Original Solo Help

[Jak Angelescu]

Hello everyone! We are working up another song for the studio and I was running over the solo that I already have written for it. The problem is, the song is at a 156 BPMs and there is a lot of 16th notes in it with a whole lot of bends. Although my bending strength has gotten better with my new technique for bending, and my speed picking has gotten better with my new picking technique, I am still finding it hard to do the entire song and do this solo as well. I don’t want to have a solo that I can’t play because I am fatigued by the time I get to the solo. The song has a lot of heavy rhythm work and is very taxing on the right hand. So I thought to myself that Testament has a lot of heavy rhythm word and yet Alex skolnick will still cop out blazing solos. But I’m not entirely sure if the BPMs in their songs are this fast all the time and I can’t recall one solo where the song is really fast and involved and he’s doing a lot of speed licks with constant 16th notes. So I sat down yesterday and really focused on it because I have been trying to get the solo up to speed for 2 years and I just don’t know if I have it in my capability to do this specific solo with this specific song. There literally isn’t any break rhythmically in the song. Your hand is constantly moving. Both hands are. I don’t want to write a solo that I can’t play live because I am fatigued from the rhythm work leading into it.
I came up with some other things last night that I thought were really cool. I just decided to put the speed up to 100%, and just play and utilize the stuff that I have learned here. I came up with some really cool stuff that wasn’t constant speed everywhere. So my question is, do you think it’s possible to have a minute long solo with almost constant 16th notes with a lot of bends at a 156 BPMs?

 

[idssdi]

Constant 16th notes is possible. In combination with bending I’m not so sure. It kinda depends on how long the bends are
What I’m wondering though is does it have to be constant 16th notes because that can be pretty fast maybe a similar melodic idea works for 8th notes as well. For example I’ll see you in my dreams by Django Reinhardt is 220 BPM and isn’t that shreddy even though the tempo is pretty fast

 

[Jak Angelescu]

You know that actually helps a lot! I’d never thought about doing different rhythmic counts. I’m gonna definitely take your advice and work on it tonight. Thanks buddy!

 

[Calvin Phillips]

Jak it looks like you already solved that problem of yours

 

[Sayonil Mitra]

I guess the problem is solved but here is my thought. Why not slow your entire song just during the solo. What I mean by this is, say your whole song is on 156 bpm but during the solo the tempo is 154 or 150 bpm. I am saying this because just today I discovered. Variable tempo was a thing back in the rock ages.

 

[Isaac Moss]

I like Ids’ idea if adding in different melodic ideas that should give your hands a rest! This would require changing up the song a bit but maybe you could add in a slow harmony section right before or maybe some easier rhythms that lead up to the solo like Master Of Puppets and even Afterlife.

 

[Isaac Moss]

*Of adding in