Issues with learning faster solos

[Yosi Yamin]

Hey everybody! How are you all doin?
I wanted to ask for your opinions and tips about how to start playing faster solos, like the ones on Sheperd of fire, bat country, afterlife, second heartbeat etc’. I always seem to lose my concentration when I’m trying to learn them from tabs, since it seems so endless, and I never seem to get it even when I’m sitting in front of the tab for hours. I’ve been playing rhythm ever since I picked up the guitar and really want to be able to learn some lead, any tips on how would be appreciated!

 

[Ethan Keeling]

I would recommend Chris Zoopa. Hes on YouTube and gives very good lessons and does include the tabs if you needed them. He keeps you engaged too, at least for me he does. Once you’ve learnt it’s just perseverance with taking it slow with a metronome and with the music if you can slow the speed down on the internet.
Good luck mate!

 

[idssdi]

Let’s start at the beginning, how long have you been playing? Playing the fast stuff takes a significant amount of technique so it’s usually it’s not something you pick up easily when you haven’t been playing that long. Basically to start with fundamentals first start with just learning scales and be able to play those fast up and down, I know really boring but instead of just learning how to play some specific solos fast you’ll be able to play the fundamentals fast too and use is when improvising. As for concentration, try to take the solos per section. So first learn the first bar and when your able to do that comfortably learn how to do the second bar. When you are able to do the second bar try to link the first bar and second bar together before you move on to the third bar continue doing this with the whole solo by adding in sections one at a time. From the ones you mention Bat country seems to be the best one to start with since a pretty big part of that one is not that shreddy but more melody based so you wont be discouraged as quickly.
Hope it helps!

 

[Kfir Yaakovi]

Yosi brother! My advice is to play it slow again and again until you can level it up a bit. I couldn’t play almost any solo 2 months ago, but since I was practicing on picking, sweeping, eco picking slowly day after day I improved sevenfold!
We can always meet and jam together since we both are from Israel

 

[Yosi Yamin]

Ethan – I’ve been actually following Chris for some time! His tutorial for The Stage’s intro helped me a lot. Thank you so much!!

 

[Yosi Yamin]

Ids – I’ve been playing for about 6 years, but focused mainly on rhythm until now. Your advices are great, taking the solos by sections is a great idea and I’ll do that for sure.
I appreciate it so much brother!

 

[Yosi Yamin]

Kfir – Hell yeah dude! We should totally meet up and jam soon!

 

[Ethan Keeling]

No worries mate, I also quite like a channel called ‘RTM’. He does some good stuff too and easy lessons to follow. Learnt dear god solo through him, and his detailed tabs and slown down shots help alot.

 

[Calvin Phillips]

When you shred at that speed you’re not thinking about which notes your playing on it’s own. It’s usually in sets of triples or quads.. etc. So you’re counting in 3s or 4s. So youre really only thinking like one of those 3 or 4 notes (ideally the index finger) then it’s a matter of the run that’s being played.
If you cant think that far ahead in your playing simply slow it down until you dont have to think about it. Your muscles have to build up.

 

[Yosi Yamin]

I started working on the Sheperd of fire solo at a really slow tempo, but I believe it’s the farthest I’ve ever got with any solo of that style ever

 

[Ezequiel Romanko]

i may throw in something it’s not much but it may can help you a bit , what i usally do is learn by parts i mean the motives of the solos, not the entire solo, just for example the first 4 bars of the solo to complete like a secuence, once i memorized that i move on to the next and so, even you can play by parts and learn to play them at the original speed, starting slowly obviusly it may help you to starting learning that without being tired of learn all the solo by one. cuz it will be more complicated to remember faster.