Better late than never, right?

It’s starting to become apparent that I can’t count on a free block of time at the studio anymore, but that’s a good thing!

I’m still going to try my best to bring you all another solo tutorial each week. Today’s was recorded in my room. The sound is a bit better, but the lighting is atrocious.

Anyway, 18 & Life: I think it’s safe to call this tune a classic, and this solo is great. Scotti Hill says he wanted to write a solo you could whistle, and I think he delivered. The phrases flow across the bars and changes wonderfully, and it’s super catchy.

Careful with that last lick. It’s not too hard, but don’t get lazy and phone it in.

I’ve known this solo for a long time, not sure why I waited so long to make a lesson for it.

It’s a lot of fun and a great workout for your string skipping arpeggios.

If you think you’re ready, give it a shot, but don’t bite off more than you can chew. It’s a tough one.

A couple of my students started working on this tune last week and I had to take a couple days off lessons to do the Copycats and Pro-fé-cia shows this weekend, which means I won’t be there to show them how to play the solo. So I decided to make it my solo video this week to help them get a head start!

I’ve never actually learned an entire Angus Young solo note-for-note before. There are some odd position shifts and bends in this one that really took me by surprise. The track is also flat! It’s about a quarter-tone off, so if you try playing along with the track and find that it doesn’t sound right, that’s why. I’ve got a pitch-fixed version of the song available here that you can play along with. It’s pretty fun and not terribly difficult, so have at it!

One of my students has been working on this song recently AND there’s another Copycats gig coming up next month, so I figured I’d use an old standby.

I typically improvise the solo in the middle (and I teach my students to do the same), but the intro is so iconic that you really can’t get away with anything but a note for note recreation.

I love punk music. I love surf music. So, naturally, Agent Orange is one of my favorites.

There isn’t much to this song. There’s the opening riff, a variation of it, and then a big E5 chord. Really easy to learn, but tons of fun to play.

Mike Palm crafted a great solo for this tune. It utilizes an F# major phrygian scale (1 b2 3 4 5 b6 7), a common melodic base for many surf tunes to great effect.

This solo has been blowing my mind since as long as I can remember. It is cookin’. I only discovered it was Jeff Baxter a few years ago, but it in no way surprised me (have you heard Reelin’ In The Years?)

Anyways, it’s a killer solo with great phrasing that very modestly stays inside the minor blues scale (except for one lick).

This is how it’s done, kids.

Another request this week: we’ve got Aces High by Iron Maiden. This is actually two separate solos (one played by Dave Murray, the other by Adrian Smith) but they are really easy to play back-to-back, which isn’t always the case with dueling solos.

Dave’s solo is in A minor, mostly sticking to quick pentatonic stuff (as Dave is wont to do) while Adrian’s is in  B minor with a couple blue notes.

Nothing to complicated, but a lot of fun.

As promised, here’s another solo for the week: Brad Nowell’s solo from Sublime’s “Santeria”.

I’ve always liked this solo; there’s one line in particular that I’m really fond of. Brad died pretty young, and this solo really makes you wonder how he would have developed as a soloist.