Guitar How-To

If you want to learn guitar solos but your efforts are not getting you anywhere yet, try working on small sections of a solo at a time. The reason for getting into guitar solos in small chunks is to get your technique and understanding of the music flowing. If you have a tab for your solo, you are probably playing from the beginning, slowing down or rushing through the bits that are above your current technical ability and totally ignoring tempo.

So grab your tab and sit down without your guitar, and analyze the solo you are working on. Write down on the guitar tab the finger numbers above the fret numbers. You need to take your time here. You might need to grab your guitar and work out the fingering for some sections but at the end you will have your left hand fingering set in concrete.

When you are happy with your fingering, mark each note’s picking stroke beneath the fret numbers. An up stroke will be ^ and a down stroke will be v. So listen to your solo on the CD and work out whether you are doing strictly alternating up and down strokes or if you will be playing series of down strokes for emphasis.

Now you have a plan for your guitar solo, you follow it every time you sit down to practice. You use a metronome and start with a slow speed and increase the speed as your technique grows.

Here is a video lesson for part of Black Sabbath’s Iron Man . . .

You can get the full lessons for the solos plus tab and backing track here.

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