I’m looking for some inspiration! What songs are you currently learning?
I’ve been working on Billy Idol’s Speed and have all the rhythm parts down, just working on the solo.
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That’s cool. Is Steve Stevens his guitarist on that song?
Lately I’ve been wading into some Albert Lee territory, and I just learned his short solo on the recorded version of “Country Boy.” It was fun to learn, and I played it using mostly DWPS, although as we know he probably crosspicks it. Here’s my “slightly slower than Albert plays it” version:
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Yes mate Steve Stevens - I’m a massive fan of his playing. I think he’s very tasteful, has amazing tone, and can shred when he wants to.
Nice Albert Lee playing - I’ve never learnt any country stuff because the tempos put me off! haha!
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Feel free to post a video when you learn the tune! I’m not super familiar with Idol’s entire catalogue but I always liked Stevens. I’ve always thought of him as a very tasteful guitarist with great tone, attitude, and note selection. I still fairly regularly listen to the theme from “Top Gun.”
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I’ve always got a bunch of tunes on the go. I was doing some Savatage tunes (24 Hours Ago, Holocaust, Dungeons Are Calling, Power of the Night) but most of the solos are above my level. Only one I could really hack my way through was the intro solo to Hall Of The Mountain King.
Lately I’ve been doing a lot of Dio stuff and learning Vivan Cambell solos which are a little more my speed. Holy Diver, Last In Line, We Rock and King Of Rock And Roll were on the block first. It wasn’t until I started working on these tunes that I realized how big of an impact Vivians playing had on me when I was a teenager–now that I’ve been learning his stuff I can see a lot of ideas and melodic phrasing that I must have subconsciously lifted from the Last In Line album over the years.
I try to learn lots of songs and work on my ear but I probably spend most of my time writing my own stuff
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Yeah I had been working on Holy Diver, I’ve nearly got the solo down. I will record a video and upload.
I like Vivian’s playing in that era a lot - loads of great riffs and solos!
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I’ve been working on Fracture by King Crimson. It’s crosspicked and the slower sections are in the whole tone scale so they sound really cool. The fast sections are mind bending. It’s a really cool study in modulating the same lick in different positions.
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That’s an incredible undertaking. Are you using tab to learn it?
Always made me laugh/cringe when I’d see that song online credited to random famous guitar players. Top Gun soundtrack was actually one of the first few cassettes I bought back in the day.
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This may sound ridiculous but whenever I have to fly somewhere, at some point during the flight I’ll cue up the “Top Gun” theme and hit “play” whenever the plane banks hard left or right. Great tune and a great soundtrack overall!
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I’m trying to write small etudes containing the various techniques I’m working on (DWPS at the moment). They end up sounding a bit like ripoffs from the CTC material 
Here is a recent bluesy one, I know you people are nice so I left warts and all!
I think I need to work on timing a bit more, when I listen back to it I have the impression that I’m going ahead of the beat (typical guitaristic sin)
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Sounds good man! lol
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Brahms Hungarian Dance №5 ))
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Hold the line toto
The trooper iron maiden
Both way over my capabilitys, but i know how to play them slowly!!!
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I am currently giving Paul Gilbert’s interpretation of the Bach Partita in Dm a try. It’s got plenty of nice picking exercises in it. Not sure if I have what it takes to play the whole thing. But I think it’s less boring that just practicing patterns.
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I must take a look at that tune for picking practice.
The solos in The Trooper are some of the most tastefully composed solos ever IMO.
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Yeah, i like it a lot as well. I also love their lead sound. Something i have not been able to achieve yet.
I’m just having troubles with the second and third lick of the first solo.
The rest is getting there!!
I’ve been working on Round and Round, and Way Cool Jr by Ratt. Both songs aren’t really technically challenging picking wise, but they do have lots of great legato type lines which I love. They are lots of fun to play.