Hi. Does anyone have any tips for the solo to Afterlife?
- Thread starter Dylan Burley
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J
Jak Angelescu
Guest
Hey Dylan!
Can I ask why you chose Afterlife? That solo is INSANE and takes years for even the most advanced players. I think before you get overloaded and stressed you should reconsider the song. If you were learning it just for kicks or to improve, that’s great! But ultimately you seem to already be stressing yourself out and no matter how hard you practice (unless you literally dedicate 6-8 hours a day to that solo alone) you’re not going to get it solid enough to where you’re confident to perform it well.
So here’s my advice. You can do one of two things:
1. Learn the basic structure of the solo AS BEST AS YOU CAN. Get the parts down that are within your capability. And on the parts you struggle with, try to get creative and change them up to be something you CAN do. For example, when I had to perform Dio’s Holy Diver, there were a series of fast sixlets I couldn’t do AT ALL. No matter how often I practiced. I instead just did a serious of descending legato 16th notes using that same scale that the sixlets were out of. It was not the actual solo, but it conveyed the same message.
2. Pick a different song. I KNOW how much it’s so awesome for all of us to want to have that glory moment on stage. But you really shouldn’t stress and beat yourself up about this. You want to be able to challenge yourself but do stuff within your means to really shine on stage.
Best of luck!
Can I ask why you chose Afterlife? That solo is INSANE and takes years for even the most advanced players. I think before you get overloaded and stressed you should reconsider the song. If you were learning it just for kicks or to improve, that’s great! But ultimately you seem to already be stressing yourself out and no matter how hard you practice (unless you literally dedicate 6-8 hours a day to that solo alone) you’re not going to get it solid enough to where you’re confident to perform it well.
So here’s my advice. You can do one of two things:
1. Learn the basic structure of the solo AS BEST AS YOU CAN. Get the parts down that are within your capability. And on the parts you struggle with, try to get creative and change them up to be something you CAN do. For example, when I had to perform Dio’s Holy Diver, there were a series of fast sixlets I couldn’t do AT ALL. No matter how often I practiced. I instead just did a serious of descending legato 16th notes using that same scale that the sixlets were out of. It was not the actual solo, but it conveyed the same message.
2. Pick a different song. I KNOW how much it’s so awesome for all of us to want to have that glory moment on stage. But you really shouldn’t stress and beat yourself up about this. You want to be able to challenge yourself but do stuff within your means to really shine on stage.
Best of luck!
Here ya go buddy. Here are a couple of isolated tracks, one of JUST the afterlife guitar track so you can hear the solo without any other noise, JUST the drum track so you can practice the song and keep all the parts tight and in time(always follow the drummer, he/she is the backbone of the band), and then the guitars and drums together. I might post a video a little later of how to play the solo. Im pretty sure I have that legato part figured out exactly how its played on the album, but in all honesty, it’s pretty difficult to make it sound perfect. It’s all in the slides he does. Any way here they are-
Guitar only- https://drive.google.com/open?id=1PdbDWbeSt7M8UwmtAH2oQXWOIIOjiuOr
Drums only- https://drive.google.com/open?id=1lszmw5a45pxwkVqOhuRxbCS1VH6djOXy
Guitar and drums- https://drive.google.com/open?id=1-giV6TxztSI_b6XHBQDtyVUWlQkFCzIS
Guitar only- https://drive.google.com/open?id=1PdbDWbeSt7M8UwmtAH2oQXWOIIOjiuOr
Drums only- https://drive.google.com/open?id=1lszmw5a45pxwkVqOhuRxbCS1VH6djOXy
Guitar and drums- https://drive.google.com/open?id=1-giV6TxztSI_b6XHBQDtyVUWlQkFCzIS
I agree with Jak. That solo is so fast and it would take a long time to fully learn it and get the speed down. I’m not saying it’s impossible, but unless you already know it and have the speed down I wouldn’t play it. Especially if your wanting to play it in a month. I tried to learn it a couple months ago, I’ve only been playing lead for 2 years and I’m starting to realize that it’s going to take longer than I thought for me to learn that solo. So do what you want but, that solo requires A BUNCH of time to learn it properly
J
Jak Angelescu
Guest
I must be the only guitarist who doesn’t understand the Chris Zoupa hype. He gets things wrong, he teaches way too fast and not really thoroughly. He more so shows you how he plays a solo instead of actually TEACHING it.
Also, his touch is so anticlimactic. He cares more about blazing through solos than actually putting fire and passion into his playing.
I feel like I watch corpses smile with more passion than he plays.
Also, his touch is so anticlimactic. He cares more about blazing through solos than actually putting fire and passion into his playing.
I feel like I watch corpses smile with more passion than he plays.
I saw a couple people telling you not to perform this song, and honestly dude, I say go for it! Even if its a little too difficult to play perfectly, it’s a goal to reach for. There’s also a deadline that you have to meet and pull it all together for, and that’s how most music gigs run. Greg Howe had to learn Michael Jackson’s entire set basically in 3 days while he was packing and flying to make it to the show. Just do what you have to do to get them job done, regardless of obstacles and barriers.
J
Jak Angelescu
Guest
I agree with Christopher. You do the best you can. But i’m only making sure that if you DO mess up, you’re familiar enough with the solo to be able to recover.
I think it’s important to note though that Greg Howe had over 20 years under his belt of perfecting his lust for ear training before he auditioned for Michael Jackson. That worked in his favor for sure. But Dylan is significantly younger with a lot less years under his belt that may make this way more challenging.
It’s so inspirational to hear the HIStory tour tales, and I agree 1000% with Chris for sure! Just make sure you have it up to a point that if you stumble you can recover because that solo has so many parts crammed into it, it may be difficult.
I think it’s important to note though that Greg Howe had over 20 years under his belt of perfecting his lust for ear training before he auditioned for Michael Jackson. That worked in his favor for sure. But Dylan is significantly younger with a lot less years under his belt that may make this way more challenging.
It’s so inspirational to hear the HIStory tour tales, and I agree 1000% with Chris for sure! Just make sure you have it up to a point that if you stumble you can recover because that solo has so many parts crammed into it, it may be difficult.
Kudos to you Dylan just for choosing Afterlife Solo. I will agree with Jak. Still practice it, but go slow with it. That solo has a lot of techniques in them. So obviously it will take a long time to master it. I will add one link. It’s Syn’s very old video on youtube, if you notice carefully: At one point he explains the technique used to play the last lightning fast part of afterlife solo. Go to 2:11
G
Guest
Guest
It’s free, accurate, precise and gets quickly to the point. Spend an hour with Chris’ video and you’ll get closer to shredding speed, imagine having to figure out all that sweepy crazy fast stuff by yourself. You can spend hours to no end if you’re not experienced. Easier for blues and rock, not so much for this. I’m not quite sure what you’re expecting from Chris when you say he doesn’t actually teach, perhaps you can elaborate as it’s pretty vague what you specifically mean by teach. You want him to explain the theory, show you how to get the feel of the notes, explain in-depth how the solo was constructed? Because that takes a lot of time and effort and he is doing this for FREE. You don’t have to pay a dime. Investing his time into teaching these things to his private students seems a much sensibler option, especially considering he’s got a family to support. Developing the feel for the playing is your own job I’d say, he can show you the notes and what is played, but he can’t spend an eternity showing you every tiny little detail, that is totally up to you to figure out considering the price of his lessons.
EDIT: Responding to Jak’s comment about not understanding Chris hype. Why doesn’t this thing have easy quote replies.
EDIT: Responding to Jak’s comment about not understanding Chris hype. Why doesn’t this thing have easy quote replies.
J
Jak Angelescu
Guest
@Anes What I’m trying to say is that everyone acts like he is the by all end all for everything avenged sevenfold related for solo covers. He actually gets a lot of things wrong or even makes them more difficult than what they need to be. I understand that it’s free. But so is this school. And to be honest? I’ve seen more students talk about Chris Zupa on this school in the last 2 days than I’ve seen them talk about the lessons on the school in the last 3 months.
And yes I agree that there’s a lot that we have to take into account for our own playing. Like feel, for example like you said. But everything to learn the solos can be taught here in the school on these lessons. And so many students keep rushing to YouTube cover teachers instead of trying to, like you said, take things unto themselves to do them on their own. I’m not saying that Chris is a terrible guitarist. But I do feel that he, like many other guitarists, spend more time being Flashy and fast than actually putting feel into their playing. But that’s just my own opinion.
No need to make this into a thing. Everyone has whatever works for them. For me, it’s not Chris.
And yes I agree that there’s a lot that we have to take into account for our own playing. Like feel, for example like you said. But everything to learn the solos can be taught here in the school on these lessons. And so many students keep rushing to YouTube cover teachers instead of trying to, like you said, take things unto themselves to do them on their own. I’m not saying that Chris is a terrible guitarist. But I do feel that he, like many other guitarists, spend more time being Flashy and fast than actually putting feel into their playing. But that’s just my own opinion.
No need to make this into a thing. Everyone has whatever works for them. For me, it’s not Chris.
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