I've almost hit my 3rd year of playing guitar. I've been jamming with a couple of friends of mine, trying to get a band started and everything. I consider myself decent at the instrument, probably in the intermediate stage.
But some songs I've been learning have been really, really annoying me. The guitar solo of Sweet Child of Mine is perhaps my biggest example. I can play the song perfectly until Slash turns the Wah on and then it basically falls apart. I've started slow, increased the tempo by 1-3 a day, and still can't really get it at a satisfactory level. It's sort of discouraging my playing because I need to be learning other stuff and I'm kind of dwelling on it and unable to move forward or on.
Any advice you guys could give would be extremely helpful.
My advice is to play your own solo. We already have one Slash, we don't really need another.
Copying other guitarists is a great way to learn and get ideas. But the goal is to develop your own sound and style. So don't even try to copy Slash, play your own solo. Who knows, it might be better than the original!
If you know something better than Rock and Roll, I'd like to hear it - Jerry Lee Lewis
I'm in the same situation as you... more or less. 2+ years playing and sometimes a bit frustrated...
Regarding solos: I never try to mimic solos note by note, I don't know how to explain it (poor english, sorry) but what I do is this: I learn in which scale the solo is (e.g. E natural minor) and then do my own improvisated version trying to follow the main melody and riffs of the original one but adding my own stuff, so to speak. It works (for me at least) and it's fun... on the downside you never happen to play the same solo twice: so if the band you're in it's very picky and want you to play always to the exact note, without any room for improvisation... this 'method' won't work.
Also, Sweet Child of Mine is not an easy one.
Hope it helps :) Keep playing and have fun!
My advice is to play your own solo. We already have one Slash, we don't really need another.
Copying other guitarists is a great way to learn and get ideas. But the goal is to develop your own sound and style. So don't even try to copy Slash, play your own solo. Who knows, it might be better than the original!
Question for you about this then. If in a cover band, do you need to know the song's solo, or is improvising your own acceptable?
OK, another question. Take a couple of songs with some pretty strong leads (recognizable) like Shine On You Crazy Diamond (thinking about part 2 I think?) and Brothers In Arms. Does the same apply to that? These are not little solos so much as they are much bigger parts of the song.
Roy
"I wonder if a composer ever intentionally composed a piece that was physically impossible to play and stuck it away to be found years later after his death, knowing it would forever drive perfectionist musicians crazy." - George Carlin
For cover bands, it depends on the solo. Some solo's are thought of as an essential part of the song. Hendrix's solo in Purple Haze or Knopfler riffs on Sultans of Swing, for example, and deviating from those will quickly get you labeled as a "bad" cover band.
Other solo's are filler in a tune, and aren't thought of by the average listener as essential content. But even in these, you still need the solo to start and finish sounding as much like the original as possible -- simply so there is a certain continuity between a listener's expectations and what you deliver.
Of course, if what you're covering are Jazz standards, do what you want, no one listens to it anyway
"The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side." -- HST
Of course, if what you're covering are Jazz standards, do what you want, no one listens to it anyway
Hey man, Good jazz players can mess your head up with their amazing mastery of harmony and of their instrument. As long as you have an intermediate knowledge of music theory i don't see how anybody could not be amazed by well played jazz.
Although i suppose a lot of guys who can't be bothered learning their fretboard and getting some theory knowlege tend to get a bit threatened by guys who can improv intelligent complex solos that would take them a month to learn.
Tho i still like you coz of your wicked chord knowledge exercise.
Just be nice to jazz :)
Don't sweat it dude, just play!
Spides, I think he was picking on the typical music lover, in a sly, backhanded manner. Kind of like saying to someone, "You don't sweat much for a fat girl!".
Roy
"I wonder if a composer ever intentionally composed a piece that was physically impossible to play and stuck it away to be found years later after his death, knowing it would forever drive perfectionist musicians crazy." - George Carlin
yeah i think ur right.
I get a bit defensive of jazz coz lots of my friends like to call me an old dork for being into it.
That said i've read some of his other posts and i think he's a rad dude, didn't mean to sound nasty.
In fact you might say i illicited just the sort of response he was poking at lol... how awkward
Don't sweat it dude, just play!
Spides, I think he was picking on the typical music lover, in a sly, backhanded manner. Kind of like saying to someone, "You don't sweat much for a fat girl!".
Yeah, I think so too. Its kind of like my old guitar teacher. He first learned alot of blues and then transitioned into an excellent jazz guitarist. But he said when he started to play live and in clubs he had to drop the jazz and play blues and rock. No one wanted to hear the jazz stuff.
I dont listen to jazz much, but I would sit and listen to him for hours personally.
Jim
“The hardest thing in life is to know which bridge to cross and which to burn” - David Russell (Scottish classical Guitarist. b.1942)
When a song is characterized by a riff, then you have to play that riff fairly close to note to note, or people will not know the song you are playing. But the actual solo you should always put your own spin on it.
Now everybody is familiar with Jimi Hendrix's cover of All Along the Watchtower. But live he did not play it like his own studio version.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCwCBh0z3Hs&feature=related
I am willing to bet he played it differently every time he played it.
But now check out Neil Young's version:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_tJnj2j5kI
And neither of these versions sound like the original by Bob Dylan:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_ncQgjIlFM&feature=related
So you see, the pros cover songs all the time, but when they do, they play it their way.
If you know something better than Rock and Roll, I'd like to hear it - Jerry Lee Lewis
yeah i think ur right.
I get a bit defensive of jazz coz lots of my friends like to call me an old dork for being into it.
That said i've read some of his other posts and i think he's a rad dude, didn't mean to sound nasty.
In fact you might say i illicited just the sort of response he was poking at lol... how awkward
Nah, you had it right. You're new, so I'll catch you up. It's a well known fact around here that kingpatzer despises jazz and finds theory to be useless bookworm type stuff for people who can't play with emotion. And you know how much GrungeSunset hates Jimi Hendrix? Well, that's almost how much kingpatzer hates Django Reinhardt. Dude just plays power chords all day.
And you know how much GrungeSunset hates Jimi Hendrix? Well, that's almost how much kingpatzer hates Django Reinhardt. Dude just plays power chords all day.
:shock: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:
“The hardest thing in life is to know which bridge to cross and which to burn” - David Russell (Scottish classical Guitarist. b.1942)
lol sad thing is i'm obsessed with theory and jazz, do heaps of improv jams playing over changes, yet i also play in a pop punk band where i do nothing but play power chords all day so i can dig it any old how.
Cheers tho, i felt like a bit of a reactionary, made me feel a little less dumb.
Don't sweat it dude, just play!
