How to Play Like Brian May
DAVE COLQUHOUN HAS toured and recorded with a number of diverse artists, but one of the highlights of his career was working with Brian May for the 2018 Freddie Mercury biopic, Bohemian Rhapsody. Dave was responsible for coaching actors Gwilym Lee and Rami Malek to convincingly mimic May and Mercury’s guitar styles for the hugely successful film.
Under the circumstances, it’s possible that, Brian May aside, no one knows the Queen guitarist’s stylistic idiosyncrasies better than Dave. We asked him to share his insider tips to understanding and integrating May’s style into your playing.
PHRASING AND FEEL
Practice makes perfect in this vital area.
BRIAN MAY IS a master of injecting his playing with feel, and in this regard at least, he’s up there with just about anyone who’s ever picked up the instrument. Phrasing and feel are fundamental facets of his style that, as Colquhoun stresses, take technique and skill to accommodate.
“The most important thing to do is switch the phrasing around,” Colquhoun explains. “If you take the ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ solo apart, you’ve got what I refer to as an ‘acceleration’ when it runs]. It makes you play the same pattern; you just change the note grouping of it.
