Wisdom: Live Forevermore - Solo

Hey GMC-ers! My band Wisdom will release a new album is a month's time. Like many bands, we've shot a video for one of our songs, "Live Forevermore". I've decided to show you guys how I came up with that little solo from that song.

First of all I want you to know that the riffs were made before the solo. I had a chord progression laid down and I knew I had very little time to make something interesting and unusual for most of the listeners and guitarists.

The first thing that came to me was the structure. I always think that the best sounding solos have a melody and some chops that are unusual. I've decided to build up a solo that slowly generates tension. The solo starts off in D minor. I played a simple melody that is catchy in the same key.

The following part contains the chords as follows: A#, G/B, C, A/C#. I started the solo with a pleasant melody, it would be very unwise of me to play something that is the total opposite of what I did there. So I decided it would sound good if I followed the chords using the root, the third an octave higher, and the root two octaves higher. The pedal-steelish-bends also help build up the tension. You can clearly feel that something's going to happen.

The first arpeggio part is very uncommon. I made it up evolving Paul Gilbert's string skipping arpeggios, played it in the D Hon-Kumoi-Joshi (3rd modal scale of the Hirayhosi) scale and added tapping. This sounds very exotic and definitely catches the listeners ears.

In the following section I just followed the chord progression (A#, C) with the Raga Savithri (2nd mode of the Hirayoshi) and came down in C major.

The last part is the most challenging one and is the very culmination of the solo. The last chord is an A major. I used the first two positions of the A major sweeping pattern and ended with a bended G note to A.

Techniques:
* Exotic Scales
* Hammer-ons
* Pull-offs
* Arpeggios
* Sweeping
* Bending
* Vibratos

Tuning:
* Standard D
* D - G - C - F - A - D
(From thick to thin string)

If you have any questions:
* Give feedback (upper-right-corner)
* My Personal Board
* General Forum

Remember, practice slow at first and eventually speed it up to the desired speed.
Have fun Practicing!/ Zsolt