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Rainbow

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Since You Been Gone - Guitar Lesson

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Band Overview

History and Guitar Legacy

Rainbow was formed in 1975 by Ritchie Blackmore after leaving Deep Purple. The band became a defining force in neoclassical Hard Rock throughout the late 1970s and early 1980s. Blackmore fused baroque and classical influences with heavy, riff driven rock, essentially inventing the neoclassical shred movement that inspired Yngwie Malmsteen, Jason Becker, and countless others. Multiple vocalists including Ronnie James Dio, Graham Bonnet, and Joe Lynn Turner shaped distinct eras with different guitar approaches.

Playing Style and Techniques

Ritchie Blackmore's playing foundation rests on minor pentatonic and natural minor scales enhanced by classical phrasing: arpeggiated runs, pedal tones, and diminished patterns that sound composed rather than speed focused. His signature wide, aggressive vibrato applied with the wrist creates a vocal, crying quality. Rhythm work combines power chords with precise palm muting and dynamic control that drives songs forward with enormous momentum and deliberate intensity.

Why Guitarists Study Rainbow

Rainbow provides essential listening and study material for guitarists seeking to develop sophisticated lead playing. Blackmore's approach teaches that note choice and dynamics matter far more than raw speed. His technique bridges pentatonic rock soloing with classically influenced lead work. Intermediate guitarists particularly benefit from studying how Blackmore phrases melodically and applies classical concepts to rock guitar, developing taste and restraint alongside technical ability.

Difficulty and Learning Path

Rainbow's material spans varying difficulty levels by era. Dio era tracks like 'Stargazer' and 'Kill the King' demand solid alternate picking, quick position shifts, and comfort soloing across the entire fretboard in minor keys. The later melodic rock period, including 'Since You Been Gone,' is more accessible, emphasizing tight rhythm playing, clean arpeggiated passages, and tasteful lead breaks prioritizing melody over technical flash.

What Makes Rainbow Essential for Guitar Players

Ritchie Blackmore's lead style blends minor pentatonic with natural minor and harmonic minor scales, often incorporating baroque-style sequences and arpeggiated runs. Studying his solos teaches you how to move beyond the pentatonic box and integrate classical phrasing into rock contexts.
His vibrato technique is one of the most distinctive in rock, a wide, aggressive wrist vibrato applied consistently to sustained notes. Practicing this will dramatically improve your expressiveness and note sustain without relying on effects.
Blackmore's rhythm playing uses precise palm-muted power chords with dynamic accents, often driving songs with a galloping or shuffling feel. Pay attention to how he controls pick attack, light strums for clean passages, heavy downstrokes for crunch sections.
Many Rainbow solos feature rapid alternate picking combined with pull-off and hammer-on legato phrases, creating a fluid sound that mixes picked articulation with smooth runs. 'Since You Been Gone' is a great entry point, the solo is melodic, well-structured, and teaches economy of phrasing.
Blackmore frequently uses the Dorian and Aeolian modes, and his solos often resolve on unexpected intervals like the flat 7th or the natural 6th, giving them a medieval or folk-tinged quality that sets Rainbow apart from standard blues-rock.

Did You Know?

Ritchie Blackmore was one of the first rock guitarists to use a scalloped fretboard, he had the frets on his Fender Stratocaster scalloped from the factory, which allowed wider vibrato and easier bending but required an extremely light touch to play in tune.

The iconic 'Since You Been Gone' was actually written by Russ Ballard and was initially considered too pop for Rainbow, but it became their biggest commercial hit and features some of Blackmore's most disciplined, hook-driven guitar work.

Blackmore often tuned his guitar down a half step to Eb standard during live performances, giving his tone a slightly darker, heavier character while making string bends easier on his light gauge strings.

During the recording of 'Rising' (1976), Blackmore recorded his guitar parts through a combination of his Marshall Major and a direct-to-console setup, layering tones to create the massive wall of sound heard on 'Stargazer.'

Blackmore was known for smashing Stratocasters on stage, but he typically used cheaper copies for destruction and kept his main modified '74 Strat safely backstage.

Rainbow's 'Kill the King' riff is widely considered one of the precursors to speed metal, and its relentless alternate-picked eighth-note pattern at high tempo directly influenced bands like Judas Priest and Iron Maiden.

Blackmore rarely used distortion pedals, his overdrive came almost entirely from cranking Marshall amplifiers to their breaking point, relying on tube saturation and pickup output for his gain tone.

Essential Albums for Guitarists

Rising 1976

This is the album where Blackmore's neoclassical vision fully crystallizes. 'Stargazer' features one of the greatest guitar solos in hard rock, a masterclass in tension, release, and minor-key phrasing over an orchestral backdrop. 'Tarot Woman' teaches whammy bar technique and atmospheric intro building, while 'A Light in the Black' is an alternate-picking endurance test.

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Long Live Rock 'n' Roll 1978

Contains 'Kill the King,' which is essential for developing fast alternate picking and tight rhythm playing at speed. The title track and 'Gates of Babylon' showcase Blackmore's ability to shift between Eastern-flavored scales and classic rock phrasing, making this album ideal for guitarists expanding their modal vocabulary.

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Down to Earth 1979

The album that includes 'Since You Been Gone' and 'All Night Long', both are excellent for intermediate players working on tight rhythm guitar, clean-to-distortion dynamics, and melodic soloing. The guitar parts here prioritize hooks and song-serving leads over technical fireworks, teaching you restraint and arrangement awareness.

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Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow 1975

The debut showcases raw, blues-infused hard rock with extended soloing on tracks like 'Man on the Silver Mountain' and 'Catch the Rainbow.' Great for studying how Blackmore builds solos from simple pentatonic motifs into complex, emotionally charged climaxes. The slower tempos make it accessible for intermediate players to analyze phrasing in detail.

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Tone & Gear

Guitar

Ritchie Blackmore is synonymous with the Fender Stratocaster, specifically a heavily modified 1974 Fender Strat with a scalloped rosewood fretboard (typically scalloped from the 9th fret up to the 21st). He later used custom-built Strats with similar specs. The scalloped fretboard is central to his technique, enabling his signature wide vibrato and effortless bends. During early Rainbow sessions, he also occasionally used a Gibson ES-335, but the Strat defined the band's sound.

Amp

Blackmore primarily used Marshall Major 200-watt heads (the 'pig' Marshalls) paired with 4x12 cabinets loaded with Celestion speakers during the classic Rainbow era. These amps were cranked hard for natural tube overdrive and power-stage saturation. He also used Engl amplifiers in later years. The key to his tone was sheer volume, the Marshalls were pushed to breakup point, creating a thick, harmonically rich distortion with no pedal assistance.

Pickups

Blackmore replaced his Stratocaster's stock single-coil pickups with a hotter overwound single-coil or a dummy coil setup to reduce hum while retaining the bright, cutting Strat character. He's known to have used a Schecter F500T pickup in the bridge position at various points, slightly hotter than vintage Strat pickups but still single-coil, preserving that glassy attack and dynamic responsiveness that cuts through Marshall saturation without getting muddy.

Effects & Chain

Blackmore's effects chain was famously minimal. His primary effect was a treble booster, originally a Hornby-Skewes unit, later an Aiwa TP-1011 tape recorder used as a preamp boost, placed before the Marshall to push the front end into heavier saturation. He also used a wah pedal (often a modified Cry Baby) for expressive solo sections and occasionally a Roland chorus for clean passages. No delay, no reverb pedals, his tone was fundamentally amp-driven with the treble booster adding that extra harmonic bite.

Recommended Gear

Guitar

Fender Stratocaster

Ritchie Blackmore's scalloped 1974 Fender Strat enabled his signature wide vibrato and effortless bends that defined Rainbow's neoclassical sound. The bright, cutting single-coil character cut through Marshall saturation without muddiness.

Guitar

Gibson ES-335

Blackmore occasionally wielded the ES-335 during early Rainbow sessions for warmer, fuller tones on cleaner passages, contrasting with his primary Strat's glassy attack. The semi-hollow body provided rounded harmonic depth when pushed through Marshall power tubes.

Pedal

Dunlop Cry Baby Wah

Blackmore's modified Cry Baby delivered expressive, vocal-like sweeps during Rainbow's legendary solos, particularly on tracks like 'Stargazer.' The wah's dynamic responsiveness complemented his technical vibrato style and amp-driven tone.

How to Practice Rainbow on GuitarZone

Every Rainbow song page on GuitarZone includes a built-in Practice Toolbar. No app to download, no account needed. Open any song, then use the toolbar to slow the video to 0.5× speed, set an A/B loop around the exact riff you're working on, and jump between song sections instantly.

The toolbar appears automatically on every guitar tab, lesson, and cover page. Pick a song below, hit play, and start practicing at your own pace.

Practice Since You Been Gone - Guitar Lesson