Guitar solo
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In popular music, a guitar solo is a melodic passage, section, or entire piece of music written for
an electric guitar or an acoustic guitar. Guitar solos, which sometimes contain varying degrees of
improvisation, are used in many styles of popular music such as blues, swing, jazz, jazz fusion,
rock and metal. Guitar solos are also used in classical music forms such as chamber music and
concertos.[citation needed]
Guitar solos range from unaccompanied works for a single guitar to compositions with
accompaniment from other instruments. The accompaniment musicians for a guitar solo can
range from a small ensemble such as a jazz quartet or a rock band, to a large ensemble such as an
orchestra or big band. Unaccompanied acoustic guitar music is found in folk and classical music
dating as far back as the instrument has existed, and the use of an acoustic guitar as a solo voice
within an ensemble dates back at least to the Baroque concerto.
Contents
[hide]
1 Rock music
2 Bass guitar solos
3 See also
4 Bibliography
5 References
6 External links
Rock music[edit]
Even though guitar solos are used in a wide range of genres, the term guitar solo often refers
specifically to the rock music genre. The dramatic, amplified electric guitar solo has become a
characteristic part of rock music. Since the 1960s, electric guitarists have often altered the timbre
of their guitar adding electronic guitar effects such as reverb, distortion, delay, and chorus to
make the sound fuller and add harmonic overtones.
Rock bands sometimes have two guitarists, designated "lead" and "rhythm", with the lead
player performing the solos while the "rhythm" player accompanies with chords or riffs. Most
examples of rock music are based around songs in very traditional forms. The main formal
features are therefore verses, choruses, and bridges. The guitar solo is usually the most
significant instrumental section of a mainstream rock song. In other rock-related genres, such as
pop and dance music, the synthesizer usually plays this role.
This use of a guitar instrumental interlude in rock music has its roots in blues musicians such as
John Lee Hooker, Muddy Waters and T-Bone Walker. Ernest Tubb's 1940 honky tonk classic,
"Walking the Floor over You" was the first "hit" recording to feature and highlight a solo by a
standard electric guitarthough earlier hits featured electric lap steel guitars. Blues master Lonnie
Johnson had also recorded at least one on electric guitar, but his innovation was neither much
noted nor influential. These pioneers in turn influenced solos in rhythm and blues (e.g., Bo
Diddley), rock and roll (e.g. Chuck Berry) and more recent forms of music.
In the classic verse-chorus form, it often falls between the second chorus and third verse.
Sometimes extended guitar solos are used as a songs outro, such as Radioheads "Paranoid
Android", Lynyrd Skynyrds "Free Bird", Pink Floyds "Comfortably Numb", Guns N' Roses
"November Rain", Metallicas "Fade to Black", Led Zeppelins "Black Dog", Journey's "Who's
Crying Now", The Beatles "While My Guitar Gently Weeps", The Rolling Stones "Sympathy
for the Devil", Pearl Jams "Alive", Red Hot Chili Peppers "Dani California", Creams "White
Room", AC/DCs "Let There Be Rock", Outlaws "Green Grass and High Tides", The Alan
Parsons Projects "Eye in the Sky" and Eagles "Hotel California". Solos can take place in the
intro, such as "Voodoo Child (Slight Return)" by Jimi Hendrix, "Since I've Been Loving You" by
Led Zeppelin, "One" by Metallica, "Lazy" by Deep Purple, "I Want It All" by Queen, "Johnny B.
Goode" by Chuck Berry, "Don't Take Me Alive" by Steely Dan, "Raised on Rock" by Scorpions
and "Wish You Were Here" by Pink Floyd.
The use of guitar solos in hard rock and heavy metal was notable during the 1980s, when rapidfire "shredding" solos were common; a virtuostic lead guitarist of a band might be more wellknown than the singer. During this time the use of techniques such as harmonics became more
widely used. Later, guitarists who had developed considerable technical facility began to release
albums which consisted only of guitar compositions. Guitar solos in popular music went out of
fashion in the middle 1990s,[1] coinciding with the rise in popularity of nu metal and grunge. Nu
metal differed significantly from previous subgenres of metal and abandoned guitar solos
altogether, except for a few rare lead fills here and there, whilst grunge did not wholly abandon
solos and included them from time to time. Guitar solos likewise became less prominent in many
pop and popular rock music styles; either being trimmed down to a short four-bar transition or
omitted entirely, in a vast departure from the heavy usage of solos in classic rock music from the
1960s, 1970s, 1980s, and early 1990s. Classic rock revival music heavily features soloing, along
with classic rock bands that are still active, as of 2012.
Occasionally, there will be a two-part guitar solo with both rhythm and lead guitar taking solos:
(e.g. "Master of Puppets" by Metallica), or dual solos with both lead and rhythm playing
complementary solos such as with Twisted Sisters "30", Iron Maiden's "Hallowed Be Thy
Name", "The Trooper" and Metallica's "The Four Horsemen", or Megadeth's "Mechanix". For
some rock bands harmonised dual lead guitar solos are part of their signature sound, such as
Wishbone Ash. This was first introduced by the Allman Brothers Band and made popular in their
album At Fillmore East.
Bass guitar solos[edit]
While bass guitar solos are not common in popular music, some bands also include bass solos in
some songs, particularly heavy metal, funk, and progressive rock bands. Some genres use bass
guitar solos in most songs, such as jazz bands or jazz fusion groups. Bass solos are also common
in certain styles of punk music. In a rock context, bass guitar solos are structured and performed
in a similar fashion as rock guitar solos, often with the musical accompaniment from the verse or
chorus sections. While bass guitar solos appear on few studio albums from rock or pop bands,
genres such as progressive rock, fusion-influenced rock, and some types of heavy metal are more
likely to include bass solos, both in studio albums and in live performances.
Bass solos are performed using a range of different techniques, such as plucking or
fingerpicking. In the 1960s, The Who's bassist, John Entwistle, performed a bass break on the
song "My Generation" using a plectrum, though he intended to use his fingershe just wasn't
able to drop the plectrum quickly enough. This is considered by many as one of the first bass
solos in rock music, and also one of the most recognizable. John Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin, on
"Good Times Bad Times", the first song on their first album, uses two bass solos in an
influentially dynamic way, as a bridge (when the band drops out after the choruses) to the next
verse (after the first chorus) and the guitar solo-driven coda (after the third chorus). Queen's
bassist, John Deacon, occasionally played bass solos, notably in "Under Pressure" or "Liar". In
the 1970s, Aerosmith's bassist, Tom Hamilton, played a bass intro on the song "Sweet Emotion"
from their album Toys in the Attic. On thrash metal group Metallica's 1983 debut Kill Em All,
bassist Cliff Burton's well known solo "(Anesthesia) Pulling Teeth" is featured, and is considered
his greatest work by many.[who?] John McVie of Fleetwood Mac performed a notable bass solo on
"The Chain" from the record-setting 1977 album Rumours.
Manowar's bassist Joey DeMaio uses special piccolo bass for his extremely fast bass solos like
"Sting of the Bumblebee" and "William's Tale". Green Day bassist Mike Dirnt played a bass solo
on the song "No One Knows" from the 1992 album Kerplunk! and on the song "Makeout Party"
from the 2012 album Dos!. U2 includes a bass solo most notably on "Gloria", in which Adam
Clayton utilizes several playing techniques. Bassist Matt Freeman of Rancid has a very speedy,
guitar-like bass solo in the song "Maxwell Murder". Blink-182's "Voyeur" has a bass solo, which
is featured on both their studio album Dude Ranch & their live album The Mark, Tom and Travis
Show (The Enema Strikes Back!), in which they must "prepare for the bass solo".
Heavy metal bass players such as Geezer Butler (Black Sabbath), Alex Webster (Cannibal
Corpse), Cliff Burton (Metallica), jazz fusion bassist Jaco Pastorius (Weather Report), and Les
Claypool (Primus, Blind Illusion) used chime-like harmonics and rapid plucking techniques in
their bass solos. Geddy Lee of Rush performed a number of solos, most notably in "YYZ". Also,
in both published Van Halen concert videos, Michael Anthony performs unique maneuvers and
actions during his solos. Funk bassists such as Larry Graham began using slapping and popping
techniques for their bass solos, which coupled a percussive thumb-slapping technique of the
lower strings with an aggressive finger-snap of the higher strings, often in rhythmic alternation.
The slapping and popping technique incorporates a large number of muted (or 'ghost' tones) to
normal notes to add to the rhythmic effect. Slapping and popping solos were prominent in 1980s
pop and R&B, and they are still used by some 2000s-era funk and Latin bands.
When playing bass solos, hard rock and heavy metal bassists sometimes use bass effects such as
fuzz bass or wah-wah pedals to produce a more pronounced sound. Notably, Cliff Burton of
Metallica used both distortion and wah-wah. Due to the lower range of the bass, bass guitar solos
usually have a much lighter accompaniment than solos for other instruments. In some cases, the
bass guitar solo is unaccompanied, or accompanied only by the drums.
See also[edit]
Guitar portal
Drum solo
Solo (music)
Air guitar - a form of dance and movement in which the performer pretends to play
rock/heavy metal-style electric guitar solos
Riff
Bibliography[edit]
Goetz, Philip, ed. (1990). Encyclopdia Britannica 5 (Fifteenth ed.). Chicago. p. 982.
ISBN 0-85229-511-1.
References[edit]
1.
Jump up ^ http://www.leewilsonmusic.com
External links[edit]
Top 100 Guitar Solos of All Time
Real Guitar Solo
Guitar Solo covers with tab
