Hey guys, i'm a noobie around here, and ive been playing guitar for about a year, i'd say im not bad, but i play mostly rythm and it bugs the hell outta me, my friend whose been ploaying aslong as i have, maybe less, can already pull off the solo for master of puppets..well most of it, and the solo for stairway, now i have to admit hes a bit of a virtuoso but i was wondering, do you guys have any tips and tricks for learning solos, techniques software, basic songs to learn from, anything that you could tell me i would love to hear, and i already know it takes quitew a bit of patience. my equipment is pretty basic, a crappy little amp, a jay turser guitar, but im getting a flying-v soon and im saving up for some pedals and a new amp, im looking at a crate. once again thanks for everything
-Matt

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Simply put, no.

I just comes down to practice. Practice scales, and practice the solo in question. Start slow, increase speed, but never go so fast you lose accuracy, keep it all in the same tempo, even though some parts may be easy.

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alright man thanks do you have any suggestions for good basic solos/scales, and is their a difference between chromatic and normal scales? or is chromatic the same thing? thanks again

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Theres a thread uptop that says "Scales and Sweeps" that has the basic scales and sweeps in it. Chormatics are more for traning and you usually will never use them to solo with. Also check out a metronome to become fast faster. PM if you have any questions.

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A couple of years ago I asked the same question to some people in a guitar chat room and they told me to listen to CoB for guidance. I had heard of CoB but never actually heard their music. I went out and bought the "Hatebreeder" cd and heard their solos. This was a bad idea, I then realized how much I sucked. Instead of guiding me toward playing better solos, it spat at my face and said "FUCK YOU". But I do love a good challange and I sat down for hours trying to play the solo in "Downfall". To this day I can't play it as good as Alexi but I can make my own crazy solos. So in the end, it did help me.

Hail

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Practice is all you need. After a year and a half of playing there was no solo I couldn't play....not to brag but I had no life and played guitar for up to 16 hours a day.

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I'd rather practice a couple of hours a day for about 5-6 years instead.

Anyway, when I'm learning solo I do some steps.

1. Download the tab (very important)
2. Listen to the song while following the tab with my eyes and finger.
3. Start playing the whole solo, just to get a feel at it, but real slow.
4. Divide the solo into small parts, and learn them one at a time.
5. Play them for about 15-30 min a day. If you got some time increase it as you like.
6. Start putting the small parts together. Learn to switch part in a fluid way.
7. You have now learned the solo!

I can't come with anymore tips now, the only complete solo i know is Black Sabbaths Iron Man. I know most of the Metal Heart and are just about to start on the Paranoid.

One more thing, don't call him a virtuos and better than you, that doesn't mean he's better on guitar, just cause he's got a better ear for music, which is learnable so just keep at it and practice.

dont be put off if and let it get you down if your mates better than you. i know people who are better than me. i know people who are better than me at certain things, and i know im better at some things theyre not.
its taken me about 10 months to crack the solo in ozzys bark at the moon. ive still got one bar to master.

i learnt a solo in 2 days over christmas. ace of spades. try it. if you dont like it, being able to play it helps confidence and is a good starting point.

I am probably the worst guitar player on here...but I have to say, practice is the only way to succeed. And practice every day. Something I never really thought of...cause I never had the benefit of a good teacher, was stretching out my hands. I was so fucking ate up (that and I never played with anyone) that I thought I had hand problems because I would start cramping after a short period of time. I never could reach those big chord shapes. Well you see where this was going. I never practice without stretching my hands really well. I still suck really bad at guitar, and cant play a single solo, but I still have fun riffing. Hey, people still need a decent rhythm guitarist.

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The one thing that helped me was in flames. say what you want about them but bjorn and jesper are excelent guitarist, look up some tab and practice practice practice

Also dude, try to get some song's from Dark Tranquility. Great band and have some sweet solos in some of their song's. Get a song called "Lethe" from them. At the beggining of that song it's really slow and has an acoustic guitar but then it gets heavy and all.
When your done with that get a song called "Sonnet" from a band named "Prayer For Cleansing." They are sweet band man, you will like it I am sure.

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Here's a really good link that has a couple lessons regarding soloing, scales, and improv:

http://www.cleverjoe.com/articles/pat1.html

That site isn't too bad, I need to try and read all of that. But do you guy's think it's pretty accurate, because a lot of shit on the net is all wrogn and teaches you stuff the wrong way.

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Get ur arse a metronome and start playing a solo at like 60 bpm, do this until uve got it nailed. Boringly slow, yes but then increse the speed by about 8bpm, and keep doing this till u got it nailed. as it gets faster increase the speed by slower increments like 2bpm. go all the way ... faster than the solo is on the record till u can play it a good bit faster then the CD. This way u will be accurate and fast. so if u play it live and the drummer goes on a sugar rush you wont struggle to keep up *cough* Kirk Hammet *cough* thats the advice i can give. If u want to write ur own solos ... well im still workin on that, come back to me in a year or so

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