J
Jak Angelescu
Guest
If I was to pick the hardest song in its entirety, well that’s hard. There’s certain songs that have in my opinion, the hardest PARTS… I think that may have to be “Sidewinder” only because of that psychotic acoustic solo at the end and the flamenco rasgueado technique Papa Gates uses. To actually learn a new style of guitar and then play that solo on the acoustic requires callouses of sheer metal. There are parts of songs that make them challenging, like The Stage’s ridiculously tricky intro. When I first heard the song I thought, “Who the hell thinks of that?!” I had never heard anything like it. But I think I’d have to agree with the majority here: Really anything off The Stage is going to be difficult. There’s odd timings, a lot of chord changes and voicings, and just to remember all those parts are like “what the hell”. I think one thing that also makes the solos off The Stage so difficult is that even the simple parts have such a FEEL to them. Like in the second solo of The Stage and Higher and well just every freaking song. So many people try to do the shreddiest stuff that Syn has but when his playing moves me the most is his ability to control his hands so well, slide up to notes with such an indescribable feel, his attack and his vibratos and bends. I see a billion guitarists that can shred the shreddy parts of his solos. But as soon as they go to play with feeling, it just lacks in my opinion. And the Stage album is drenched with that awesome lead approach he’s developed. Wordy answer, I know. But I just love his playing on that album so much it’s unbelievable to put in to words.
I absolutely love “The Stage” and the intro to that took me a good two months to nail down. If its of any help, I suggest practicing it with a towel (or something else) over the strings at the top of the neck close to the headstock which will get rid of any buzz from the other strings. This really helped me while I was trying to get it up to speed and once I felt confident, I took the towel off and worked on accuracy. It also boosts confidence a little bit when it sounds really clean 
. Hope this helps someone! Cheers!
. Hope this helps someone! Cheers!
