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Thin Lizzy - Dancing In The Moonlight - Guitar Solo Tab

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Speed
100%

Tools

BPM
Key A major
Thin Lizzy - Dancing In The Moonlight guitar tab video
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Amp Settings

Classic Rock

Gain6
Bass6
Mid7
Treble6
Presence5
Master7
AI tone preset

AI-selected preset based on genre and era — adjust the knobs to taste.

Roll back the gain slightly and pick near the neck for a warmer, more open crunch.
Thin Lizzy Hard Rock A major
Capo Advisor 0 A major · Original key

About Dancing In The Moonlight

Few Thin Lizzy tracks capture the band's twin-guitar chemistry as neatly as this one. Built around a clean, bouncy groove in A major at 120 BPM, "Dancing in the Moonlight" sits in that sweet spot where rhythm playing and lead melody blur together. The signature guitar figure is a bright, melodic riff that sits on top of a locked-in rhythmic feel, so your picking hand needs to stay relaxed and in the pocket rather than digging in hard. Getting the two guitar parts to sit together cleanly is the real challenge here, so if you are learning both lines, isolate each one with the Practice Toolbar and loop it slowed down before trying to layer them. E Standard tuning keeps everything approachable, and the A major key means the open-position scale shapes you already know will serve you well. The tone leans clean to lightly overdriven, so resist the temptation to add too much gain. As a piece of Hard Rock songwriting, it rewards players who focus on phrasing and feel over sheer speed.

  • The twin-guitar arrangement is central to the song, so learning both the rhythm and lead parts separately will give you the most complete understanding of how it works.
  • At 120 BPM in A major with E Standard tuning, the song is accessible for intermediate players, but nailing the melodic phrasing cleanly takes focused repetition.
  • The guitar tone is clean to lightly overdriven, so a heavy distortion setting will obscure the bright, melodic character of the main riff.

How to Play Dancing In The Moonlight

Tuning: E Standard · Key: A major · Tempo: 120 BPM

Use the section loop to isolate a passage, drop the speed below 100%, and set the metronome to 120 BPM to build it up to tempo.

Fender Stratocaster
Guitar

Fender Stratocaster

Brian Robertson's Stratocaster provided the bright, cutting single-coil tone that balanced Scott Gorham's warmer Les Paul in Thin Lizzy's signature twin harmonies. The Strat's natural clarity prevented muddiness when pushed through Marshall amps at high gain, making the harmony parts pop with dimensional width.

Gibson Les Paul Standard
Guitar

Gibson Les Paul Standard

Gary Moore's legendary 1959 'Greeny' Les Paul with its reversed-magnet neck pickup created Thin Lizzy's most distinctive out-of-phase quack tone on clean settings. The original PAF humbuckers delivered singing sustain and aggressive overdrive when driven hard through Marshall Plexis, defining Moore's expressive lead sound.

Gibson Les Paul Custom
Guitar

Gibson Les Paul Custom

Scott Gorham's late '70s Gibson Les Paul Custom was the backbone of Thin Lizzy's thick, sustained midrange tone essential for harmony leads. Stock T-Top humbuckers provided responsive dynamics without compression, allowing Gorham to articulate clean-to-dirty transitions through cranked Marshall heads.

Marshall JCM800
Amp

Marshall JCM800

The JCM800 delivered the moderate-to-high gain Marshall tone Gorham, Robertson, and Moore relied on for natural tube saturation with strong mids. This amp never scooped the midrange, ensuring the twin harmonies cut through with clarity and sustain.

Marshall Plexi (1959 Super Lead)
Amp

Marshall Plexi (1959 Super Lead)

Gary Moore's Marshall 1959 Super Lead Plexi pushed hard for his singing sustain and aggressive overdrive, responding to every nuance of his Les Paul's dynamics. The Plexi's raw power and natural breakup were critical to Moore's expressive, blistering lead work throughout Thin Lizzy's catalog.

Dunlop Cry Baby Wah
Pedal

Dunlop Cry Baby Wah

Scott Gorham used the Cry Baby wah sparingly for solo accents, treating it as seasoning rather than a main ingredient in Thin Lizzy's effects-minimal approach. The wah added expressive color to lead breaks while the band maintained their philosophy of tone from fingers and amp.

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