Update for Apr-May/2025 - first real solo
Picked-up Smoke on the Water in late April. While I knew the main riff (badly) for may years, I have Justin’s lesson to thank for showing how to play it correctly, along with the other parts of the song.
Not long after learning it I decided to try the solo, which did not seem overly complicated at first. Well, it is and it isn’t, there is A TON of bending, which is something I haven’t really came across yet in the course (still consolidating Grade 2), and also there are some phrases on it that fell insanely fast for my skills.
Still, I’m making progress, as noted in a recent exchange with @Kasper, who provided very good tips to speed it up (and plays it very well himself)
The tab printout I use while practicing is a mess, from all of the places where I changed notes to other positions, in order to make the fingering more approachable (already cleaned it up, just need to print again)
As of May 13th 2025, I can play the whole base guitar part fairly ok, and the whole solo, but that one up to 70-80% of full tempo. My goal now is to keep practicing until I get that up to 100% with a passable performance, then I’ll capture an AVOYP of the whole thing. Should take a few more weeks.