We all love a good guitar solo. Even if you're not particularly fond of Rock music as a genre, chances are you can appreciate a well placed, well structured solo.
However, it's easier than you may think to balls up a solo in the middle of a great song. It's not a cardinal sin but it's definitely the difference between your Free Birds and your I Want To Break Frees. Much like my piece detailing Dos and Don'ts of Compilation Albums, this post will look at the highs and lows of some solos along with common misconceptions and perhaps even a few underrated gems.
Naturally, you may disagree with some of my opinions regarding good/bad solos but hopefully, you'll agree with the points I'm trying to make about solos in general. Right, here we go!
DO get the first few notes right
It doesn't matter if you've got the next Hendrix playing lead and he reckons it's his magnum opus, if he gets those first few notes wrong then he may as well not bother. In fact, that's probably why the solo for "One Vision" - Queen is so short and shitty, because Brian May fucked up before it even began. Anyway, getting back on topic, this is quite a simple step but that doesn't mean it can't go wrong. "(Don't Fear) The Reaper" - Blue Oyster Cult is one of the few songs where I prefer the radio edit with the solo omitted and why's that? The dodgy start to the solo.
You're probably sat there thinking "But musical taste is subjective, how can you define what is and isn't a good start to a solo?" Good point. It's tough to define something that's around about 90% personal taste but the rule still applies. Don't be one of those few bands who mess up at the first hurdle, even though it probably won't affect the rest of the song provided it has a hell of a good riff to fall back on.
DO let your solo last the right amount of time
I would say a good solo lasts approximately the length of a verse and a chorus but there are many exceptions which are either longer or shorter than that combination. However, they still abode by this rule and found just the right amount of time to last before returning to the song. If your solo is too short, it may feel like all the build-up has been a waste of time, e.g. "Pull Me Under" - Dream Theater or "Master Of Puppets" - Metallica, whereas a solo that goes on and fucking on can be considered arrogant like the guitarist is just polishing his cock up and down the fretboard for his own ego, e.g. "Stranglehold" - Ted Nugent.
Compare these songs to others that have nailed the time frame for their instrumental. "Catch Your Train" - Scorpions is a tidy 22 seconds but considering the amount of work that's going on throughout the entire song, it's a perfect example of getting it just right in a designated solo-slot. Also "Wanted Dead Or Alive" - Bon Jovi. Bursts in after the second chorus and takes you neatly onto the third without disturbing the rhythm.
DO more than just "shred"
So many aspiring guitarists or young fans of the genre seem to think that the more complicated and furious a solo sounds, the better it is. Yeah, it demonstrates technical know-how but that means sweet F.A if you can't tie it together with a great melody and some self-control. Whilst these mental solos may be fun to play on Guitar Hero, they often fail to make Top 10 lists written by anyone above the age of 15. That being said, shredding is always welcome provided it doesn't make 100% of the solo.
Take "Rainbow In The Dark" - Dio, a song which goes all out and damn near busts a nut during the middle of the solo. However, it still takes a breather every now and then to replace a clusterfuck of notes with actual music. Compare this to the work of Orianthi or rather two of her more popular songs "According To You" and "Suffocated". The soloing is bland, soulless and there for the sake of it, not because it adds any power or depth to the song. They're also what I call "Roofie Solos" in that after listening to it, you can't remember anything that happened...all you know is that you've been screwed.
DON'T prematurely blow your load
OK, so we've established that you can show off your skills during your solo. Do you break straight into shredding like a greyhound at a track?
NO! Christ, no!
Build up to the shredding, give the listener a chance to grow accustomed to the sound of your guitar before you start wailing on them. There are plenty of songs with excellent solos that get progressively more intense until they peak, simmer down and return to the song again. To name a few:
"My Sharona" - The Knack
"Tornado Of Souls" - Megadeth
"A Farewell To Kings" - Rush
"Hitch A Ride" - Boston
Those are just some examples of songs with great solos that start out small before escalating towards greatness. How about some songs that do the complete opposite and go out guns blazing in the first bar, leaving the solo nowhere else to go and therefore plateauing at the worst possible part:
"Crazy Train" - Ozzy Osbourne
"Mr Crowley" - Ozzy Osbourne
"Believer" - Ozzy Osbourne
OK, so you get the picture. I've made my thoughts about Randy Rhoads clear as day on this blog and he's definitely at the top of the list of guitarists who get away with this shite.
DON'T recycle your material
Writing a good solo must be pretty difficult, presumably explaining why a lot of mainstream modern Hard Rock bands tend to skip them altogether. I can understand why some guitarists who are perhaps lacking the same imagination and talent as their idols resort to using similar riffs, hooks and/or licks across different songs. This especially applies to ones who are currently on their 12th album and have likely been told by a producer to listen to their older material and original influences to help catch the fire that they once had or some tosh.
However, what I can't understand is why some guitarists not only get away with but also feel happy knowing that they've recycled elements of a solo they've already used. If Randy Rhoads was the representative of the last item on this list, Joel O'Keeffe of Airbourne is the champion of this one. Even without trying, you'll stumble across songs on their second album, No Guts No Glory, starting with the same 2-3 sustain notes before breaking into a shred and some songs even have the same shredding pattern ("Born To Kill", "Raise The Flag" and "Back On The Bottle" to name a few).
Granted there are several solos that are slightly different, even if they are similar to OTHER solos he's recorded, and technically all of them are well played and fun to listen to but it still feels cheap as if he wanted to rush through the creative process regardless of how good the songs actually were. Besides, if other bands can come up with amazing solos several decades after their first album, it just shits on the quality of a group who have run out of ideas just over five years into their career*.
DON'T just repeat the vocal melody on guitar
So the last point was about not reusing material and this point is also about not reusing material, yes I recognise the irony or hypocrisy or whatever you want to call it. However, I still feel they deserve their own subheadings. Both are examples of laziness in songwriting whereas this adds even less to the song. At least an existing solo might work better with the other track or introduce the listener to a brilliant piece of music in case they only hear one of the songs but using the same vocal refrain on guitar is just rehashing something that you can be 100% certain the listener has heard.
Perhaps this point has annoyed me so much because there's no sensible way you can defend it and yet it exists on songs that are critically acclaimed. The solo in "Smells Like Teen Spirit" - Nirvana is probably the most well known example. I can live with people insisting that the track is "good" in any way but when idiots start putting the solo anywhere near "Top Guitar Solo" lists, it feels like they're all in on some shite joke that I missed out on.
Other solos are unlikely to make the same level of acclaim but the earlier mentioned "I Want To Break Free" - Queen, "Madness" - Muse and "Back In The USSR" - The Beatles** are also guilty of phoning it in when it comes to the guitar solo. For the same reasons of the last point, it feels completely cheap and pisses all over the effort of the rest of the band. I can kind of understand guitarists feeling the need to copy the vocal line on a filler track when they're up against time constraints and can't come up with a good enough original solo but those songs are all fairly well known!
Anyway, that's a handy guide for any aspiring guitarists out there. Does it tell you how to write a hit or a guaranteed chart topping solo? No, although I imagine nailing your scales and arpeggios will do you a world of favours.
However, if you're in the middle of writing a solo, ask yourself if you've shamelessly plagiarised another tune or gone in guns blazing within the first few seconds. If you have, it's back to the fret board with you!
* In the interest of fairness, I should also mention that Airbourne aren't the only band who do/have done this. Not that anyone has listened to any of the other songs on The Final Countdown - Europe but "Rock The Night" and "Love Chaser" share almost exactly the same intro to the solo and damn near the same musical formula too. For this sin, they're doomed to be remembered for only one song despite having several others that are just as good if not better.
** Many years ago, I claimed "Back In The USSR" - The Beatles was one of my favourite guitar solos. However, I also claimed that the organ solo in "Highway Star" - Deep Purple was one of my favourite guitar solos so I think it's fair to say that I had no idea what I was talking about back then.
No comments:
Post a Comment