Thursday, September 24, 2026

"Sweet William" guitar solo


This is solo #2 from James Shipway's guide to playing electric lead guitar, Blues Soloing. I'm playing over the tutorial track (played by Mr Shipway at performance speed) and it's not entirely trivial. It's a help to have his solo cueing me along.

The mistakes — at this early stage — are a bit excruciating: the bend not muted, which slowly drips away in frequency rather than being cut off; the wobbly pitch control; and the unsuppressed noise from other guitar strings. The pull-offs are still a work in progress.

Still, it's a benchmark. Solo #3 is a Claptonesque piece — Blues Brew — which segues from Strange Brew, the Cream number. Soon.


As I mentioned to my guitar tutor, Stewart, at our last lesson, I'm struck by just how much practice playing good, relaxed, competent lead guitar actually takes. The automaticity of playing is as hard to acquire as effortless driving, and invites comparable hours actually doing this. The guitarists I aspire to play as well as make their living playing and do it all the time. That's never going to be true for me.


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