This one was a loooong time coming. I started practicing this song in the end of April, and the rhythm guitar was not very complicated to learn. So, I decided to attempt the solo. And it took me a few weeks to learn it completely at a leisurely 60% tempo, and then almost forever to be able to play it at full tempo.
While I spent longer than planned learning the solo, it was a great experience; in the process I had to switch some of the phrases around to make the fingering easier, and also opted for some simplifications, skipping some of the bends.
On the topic of bends, I can do them passably well playing slowly, but at full tempo (like on this recording) I cannot yet get them on tune (not even close). But at some point one has to stop and move on, so I recorded it “as-is” to capture my current abilities. Since I have not yet come across bends in the JG course, I’m giving myself a pass, considering that “advanced material”
Great job Claudio, there’s quite a lot of technique in bends, as you are already tackling pieces requiring bends, I’d suggest you look at the lessons on bending so that you get your technique backed in right from the get go.
That’s definitely an achievement, Claudio! Very well played. The rhythm part is solid and the solo is great. It’s by far not the easiest one out there, so props to you for attempting it and succeeding (for your current level).
By way of documenting, I also uploaded a piece that has just the solo part, not mixed with a backing track. I almost did not do it, but thought it will be good to leave it here and come back a year from now and see where I was able to improve
In this video there are three segments:
playing at 80% tempo: that was my “sweet spot” for practice after I got it under my fingers (still excusing the bends*)
playing at 80% tempo, but then speeding it up to 100% tempo: initially that’s what I thought I’d have to do for the recording, as I was not able to play it at 100% for the longest time. But at some point I managed to do it passably well and decided to not use the speed-up version; still, I saved it here because it is interesting to compare against the first clip
(*) on the topic of bends: in the regular course it seems that this is covered only on grade 5. I may have to skip ahead to that lesson (and the other in the “techniques” course) to make sure I do it right and don’t acquire any bad habits
That was great stuff Claudio! Don’t knock yourself about the bends - this is a Ritchie Blackmore solo for heaven’s sake - it’s never going to be easy for anyone
Looking at the 80% tempo version, at some points, the vibrato could do with a little polishing - there are some good Justin lessons on this.
The technique in the bends looks right - wrist rotation, but they’re slightly flat. If you want, you could experiment with dropping down a string gauge to see if that makes them easier. I used to play with 10s, but swapped down to 9s because it was less hard work!
Hi Claudio,
Already doing great and you have written a good and logical story … keep going furter indeed and come back to it much later … great time frame for the place you are now, great job … keep on going
Greetings
Probably has to be the same scale length to feel it. Because I now have two guitars with 10s and 24,75" scale. one with 9s and 25,5" scale and 9s don’t really feel easier. I might even say that 10s feel better on my fingers since they’re not as thin.
Yes in my case it was a strat I swapped from 10s to 9s. It made it so much easier that I was actually overbending at first and had to dial back the force a bit.
Thanks for pointing me to that one! For some reason when I searched I only found the one from Grade 5 that I linked above. This lesson from Grade 4 is interesting and the whole module being oriented towards Blues, I think I’ll skip ahead and do this one next, then get back to my scheduled content
and you have written a good and logical story 
… keep going furter indeed and come back to it much later … great time frame for the place you are now, great job … keep on going 
