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  • Learning Guitar World's top 100 solos

klaasvakie NorioDS Maybe thats his 50th take ?

? His outtakes must be funny! I'd probably go through 5-6 guitars and then I'd only be on song 92 or so ?

StephenG these "of all time" type lists are always a a joke.. it shoudl always be followed with .." in my opinion from the following genre that have received a certain percentage of air time and popularity.."

I agree...perhaps this list is better described as "100 favourite Blues/Rock Solo's". There's no jazz, country or flamenco players - a list of solo's missing Chet Atkins, Paco de Lucia and Al di Meola? But featuring Kirk Hammett three times? Umm...

But fun to scroll through and see if any pop up that one likes (or is familiar with).

Crazy Train - Great example of a rock 16 bar solo. Tasty bends and very economical playing in a solo that fits the song perfectly
Machine Gun. Jimi ripping this live inspired sooooo many guitarists.

There a bunch of others I agree with, but they're (to me) more sentimental choices than outstanding solo's.

I'd nominate

SRV - Life without out you (live). My favourite jam solo of all time.,
Kenny Burrell - Chitlins con carne. The granddaddy of Scuttle Buttin....recorded in 1963!
George Benson - Breezin'. Probably his cheesiest tune, but what a melody, what a player.
Paco de Lucia/Al di Meola/John Mclaughlin - Mediterranean Sundance. No explanation necessary.
Spin Doctors - Two Princes. I reckon this solo has some of the best blues/rock/pop solo phrasing I've ever heard.
GnR - Paradise City. Kinda sentimental choice, but Slash really does some magic on this track. Over three pages of notation and he just rips through it like Usain Bolt. I guess it's my "Eruption" because I couldn't imagine how the dickens a human could play this.

      Tuckstir my list would include a few other bands, where somebody else's would include Taylor Swift. but I think doing a list like this can only improve ones playing capabilities, and that is the whole point of this list, me thinks.. and thinking maybe I should give it a bash..

      Yeah, I agree, in this case the contents of the actual list is much less important than the act of learning 100 difficult solos/riffs one after the other.

      I also thought about giving it a bash, so I can see myself learning No. 100, and No 99, but alas, Mr. Petrucci at No. 98 would've stopped me dead in my tracks for the next 24 months or so.

      I've been playing for about 2 years now, and I'm really struggling to build speed, currently working on the solos for Hotel California (can play at about 70% speed) and Are you gonna go my way (about 60% speed), but it feels like the progress is sooooo sloooow.

      For the last two weeks or so I've been starting my practice routine with these exercises from steve stine:

      My pinky is such a lazy bastard. I also find it's quite tough to do sucky chromatic exercises instead of noodling around when you only have a couple of minutes a day, but I guess progress must be earned yeah?

        There is also this:

        http://52weeksofblues.com/?page_id=403

        Which aims to teach one blues song a week for a year. I tried to start this in Jan 2017 after playing for 6 months or so, but I wasn't good enough to get each song down in the allotted week and I gave up after about 3 weeks or so. Perhaps I should give it another try now that I have a lot more practice under my belt.

          5 days later

          klaasvakie For the last two weeks or so I've been starting my practice routine with these exercises from steve stine:

          This is useful. Very similar to what @Satriani taught me all those years ago but I eventually stopped practising. (Stupid me.)

          klaasvakie My pinky is such a lazy bastard.

          I have the same issue!

                6 days later

                No 90:
                I'm putting these up in the hope that you find them interesting (I do), but if this is too spammy, let me know.

                • V8 replied to this.

                  This is great, keep 'em coming.

                  Would also be interesting to hear from you what YOU think of each performance.

                    klaasvakie but if this is too spammy, let me know.

                    Not at all! I dig the explanations of each - some good tips n insights there. ?

                        12 days later

                        Next one is up - not on the list of 100 but an honourable mention. I haven't given it a listen yet, but I know the solo well (but can't play it yet), and it is also one of my favourites. I'll be at a good set of headphones tomorrow morning and then I'll give it a spin.

                        Perhaps my second favourite version (first is obviously the Gilmour one) is the one in the Martin Miller Medley:

                        @NorioDS Off topic, looks like the forum ate my post about Yousician, I get 404.

                        klaasvakie thanks for that! I think I know what's wrong and I'll sort it out today. Thanks again!

                            So I just gave this a listen --- a very clean playthrough. Two things stood out:

                            1. Bending accuracy, these were spot on. Also, this is one of the few songs I know that has double-bends (Check, 4:03, 6:05, 6:15, 6:33). I haven't tried to do this yet, but I think its hard getting these right.
                            2. Unless he has a clicktrack going in the headphones, this guy's counting is phenomenal. There is a 50-second stretch from 2:00 to 2:50 where the backing track has no indication of the beat and then he merges flawlessly after that much dead time.

                            klaasvakie Fixed, thanks again! (The issue was the the tag "Editor's Pick" was read-only by administrators.)

                              NorioDS Thanks for fixing this! O wait, I can see the thread now, but can't reply

                                  klaasvakie Great feedback.

                                  I gotta agree with you. His bends are great and when you're playing Gilmour... well you just can't without flawless bending. The double bends sound great, for sure. Definitely something I'd like to introduce to my playing.

                                  The gap between 2:00 and 2:50... it does look like he's counting. Would be interesting to know if he's just counting or if there's a clicktrack. Don't suppose you could ask him? ? Would be keen to see how he's dealing with that.

                                  With the 2 songs I tried learning recently, I found counting in my head to be far too unreliable. I'm sure it's a skill that can be developed but I imagine it takes years.

                                    NorioDS

                                    NorioDS With the 2 songs I tried learning recently, I found counting in my head to be far too unreliable. I'm sure it's a skill that can be developed but I imagine it takes years.

                                    The previous song I spent a bunch of time on was Brothers in Arms which also has a couple of fairly dead stretches in the beginning, not surprisingly I found my counting ability severely lacking. It is never completely dead though (like on Shine on you), so in the end I think I learned to listen for subtle changes in the synths in order to decide when to drop in. I am still not happy with my timing on that.

                                        NorioDS The gap between 2:00 and 2:50... it does look like he's counting. Would be interesting to know if he's just counting or if there's a clicktrack. Don't suppose you could ask him? ? Would be keen to see how he's dealing with that.

                                        So here is his reply:

                                        I totally missed the little hidden click the first time around ? The more you know ...