Little game so that we can help each other become better musicians by augmenting our musical vocabulary 
Rules
I’ll start with Carry On My Wayward Son by Kansas. The main riff [approx. 0:15-0:40] is just so cool!
This should be a fairly accurate lesson by Carl Brown:
Cool idea for a thread Tommo!
Andy Timmons - Electric Gypsy
One of my all time favorite players, this track has some proper mojo going on.
The lessons are conveniently fragmented.
Great idea tommo! @Twangsta Andy is a true master, his songs are great material for any guitar player who wants to go deeper into technique and feel over the instrument.
I’ll post a classic one, written by one of the first guitarists who inspired me to be passionate about guitar and music in general.
Many great sections inside that song, the main riff is a “must” for hard rock players.
Great idea for a thread @tommo!
The song that made me need to play guitar was Crossroads by Cream. While not really suitable for beginners, it was one of the first songs that my former guitar teacher taught me, albeit with some simplifications. I came back to the piece years later and tried to copy every subtlety and nuance in Eric Clapton’s solos, and I feel this was hugely important for me.
Again, here’s an excellent series of lessons from Carl Brown on the song:
Also, I have to include this video lesson on the solos by Chelsea Constable, she nails them.
I haven’t learned many solos/songs for a while now, I just fell out of the habit of doing it. Lately I’ve been wanting to relearn some things I used to play and get them under my fingers again.
High on the list for me were Desert Rose and Manhattan by Eric Johnson, neither of which I’ve played in more than 10 years (I actually can’t believe it has been that long). Most of my old notes are at my mother’s house and I don’t really have time at the moment to transcribe them for myself. It turns out that GuitarLessons365 has lesssons on both of those tunes, which I wouldn’t have realised if not for this thread. I guess I’ve no excuses now!
So many.
Is saying “Eruption” kind of cheating? Then I shall cheat like the scoundrel I am. Other than EVH, I can’t think of a better rendition than Pete Thorn’s, and he has a series of great videos on YouTube.
Regardless of style, I think that every electric guitar player should thoroughly absorb the first solo of Comfortably Numb, and get everything they can from it: the vibrato, the timing, the rhythmic choices, the note selection.
We all want to shred, we all want to unleash our aggression and burn it up, but without a solid base to draw on, I think we’re building castles made of sand. Myself included in that assessment! Cheers to all, jz
Great thread idea, Tommo!
I guess the one I’d suggrest is actually a couple songs all in one - Jimi’s “Voodoo Child (slight return)”, in particular the main riff after the intro (which you should learn anyway since it’s awesome), but then take that back in time a bit to stuff like Muddy Waters’ “Rollin’ Stone/Catfish Blues.” There’s a LOT of rock and roll history embedded in this riff.
It’s cool hearing how this riff evolved in Jimi’s own playing, too - from his cover of “Catfish Blues” on the Jimi: Blues compilation, to the non-slight-return version of Voodoo Chile earlier on Electric Ladyland or Voodoo Chile Blues from again the Jimi: Blues comp, to the incredibly heavy and hard hitting faster “slight return” version that closes the album.
Its a pretty seminal blues riff, something anyone playing rock with even a shred of bluesy influence should know, and I think watching it evolve carries a lot of pretty cool lessons, as well.
I’m a metalhead, but I will spare you the heaviest stuff.
Instead I raise you this:
Mastodon - Blood and thunder. Iconic riff, simple yet interesting solo.
Pardon my playing, I was not too tight player back then.
Sorry, forgot to post the tabs:
These are mostly correct, I could argue about some harmonies in the solo part, but otherwise it’s decent
Hungry by White Lion!
Killer riff. Not too fast but so tasty. Vito Bratta had an incredible ability to have full songs of straight killer with no filler. Everything fits, nothing is unnecessary. Any part of the song is great.
Didn’t find any good lessons for this song. (Didn’t look very hard) I learnt it by ear. Maybe I’ll do one
This pretty much started my hybrid picking journey cause I wanted to play it so bad with minimal fingerpicking skills.
Brilliant idea for a thread.
This is an awesome riff and a cool solo that’s not too hard to learn. One of my favourites to play on guitar.
Three songs I learned a ton from: ”Rest in peace”, ”Play with me” and ”Get the funk out”: the blend of arpeggios, blues frenzy and tasty melodies with smart licks… Nuno is a killer!
Yeah to so much of this. I would have gone for more popular stuff on some of the artists. CrazyTrain instead of Mr Crowley. Sultans is a always a good one. Wait, When the Children Cry or Radar Love for White lion. Kansas is a classic riff. All worth learning.
I’ll add All Blues.
All blues for sure. There ain’t no phrasing without it, unless yiur classical based, Indian or Western 
I assumed he was talking about this:
Thank you all for your contributions!
I feel like we need some “easier” songs in here, almost all of the above are pretty ambitious
So bring on some “easy” (but great sounding) tunes and don’t forget to include a tab or lesson!
Ah right, no tab, :lol:
This is roughly what Jimi’s doing for Voodoo Child - the riff is based around an E major chord, though with liberal use of E minor tones and a ton of just aggressive raking.
|-----0--------0------------0----------0----3-3-----|
|-----0--------0------------0----------0----3-3-----|
|-1---1--------1-2b4rp0-----1----------1------------|
|-2--------2------------2---x-----0h2---------------|
|-2-------------------------x-----------------------|
|-0-----3b--------------------3b-----------------b3-|Catfish Blues, at least per his version on the Jimi: Blues album, goes something like this:
|--------------0---------------x--------|
|--------------0---------------x--------|
|----------------2br4r2p0------x---x----|
|-----tr(0h2)-------------2----x---x----|
|----------------------------------x----|
|-3b-------------------------------x----|
And the Muddy Waters version starts off with one of those bends, but settles into a version of this, with the chords heavily muted:
|--------------------------------------------|
|--------------------------------------------|
|-1---1---1---2b4r2p0---1---1---1------------|
|-2---2---2----------2--2---2---2---------2--|
|-2---2---2-------------2---2---2------------|
|-0---0---0-------------0---0---0---0-3b-----|This is one of those riffs where it’s as much about the feel as the notes, but it’s pretty cool.
Since this is Cracking the Code, here’s a John Petrucci riff tabbed and performed by Evan Bradley.
To build (picking) chops, learning this whole song is more motivating that drilling exercises for hours. You can email Evan for a complete tab book of Images and Words (and other DT albums). His email is in the YT video description.
Have fun
@induction Haha. I was definitely talking about the Miles Davis tune. But learning all the blues is also an admirable goal;). I’m thinking @Twangsta was being cheeky.
The dude is pretty intense! Great player
Thanks for the share, it’s my fav DT album, also the first one I heard.
If you want to build phrasing vocabulary, here’s a solo by Per Nilsson. The player covering it is Morgan Reid; tabs in YT video description.
