Help with Afterlife solo
- Thread starter Carl Stonehill
- Start date
Hey man I’m your guy!! It’s funny cause I’m working on this solo too right now. I’m going to be playing it at a live gig this summer. I’ll start out with technique: the techniques in the solo include sweep picking, alternate picking and legato type stuff. The key to getting up to speed is starting super slow. And I mean SUPER slow. If you aren’t familiar with sweep picking them I would take some time and get used to the basic motion before you tackle the solo. Before I started learning it I could sweep but not very fast. So what I did was I divided the solo into sections. The first section with the legato run in it, the second section with the sweeps, and the third section with the alternate picking shreddy runs in it. Start with the first section and just play along to a metronome. Maybe start out at 80 BPMS or whatever speed you can play it at. Do that until you get it up to speed and do the same with the other sections. I’m still working on this solo myself and I by all means aren’t even close to having it 100% down or up to speed. This solo takes some time to learn (I’m crazy for thinking I can learn the whole thing by July), and the biggest thing is TAKE YOUR TIME. Starting slow in the beginning and GRADUALY working the speed up really pays off in the end. And of course if your wanting to playing it standing up then practice that way cause sweeping and standing is kind of tricky ( for me at least) good luck man, let me know how it goes
The fast parts are mainly sweep picking and alternate picking. It’s one of those solos that you will only be able to play properly once you’ve mastered those two techniques. So just grab that metronome and start building it up slowly 
But I’d say just give it your best shot now and when you feel stuck, give it a rest come back later once you’ve built up your technique for a while.
Even if you can’t really pull it off, it’s still extremely good practice to transcribe solos by ear. Look it up on youtube and slow it down and try to pick out note for note what he does
If you haven’t done a lot of that before, it can seem like a daunting task at first, but it’s just something you get better and better at the more you do it and it really develops the ear.
But I’d say just give it your best shot now and when you feel stuck, give it a rest come back later once you’ve built up your technique for a while. Even if you can’t really pull it off, it’s still extremely good practice to transcribe solos by ear. Look it up on youtube and slow it down and try to pick out note for note what he does
If you haven’t done a lot of that before, it can seem like a daunting task at first, but it’s just something you get better and better at the more you do it and it really develops the ear.
D hopefully it isn’t too much to ask for. i’ll practice alternate and sweep picking in the meantime
