say this, because it just sounds too simple, but since this progression incorporates single notes, and drop-D power chords, combining it with the chords used in Guerrilla Radio gives you just about every tool you need to tackle most of Morello's chorus riffs.

I know it sounds like I'm oversimplifying this, but the following list of Audioslave and RATM songs all adhere to one of the previous three patterns during their choruses.

Audioslave

Rage Against the Machine

As you can see, if you have your power chords down, you'll be able to emulate a lot of Morello's chorus work. While the same could be said of a lot of other modern rock guitar players, it's particularly consistent in the case of Morello's work with Audioslave and RATM.

For a quick recap, I'll go ahead and list all of the specific characteristics of Morello's choruses:

Heavy and Distorted
Often incorporates low single-note riffs.
Often incorporates power chords.
Sometimes uses a drop-D or drop-B tuning.
Usually 4-5 note segments.

4. Single notes for the verses.

This trend is a little less consistent than the choruses, but it's still a fact: If you want to play like Morello you've got to get some high single-note fills going for your verses.

Morello will often incorporate short fills, using single notes that are higher in pitch.

Like his choruses, these riffs are usually derived from pentatonic scales and are distinctly "western" in their musical quality and style.

We'll look at two really good examples of this, both from Audioslave.

Exploder -- Audioslave

"Simple" might be an understatement here, as Morello uses only two single notes to compile a fill for the verse. The tab should be pretty easy to grasp.

E|-----------------------------------------
B|--7--7--7--7--7--7 ... 5--5--5--5--5--5--
G|-----------------------------------------
D|-----------------------------------------
A|-----------------------------------------
E|-----------------------------------------

This isn't to say that every fill he does for each verse is this straightforward, but it does go to show that when it comes to Morello's style, less is almost always more.

He raises the stakes a little bit on Like a Stone.

Like a Stone -- Audioslave

In this case, the intro riff is the same throughout the verse. Morello goes higher on the lower fifth and sixth strings, and for the actual track, even tunes his guitar up one half step. The riff is simple and in keeping with his preferred "verse approach."

E|------------------------------------------
B|------------------------------------------
G|------------------------------------------
D|------------------------------13------12--
A|--13------15----------12------------------
E|------15------13--10------11------11------

Listed are a few other consistent characteristics of Morello's verses:

Often uses light effects.
Usually higher pitched.
Shorter fills.
Simple and straightforward patterns.

5. Learn to do a lot with a little.

By now it should be easy to tell that what Morello does is accomplish a lot with fewer notes and a straightforward approach to the guitar. What's remarkable is that he's been able to do that, while at the same time gaining a reputation as one of the most innovative guitarists of our time.

He's able to produce big sound and catchy riffs with a basic guitar technique, which is a balance that few guitar players are ever able to strike.

Effects

The other area where Morello makes good use of his resources, is in terms of effects. As you could see from the list of his gear, he doesn't use anything tremendously fancy. While he definitely owns his fair share of pedals, a lot of the sounds he makes are created more so by his own picking and chording techniques, rather than coming straight from a digital box.

In this video, Morello talks about having a "disregard for the tradition of the instrument", and shows us how he uses that approach to create the "helicopter sound" that you hear at the beginning of Cochise.

6. Balance the Bizarre with the Familiar

That video leads us into another aspect of Morello's approach that is crucial to learning if you want to emulate it: You need to balance bizarre sounds with the familiar ones.

Whether it's luck, careful calculation or a combination of both, Morello gets incredibly strange sounds to meld quite well with basic and familiar rock riffs. It doesn't sound messy, haphazard or poorly thought out. Instead on just about every track, it just seems like it goes together.

That's a part of Morello's playing that is impossible to teach; though if you study his approach enough, you can get a feel and an idea for why he places certain sounds alongside others.

The one piece of practical insight I can give you, is that the balance of strange and familiar that he strikes is probably a big part of why the overall product makes sense.

So by that I mean that for every 20 seconds of bizarre, he's giving us 90 seconds or so of familiar hard rock.

Maybe number seven will help a little bit as well.

7. Be unconventional but soulful.

To play guitar the way Morello does, you do need to take somewhat of an unconventional approach; though I would argue that what makes him more enjoyable to listen to, is his soulful approach to the instrument.

At the end of the day, making your guitar make strange noises isn't "rocket science" and that can be taught in a lot of ways. What can't be taught is how to play with a certain groove and musical quality.

With that sort of thing, either you have it or you don't and if you don't, you work your butt off to develop it.

This goes back somewhat to how Morello balances the bizarre with the familiar, where the "familiar" would be the soulfulness of his music, but let me try and put a little more skin on what I mean by "soul":

Groove -- Morello's guitar playing is faithfully rhythmic and toe-tapping.
Emotionally Invoking -- The riffs and fills, and even the bizarre effects are always emotionally engaging aside from just sounding interesting.
High Musical Quality -- Morello's songs aren't just noise, they're very musical in their quality. Whether he was with Audioslave or RATM, his guitar playing always reflected his strong musical sense and abilities.

8. Try Your Hand at the Whammy Pedal

On a more practical note, one of the things that helps make a lot of what Morello does possible, is his Digitech Whammy Pedal. He's used several different versions over the years, but they're all good. If you're looking for a new pedal to get, this one is one of your best choices hands down.

Adding it to your rig will definitely help you if you're trying to straight up cover some of Audioslave or RATM's music, but it will also be beneficial to you as you look to develop your own creative niche and write your own songs.

The picture is an associates link to Amazon, but if it's all the same to you, I've found that it's usually the cheapest place to buy. They'll also have plenty of used options.

Digitech Whammy Pedal

9. Drop Into the Rhythm

Characteristic of Morello's guitar playing is a drop in timing and rhythm between choruses and verses. The song where this is the most directly noticeable is Set It Off, where the chorus riff is timed a bit slower, before the verse riffs doubles up in speed and creates a sort of "dropping in" feel of the song.

If you listen to other tracks you'll notice that drop coming in a few different varieties and timings, and while it's sort of hard to explain, it's a nice tactic to use if you can grasp how and when it fits into a song.

10. "When you wanna rock hard children, lean on F sharp."

Morello lays it out for us on how to play "Bulls on Parade", a song which houses some of the most famous riffs that rock and roll has ever known, while employing some of the simplest guitar playing techniques.

It's true that Morello is one of the most interesting and unique musicians to ever pick up a guitar, but what's remarkable is that when you take a closer look, he didn't really reinvent the wheel at all.

Learning to play the way he plays can do a lot to boost our own creativity and sure, give us a chance to learn some great Audioslave and RATM covers.

Thanks for reading.

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