Wanted: Guitar solos

Paladin

Im just looking for a suggestion for some good guitar solos for learning and practicing techniques without getting too "Slashesque speed of light sh|t" complicated. Stuff like the solo from Queen - Rock You.
So far its been kinda hard to find stuff that isnt either too easy or too hard.

Im definately looking for *rock* (not necessarily heavy) solos and please, for the love of god (me ), if you havent a clue how to play a guitar dont go posting every solo from your fav songs. I just want some intermediate stuff to work my way up.

Karl Hungus

Hmm...

Ever listen to Anathema?
They have some rather good solos.
Basic enough, but really good emotional ones!

Type O Negative aswell... All pretty basic, but fun none the less.

You might try and check out some of the Children Of Bodom stuff then, thats pretty damn hard, but man! Fantastic solos!

Gordon

Jimi Hendrix taught me how to play guitar, he uses the blues pentatonic scale to death and rebirth. He's the reason the pentatonic is so mainstream now.

Check out any of his stuff. There's no point in getting books of tab or even score of his stuff, they never can exact what he does. You just gotta get some voodoo in your soul chile!

[This message has been edited by Gordon (edited 13-08-2001).]

Kopf

My favourite stuff to play is Smashing Pumpkins stuff, they have a *very* wide array of styles, especially in their solos. The majority of them are moderatly easy, not too difficult, and they're great fun to play once you get them. I'd reccomend Hummer and Plume, hummer being from the Siamese Dream album, Plume being from the I Am One single or the Pisces iscariot album.

Good luck!

the fnj

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by AngelWhore:

Ever listen to Anathema?
</font>

I thought I was the only one. Anathema rock!

back to topic....


Try and get the major scales. 90% of what you come accross is adapted from them. If you can't find them email me and I'll send them out to you.

Also any blues stuff with bending riffs is good to learn to build up speed and control.

At the end of it all you could always just grab some Nirvana solo's generally quite basic.

Lucutus

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Paladin:
for the love of god (me )</font>

Steve Vai - For The Love Of God

That should give you a nice easy learning curve for technique and speed.

(muhahaha)

Lucutus

dannyd20

try here
or for easier solos try:

• Smells Like Teen Spirit
• Californication
• Whiskey in the Jar
• For Whom The Bell Tolls
• Plugin Baby
• Black Magic Woman

tHE vAGGABOND

Loads of stuff but what about..

'Still in Love with you' from Live and Dangerous - Thin Lizzy (or any song from LaD for that matter )

Steve Vai is another good example, but wonder why no one ever does good Steve Vai covers - its cos no one is able to

And of course Led Zepplin, try Kashmir as a sample

Dr. Loon

Just learn all the scales. I don't play guitar, but I play in a band, and the guitarist always ****es on abuot the scales, learn them all, mess around with them and you'll be able to solo. Then whatever music you like use as your influences!!!

Miguel_Sanchez

Dinosaur Jr. - learn all the solos off the Where you Bee album.

Them's some mighty fine solos.

---

**** sympathy! I don't need your ****in' sympathy, man, I need my ****ing johnson!

Karl Hungus

Also, I was listening to Dimmu Borgir today.

Their solos are pretty simple, and very nice to hear too... You might try those.

Sliotar

well i cant say im sure about this, but i was told that the scales are'nt the best thing for learning how to solo because there are'nt many solos like the scales... just what i was told

Red Moose

Actually I started learning lead from solos from GnR/Slash, and it's pretty easy once you get the hang of it they are all mostly the same from Slash.

1. You could get a book + CD thing
I did this and got the "Lead Guitar" (which is what you really mean when you say solos) book.

Basically to be able to improvise lead guitar and generally look cool you will need to know the pentatonic minor scale - and how to adjust it up and down depending on the key you are playing. It's worth learning properly because it's always good for fudging with a distortion pedal and some wah and it's all good, basically.

2. Pick songs you like and you can listen to over and over and over again. I was pretty stupid to pick Sweet Child O' Mine to learn from but after that (it took weeks!) you see how most solos are very similar. GnR are very similar to Aerosmith like this.

Get the tabulature for the actual real notes from the net or buy a book. I have a few of them, like the Cherry Lane books for the Black album, And Justice for All, GnR and so on. They tell you everything that the lead is playing so keep reading the same 8 notes that Slash is playing in 250ms and soon you will pick up just how many goddamn notes the fast solos involve.

---

Songs I think are good to learn from:
1. Sweet Child O' Mine (okay the main solo is pretty hard if you're starting but it's a nice three cord blues change so you can get the hang of the interludes which are nice and slow & melodic)

2. Civil War (the solo and interludes here are very cool sounding with a wah and are generally a a reasonable pace to sound good and not nearly as fast as that middle bit in the SCoM solo with the wah like hell that is an utter ***** to do with short fingers)

3. Yesterdays (GnR version has great rhythm during the chorus on the low frets which is great for practice at 1/4 notes continuously) (and the solo is nice'n'easy like Civil War)

4. Nothing Else Matters (again, very nice rhythm on the verses to get going on proper individual note changes (real rock bands!) - not the strummy crap I have seen in some tab books. The solos are very easy to learn - no real funky **** like artificial harmonics and such which you will find in more experimental guitarists).

OK, my point here is that get some decent tab books for GnR and Metallica. Learn not just the solos but the RHYTHM. In bands like these the lead blends in and out of rhythm on loads of songs, and after it all you will be able to play mean rhythm which is the basis for great lead. Examples of this are like Nightrain from Appetite, Paradise City (lots of single notes for the rhythm).

Plus GnR is all in half-note down E-flat. This makes it easier on your fingers to bend the notes and so on when you are starting.

Final stuff:

Don't jump into stuff like Hendrix and Zeppelin at the start. Page was a ******* for using alernate tunings and if you only have one guitar, and the bridge thing isn't locked down (to be able to tune to different tunings easily on my strat I got rid of the tremolo bar and just bolted it flat because it's justa load of hassle for different songs).

Forget about trying weird **** at the start; stick to trying to get the notes right and LISTEN to how it sounds, then you will know why there's a neck bend here, an artificial harmonic there, etc., .

(I am droning on here I know.....).

To help get finger agility up, do this:
Position your four fingers over the 1st to 4th frets, bottom low E string, and pick the string as each finger individually is placed in the in the space (make sure to lift off the previous finger before the new one goes on - only one finger on the fretboard at a time). Then move to the 5th string (1-2-3-4) and so on to the top string, then all the way (4-3-2-1) back down to the 1st fret 6th string.

Then move it all up one fret and do it all again (24 notes up, 24 down, then up a fret using your index finger as the "base" to move up). It's boring I know but it helped me a lot (read it in a book) as my fingers are pretty short.

Don't cry is also good. The thing to watch for in all this is do NOT be tempted to just learn the cool solo and forget the song. The practice you get from playign accurate lead and goign smoothly into a solo is invaluable.

Appetite for destruction is great for learning rhythm+lead as Stradlin and Slash are a great combo.

And please, forget about "learning" stuff like Nirvana, etc., . It's mostly stuff you can pick up by simply listening for the 4 chords and that's about it.

I do think GnR is better to start with as after 1 or 2 songs you can see Slash's technique all over the place and it's all the same (sort of). It's all the same tuning, it's mostly all blues rock, so it's easier to learn than trying something like The Rain Song (which is sweeeeeet! Page is a god of alternate tunings).

Make sure you have a decent distortion pedal and a wah pedal (and none of that effects box nonsense, sir!). A Cry-baby is always good.

I think a nice basic song to start with and learn to play all the nit-picking notes of the verses and the straightforward solo would be "Patience".

If I have the time I will maybe scan some tabs and upload them somewhere, which is OK in accordance with Section 51-52 of Irish copyright law as long as it is for EDUCATIONAL USE. It's definitely in there somewhere because I read the full thing last week and downloaded some songs for educational use as well just to check the law out .


AND FINALLY:
When you think you're hard enough, try some Soundgarden stuff (like the solo from Like Suicide (Kim Thayil is one nutty person).

Then if that is no contest, try playing some Yngwie Malmsteen songs.

And if you ever ever EVER reach the pinnacle of perfection that I know we are all after you will someday maybe, just maybe, be able to play "Eruption" on Van Halen 1, and then maybe the intro to "Hot For Teacher" from Van Halen's 1984. Then Daniel-son thou shalt know the true meaningth of rock.

[This message has been edited by Red Moose (edited 16-08-2001).]

Paladin

Phew!
Lots of stuff there, especially from you Moose. Thanks.
I think Ill go look for scales now and practice some of the stuff you said Moose.
Cheers ppl.