Tag: Guitar Solo

Country Solo in A major

30/04/2022 Video Tab 2 Comments

Lighthearted Country Solo & Instrumental in A major. A bit of Rockabilly twang and Country Western Swing influence too! The guitar is my lake placid Fender Vintera Telecaster. Enjoy!

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Country Solo in A major

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country swing
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Featured Lick
Country Turnaround Lick

At the end of the B-section, I play this ‘bouncy’, country guitar lick on the turnaround (from the E chord back to the A). In pink, you can see how the melody of this country solo moves from the E  (12th fret on the e-string) to the A (5th fret on the e-string). Listen to the example below:

80s Game Rock Guitar Solo (+TAB)

28/11/2021 Video Tab No Comments

Original, heavy metal / hard rock guitar solo (155 BPM) in D minor, inspired partly by 80s Rock (Iron Maiden, Stratovarius and others), but mostly by Arcade game – boss fight – music!  Are you up for a challenge? 

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80s Game Rock Solo in Dm

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About this solo

This melodic rock solo in the key of D minor took a while to put together! In other words, I had to level up, both in playing and in editing skills to make everything work. e.g. playing the sweep-picking part ‘cleanly’ took more practice than anticipated. In fact, I re-recorded the entire video because I wasn’t happy with my first performance. Although – obviously – a lot can be corrected in the ‘editing’-phase, I like to keep these edits to a minimum, to keep things ‘real’ for you guys! Hopefully, this 80s game solo, called ‘Arcade’ is as fun and inspiring for you as it was for me. 

The 8-bit version of the solo (video-outro)

I know this is a bit of a gimmick, but I wanted to see If my guitar solo would work as an 8-bit game melody. Here is the 8-bit version I composed with the Magical 8-bit plugin. This was too much fun 🙂

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Classic Blues Rock in Cm (+TAB)

02/08/2021 Video Tab 3 Comments

Original, classic blues rock instrumental and solo heavily inspired by Dire Straits (Mark Knopfler), Fleetwood Mac, Eric Clapton, and others. Enjoy!

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Classic Blues Rock in Cm

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About The Track

This track in the key of C minor brings us the blues-inspired classic rock era of the 70s and 80s. The groove is reminiscent of Dire Straits, but more laid back. I’m a huge fan of Mark Knopfler’s playing, and – in that style – I tried to emphasize hybrid picking (playing with the pick AND fingers) and delicate details in the guitar playing while staying melodic and following the classic blues rock groove. The chorus has more of a Fleetwood-Mac vibe, with a recognizable motif of unison bends.  The middle section is – again – very much inspired by Dire Straits. See if you can spot a reference to Dire Straits in the background 😉

Featured Lick

A few times in this classic blues rock track, I play the above Cm pentatonic lick in the 8th position. This is a typical ‘reply’ or ‘relief’-lick in Mark Knopfler‘s playing. It serves to end a phrase or sequence in a solo.  Above the tab, you can see which notes are played with the pick (bracket = downstroke), and which ones I prefer hybrid picking (H.P). Alternatively, you can play the 8th fret on the G-string with an upstroke. Play a little vibrato on the 10th fret of the D-string and pull-off lightly to end the lick. 

I hope you enjoy this TAB and solo. Jam track is scheduled for release later this week,

Maarten

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Bluesy Funk Soul Guitar Solo in Gm

18/04/2021 Video Tab No Comments

Enjoy this bluesy funk soul guitar solo in Gm, called ‘Look Ahead’. Tabs here:

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Bluesy Funk Soul

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About the track

This track is inspired by groovy funk soul tracks from the seventies (for instance: James Brown, Curtis Mayfield, Temptations, Albert King, and TV themes like Shaft). I highly recommend to listen to these artists to find inspiration for your own, groovy funk soul guitar solo! The chords in my track follow a basic 12 bar blues with a minor 1 chord (G minor), which adds a Dorian flavor to the track, well suited for a funk track! 

Featured Lick
Classic blues response lick

I really love how blues musicians use call-and-response style licks. One of my favorite, classic ‘response’ style licks is this blues lick in G minor pentatonic. Play it with energy and emotion! In this funk soul guitar solo, I play it around 1:48 (in the video), when the Hammond organ crescendoes to transition to the IV chord.

Gear for this funk soul guitar solo:

I really enjoyed producing this track, although programming a VST instruments ‘groove’ is quite the challenge. There is a great book on how the great James Brown rhythm sections constructed their grooves and how it evolved through the decades, so this was a huge inspiration to write this track and funk soul guitar solo.

Here is all the gear I used:

  • Guitars: Gibson ES-335 (lead), Suhr Modern Pro (rhythm) 
  • Amp: Fractal AX-8, with an Autowah preset.
  • Effects: Eventide Spring, Soundtoys Phaser Mistress (only in part B)
  • Virtual instruments: -Bass: Spectrasonics Trilian -Drums: Steven Slate Drums 5.5 -Keys: XLN Addictive Keys Mark One, Arturia B-3 V2 -Brass: East-West Hollywood Pop Brass, -Violins: East-West Hollywood Strings
  • Extra loops Loopcloud.com
Do like the 80s more than the 70s?

Check out my 80s TV-theme guitar solo here.