Learning Solos

[BadBoy House]

do most of you guys learn solos by slowing down the track or do you find it's better to just try and learn it from the tab by ear at full speed?

I got hold of amazing slow downer but I'm just interested in how others learn solos. That bit of software works well but I can't always be bothered to fire up my computer of an evening.

[stinger]

Slowing down the music is the greatest thing since the wheel. Back in the old days we we used to lift the needle on the record player and try to pick out the notes. The player was at half speed so everything is an octave lower. Not good for the needle or the record. And, some of the music is not tuned to 440. These slow downers can compensate for that. I think learning with a slow downer is better than learning from tabs. Tabs are faster obviously but I find I learn better when I figure it out myself. You end up doing a better job with phrasing and feel when you learn by ear I think.

[SiameseDreamer]

any tips where to lay hands on a good one???

[BadBoy House]

cheers.

I'll continue to use amazing slow downer which I'd highly recomend. It even let's you save the slowed down track to your iPod.

[specter1001]

where can i get a "slow downer"?

[armann]

!Slow down and transcribe with Roni Music software - slow down the speed of music without changing the pitch

[specter1001]

thanks

[Thundergod]

I "record" the song to my memory first... If I dont have the song-solo in my head I will spend a stupid amount of time going back and forth to nail the solo... and it will not come as desired.



I dont like those speed slowing gizmos.

I preffer to listen to the song as much as I can without going back... your brain works better that way, and doing this makes it easier to play the solo without pausing o getting stuck in a position, if you stop and rewind the song, your brain will subconciously record those stops too, and will command your hands to reproduce them, thus making it harder to nail the solo: you know your guitar's neck and notes, you know how to play, but if you dont have the song in your brain, it cant tell the hands what to do.

For example, I can nail any complete Iron Maiden song (including solos and riffs on both (now 3) guitars) because I have their songs in my head (favorite band). If you ask me to play a very slow solo to a song I have just listened once, it will be a little harder for me. If the solo is slow and easy, I may nail it in the second try, but if it is a medium to long solo I will need to listen to the song a lot and then come back to it, regardless of speed.

This happened to me recently, I was rehearsing with my (now) band, and they wanted to play AC/DCs "you shook me all night long"... which I hadnt listened in like 12 years and consists in a lot of bends and is very slow... so I had no idea of the solo... I only remembered how it started... I listened to the song and go the solo's notes at the first try, but I didnt get to play it as it should be played till I got the song on a CD and on my phone and listened to it while driving, eating, and doing whatever I had to do... only then the song was recorded into my memory and I could play it without pausing or doing funny bends in the solo.

Just my 0.02

[wkriski]

I love amazing slow downer because it goes down to 20%, while many only go to 50% (gee, that sounds something from Spinal Tap).
When transcribing a song, it's best to loop a small section and not slow it down to train your ears.
When learning a song you have music for, it's best to play through the song a few times, isolate the trouble spots and work on those areas. You need to be able to play it slowly before speeding it up. Speed will come when you can play it cleanly.
These processes get faster over time as you will build up a variety of skills.

[lp_junkie]

I just listen to the song a bunch of times figure out the key riffs, learn the rhythm parts and then just pick out the leads by ear. I have been doing it this way for 30 years, so now I can get songs down in about 20 minutes.

Knowing your fretboard helps, I know where the notes are when I hear them, even if I don't have a guitar handy I can still work it out in my head.

[jonesy]

Originally Posted by Thundergod

I "record" the song to my memory first... If I dont have the song-solo in my head I will spend a stupid amount of time going back and forth to nail the solo... and it will not come as desired.



I dont like those speed slowing gizmos.

I preffer to listen to the song as much as I can without going back... your brain works better that way, and doing this makes it easier to play the solo without pausing o getting stuck in a position, if you stop and rewind the song, your brain will subconciously record those stops too, and will command your hands to reproduce them, thus making it harder to nail the solo: you know your guitar's neck and notes, you know how to play, but if you dont have the song in your brain, it cant tell the hands what to do.

For example, I can nail any complete Iron Maiden song (including solos and riffs on both (now 3) guitars) because I have their songs in my head (favorite band). If you ask me to play a very slow solo to a song I have just listened once, it will be a little harder for me. If the solo is slow and easy, I may nail it in the second try, but if it is a medium to long solo I will need to listen to the song a lot and then come back to it, regardless of speed.

This happened to me recently, I was rehearsing with my (now) band, and they wanted to play AC/DCs "you shook me all night long"... which I hadnt listened in like 12 years and consists in a lot of bends and is very slow... so I had no idea of the solo... I only remembered how it started... I listened to the song and go the solo's notes at the first try, but I didnt get to play it as it should be played till I got the song on a CD and on my phone and listened to it while driving, eating, and doing whatever I had to do... only then the song was recorded into my memory and I could play it without pausing or doing funny bends in the solo.

Just my 0.02

+1 use your ears not gadgets

[jonesy]

Originally Posted by lp_junkie

I just listen to the song a bunch of times figure out the key riffs, learn the rhythm parts and then just pick out the leads by ear. I have been doing it this way for 30 years, so now I can get songs down in about 20 minutes.

Knowing your fretboard helps, I know where the notes are when I hear them, even if I don't have a guitar handy I can still work it out in my head.

+1 Knowing your fretboard really helps

[kluson]

I do it by listening and then replicating, usually not exactly.
I also study the intervals, the secret to breaking down solos are the musical intervals between notes

[Texas07R8]

The Digitech Jamman recording looper has the ability to slow down or speed up recorded loops while NOT CHANGING PITCH!

So you can dump a song from your ipod or whatever into the aux. input set the level and hit record. THen on play back you can listen to it at normal speed or tap the tempo button and slow it down, again it does not drop the pitch so you can play at regular speed pitch even at a crawl.

I love my Jamman, it comes with a small 128mb compact flash card good for 14 minutes of recording. It has 99 separate tracks so you can build a nice practice library of tunes if you upgrade to a 2GB card. I think that gives you about 6 hours of high quality music. You can keep adding layers to it too. not just once over but multiple layers. I've been very pleased with mine.

[mushroom-eater]

Thanks for the slow downer. I learn faster on tabs but it makes me dull on hearing. So by ear or reading consumes time but better.

[C Squared]

So many people rely so much on tabs that a LOT of people never bother to develop their ear.

Anything you use to help your ear training is a good idea. Eventually if you keep transcribing on your own you will use it less and less.

[GNR4EVR]

Originally Posted by BadBoy House

do most of you guys learn solos by slowing down the track or do you find it's better to just try and learn it from the tab by ear at full speed?

I got hold of amazing slow downer but I'm just interested in how others learn solos. That bit of software works well but I can't always be bothered to fire up my computer of an evening.

I can appreciate where this is coming from, and might just use it to supplement my TABS software in the future. Any tools that can help this 20+ year coming out of retirement guitar player reinvent the wheel will work for me...

P.S. Anither thing I am finding out- TABS are only as good as the interpreter, so unless youve got the approved books, the software isnt always 100% dead on.

[Splattle101]

Originally Posted by Thundergod

I "record" the song to my memory first... If I dont have the song-solo in my head I will spend a stupid amount of time going back and forth to nail the solo... and it will not come as desired.



I dont like those speed slowing gizmos.

I preffer to listen to the song as much as I can without going back... your brain works better that way, and doing this makes it easier to play the solo without pausing o getting stuck in a position, if you stop and rewind the song, your brain will subconciously record those stops too, and will command your hands to reproduce them, thus making it harder to nail the solo: you know your guitar's neck and notes, you know how to play, but if you dont have the song in your brain, it cant tell the hands what to do.

For example, I can nail any complete Iron Maiden song (including solos and riffs on both (now 3) guitars) because I have their songs in my head (favorite band). If you ask me to play a very slow solo to a song I have just listened once, it will be a little harder for me. If the solo is slow and easy, I may nail it in the second try, but if it is a medium to long solo I will need to listen to the song a lot and then come back to it, regardless of speed.

This happened to me recently, I was rehearsing with my (now) band, and they wanted to play AC/DCs "you shook me all night long"... which I hadnt listened in like 12 years and consists in a lot of bends and is very slow... so I had no idea of the solo... I only remembered how it started... I listened to the song and go the solo's notes at the first try, but I didnt get to play it as it should be played till I got the song on a CD and on my phone and listened to it while driving, eating, and doing whatever I had to do... only then the song was recorded into my memory and I could play it without pausing or doing funny bends in the solo.

Just my 0.02

This is good advice. You need to be able to hear the thing in your inner ear, and your brain works better with the whole thing than with individual itty bitty little bits, one at a time.

Consider this. If I hand you the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle one by one, it'd be a phreakin miracle if you were able to work out what the picture was, even if I gave them to in order and told you the order. However, put the 10,000 pieces together and you can look at it and see at a glance what the picture is. Your brain loves context.

That said, the slowery downery machine sounds cool. I would've liked one of those going through some of Brian May's stuff.

[heavybloozer]

well if i cant learn a solo from just watchin concert dvds or lsitening to my records over and over again(something i obviously do anyway) the theres always good ole hal leonard out there to lend me a helpin hand

[ellem52]

Also a GREAT resource... Lick Library. I have no affiliation with Lick Library but I bought one for someone trying to learn Little Wing and I was totally frustrated trying to teach them (for chris'sake it's not THAT hard to play)... anyway it totally worked.

[jerryo]

I got that Phase Trainer thing...also I piddle around till i find the pattern (mode) the

solo is in and go from there...If one could pull the vocals away from the trac they could sort of rip on the groove of the solo.

Phrase Trainer - Free software downloads and reviews - CNET Download.com

[lowe]

Just get an idea of what the solo is doing, and how it changes mood and such and just mess with it. they only time i want to play a solo not for note would be for like a video on the net, or a famous solo. like sweet child or paranoid, or one that everyone knows

[Silverbursted]

I just got one of these as an early XMAS present to myself, and it is perfect for slowing down without changing pitch, and it is very portable. Hell I listen to it in my car. Two button pushes and it loops at the desired tempo. Since getting this, I have learned the solos to two songs!!!
Buy TASCAM MP-GT1 Portable MP3 Guitar Trainer | Phrase Samplers | Musician's Friend

[axslinger]

I use "Speedupper", learn the solo, then when I have it nailed, note for note, I slow it down to normal so it's like playing twinkle, twinkle, little star.

[Geetarguy]

GuitarPro

[Belzeebub]

In the absence of tabs (like as if i were any good at it), i hit Youtube and search for videos of that song and learn it from there. Pause, rewind, play over and over. It also helps if there's a video cover done by someone else with the fretboard in focus so by that I can see which frets it is being played,etc.