When you start learning to play guitar, you envision yourself shredding like a rock star in 2 weeks, only to realize that it's not as easy as it looks.
But fear not!
Once you have the basics down, there are plenty of easy to play guitar solos from famous songs you can learn. Songs by Red Hot Chili Peppers, Green Day, The Beatles, Eric Clapton, etc.
I absolutely recommend learning solos from early on, since each one gives you a chance to advance your technique and develop your unique playing style.
Learning how to play awesome guitar solos is much more fun than going up and down scales in my opinion (as a guitar teacher of 15+ years). Scales do have their place, but learning real songs is super important. It keeps you motivated and engaged.
As you learn each solo, you will want to pay attention to these 4 things:
- Keep it slow at first, concentrate on hitting the right notes. Speed will come with time and practice. You want to learn to play well, not sloppy-fast. The way to really advance is to push yourself to nail the solo before moving on to a new one.
- Learn chunks of the solo, not the entire thing all in one. Some of these solos are very long, so tackle just a few bars at a time, and put it all together when you can.
- Perfect your lead guitar technique as you learn. After all, that is why you are learning the solo in the first place, to get better. Make sure your bends are spot on target, your slides are smooth, and your trills are loud and clear.
- Tone counts a lot with many of these solos. You will see that even though you can play the solo, it just doesn't sound right without dialing in the tone used in the original track. Spend some time getting to know not just your amp, but also the tone of the different pickups on your guitar, and the volume & tone knobs. As for effects, you will usually want to add some reverb to create a sense of space (except for funk).
Now let's go through my list of the best guitar solos for beginner and intermediate guitar players. Read more