@sairfingers Gordon, perhaps a first step worth considering is that Beginner Blues Solo study that I did from Grade 2, Module 13. It doesn’t require any bends, slides, vibrato, etc but is a first step in playing a specific lead in time with a backing.
Then while I am busy with this Topic Hijack …
Perhaps in interesting Topic for a post somewhere else, would be recommended solos for absolute beginners in lead play to learn. One suggestion I received, with the encouragement to also transcribe it, is the intro solo for Clapton’s Wonderful Tonight. Needless to say, playing that requires a few bends (not sure what else). Perhaps there may be a simple solo to learn for Knocking on Heaven’s Door (not necessarily Slash’s, though maybe that is also as simple as it gets, don’t know … Mari might know as I know she learned that solo when we did a collab production of the song).
Awesome song selection, Mari. You’re on your way with this one.
My advice is twofold:
Start practicing this pretty much exclusively with a metronome, or even better yet a drum beat or backing track (where you can adjust the tempo). You can begin working on the timing and phrasing and “feel” of the guitar lines.
Gary plays this with quite a bit of gain. If you want to perform it with a similar tone then I’d recommend dialing in a higher gain tone and practicing with it. Playing cleanly with a gainy tone is a skill, and I’d start working on that as soon as possible.
As a tangent, when recording electric guitar I’d try to get the amp volume high enough that you (and the listener) can’t hear the acoustic sound of your guitar and strings. Not strictly necessary at this point, but something to keep in mind. Hearing the acoustic sound of the instrument in an electric guitar recording is something that always “throws me off.” Might just be me, though.
Thanks you @DavidP . I think there’s a lot of us up for that self-deprecatory award Fluency, feel, accuracy, that is a very good summary of this learning process. Re the Gretsch, no I hadn’t considered it, but I can access more frets on the Strat and the song goes as high as a bend on the 18th on B and that would be very difficult on my Gretsch. I was using the bridge pup which is the humbucker, but I didn’t fuss with the amp at all. I have lots to learn there but after finding the perfect tone for a different song I am hopeful.
Yes I had listened to Kasper’s cover of the song, which was amazing. I do need to spend more time on pup selection and amp settings. I watched Justin’s lesson on Guitar Tone last night, it was just what I needed for this song.
Thanks Gordon. I’ve learned a few classic riffs but not too many solos. David has a good suggestion with Wonderful Tonight. KOHD took me an age to learn. Let it Be is a great one too, I know you like that song. I searched on YouTube for easy solos for guitarists and some good lists come up. Depending where you look all of these ones come up - and PW comes up too! Everything really is relative lol
No hijack forgiveness needed David, it sent me on a YouTube search and gave me a few great ideas. In general anyway though I like the kind of thinking that branches out, so hijacking posts doesn’t bother me.
Thanks Jason. I use Justin’s Time Trainer app when I’m practicing, so it’s very easy to change the tempo on that metronome. I like the way you talk about working on the ‘song’ playing to a metronome or beat, that makes perfect sense to me although I think some would disagree.
I will experiment with gain (and other settings) as I practice.
Re amp volume, I hadn’t thought about that relative to the acoustic sound of the guitar. I’ve been cautious with amp volume because our music room is right beside the living room. I might end up moving the amps downstairs.
Thanks Lieven, ‘brave’ and ‘foolhardy’ might be opposite sides of the same coin! But it’s an amazing song, I definitely like to stretch myself (without teetering over the edge too frequently into complete discouragement), and it’s I’ll say ‘real song’ practice for bends.
Yes @Richard_close2u there’s a couple of songs that will need to be played on my Gretsch
First collab with @TheMadman_tobyjenner went well, so who knows?
@mari you’re making good progress and this is a fiendish piece to get sounding even halfway decent.
I tried and fell somewhat flat a number of years ago.
I did record an acoustic backing track that you are welcome to play over. Gary Moore - Parisienne Walkways - Acoustic Backing Track - YouTube
I had an mp3 version shared somewhere in the webosphere but it has gone. I will have to dig in my back up drive vaults to see if I still have the original saved somewhere. You’d be more than welcome to it.
Thanks @Richard_close2u yes that’s a lovely backing track, I will use it in lieu of a metronome I found your lead cover too, bends really are challenging! Nice go at the super fast lick though.
Nice start on a challenging track! Don’t be fooled by the slow tempo into thinking it’s easy to cover (which I also don’t think you are )
I once saw someone comment on Gary Moores playing: “He’s difficult to copy when he’s playing fast, and he’s difficult to cover when he’s playing slow”.
There is so much in his “touch” and tone. Vibrato, bends and micro inflections.
What I noticed in your playing is that your bends are actually for the most part very accurate… and I could see that you registered when a few of them didn’t hit the mark exactly right, which indicates a good ear. So great job so far!
As for the tone. You definitely will want to use a humbucker. On a HSS strat you’ll have to use the bridge PU, but listening to the original I’m not sure Gary is on a neck PU anyway. But try dialing your tone knob back a bit, perhaps to 6-7. And despite there being quite some gain on the track a strat can often sound much “sweeter” if you dial the volume back just a touch… somewhere between 8 and 9. Then compensate on the amp to get the gain you need.
Note there is a huge difference between Gary’s live tone and the studio recording for this track. The studio version is actually not THAT gainy. The less gain you use, the more sweet the tone will sound… but the harder it will also be to make it sing.
In that Deep Purple cover I posted yesterday I was actually playing a strat style guitar on a bridge single coil pickup, and on a quite low gain amp. It was a bit challenging to make the solos sing for those exact reasons.
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Fluency, feel, accuracy, that is a very good summary of this learning process. Re the Gretsch, no I hadn’t considered it, but I can access more frets on the Strat and the song goes as high as a bend on the 18th on B and that would be very difficult on my Gretsch. I was using the bridge pup which is the humbucker, but I didn’t fuss with the amp at all. I have lots to learn there but after finding the perfect tone for a different song I am hopeful.
