Talk:Guitar solo

Changes
I made some significant changes here... hope I didn't annoy whoever did the nice job of writing the original article. I felt the rock-specific stuff needed to be clearly separated from the more general stuff, and I hope I did that. I also liked the fact that the article mentioned the minor pentatonic as an important scale in rock solos, and decided to expand on that a bit. Finally, I started a list of jazz guitarists.

Two things I didn't want to do straight off the bat:

1. I hate the descriptions of Hendrix, Zappa etc at the beginning fo the rock-specific section. I think these are just plain wrong, or at least very subjective. Anyone object if I completely rewrite this para?

2. IMHO the list of rock guitarists is way too long. We should have maybe up to a dozen historically important players and move this list into a separate "list of rock guitarists" page. It has far too many obscure names on it to be useful here.

Let me know what you think about these as I suspect they may be more controversial than my other changes.

Ornette 17:08, 30 September 2005 (UTC)


 * Thanks for the changes, and I hope you can spare some more time on the article. Regarding 1) Not at all, please do, and 2) Agreed. &mdash; Matt Crypto 14:10, 1 October 2005 (UTC)

Also -- any objection to removing the troll at the top of this discussion?

Ornette 13:41, 1 October 2005 (UTC)
 * Done. &mdash; Matt Crypto 14:10, 1 October 2005 (UTC)

Also -- is the comment at the top of this discussion genuine (in which case it's an example of why this page shouldn't degenerate into a list of 'my favourite heavy metal guitarists') or is it just a troll?

Ornette 14:00, 1 October 2005 (UTC)
 * Hard to be certain, but it has little to do with the topic of writing an encyclopedia article, so I think we're better without it. &mdash; Matt Crypto 14:10, 1 October 2005 (UTC)

Hi Matt -- we collided while I was in the midst of another big-ish reorganisation -- I've tried to take account of your change but pls check to make sure I didn't mess up your intention. I'd better leave this alone for a while now...

Ornette 14:56, 1 October 2005 (UTC)

Removed Billy Corgan and Kurt Cobain as notable soloists, because neither is notable in the least for their solo ability.

As "promised", I've moved the "notable soloists" lists to other pages. I think the result is a bit cleaner. Ornette 16:07, 2 November 2005 (UTC)

Spinal Tap?
No discussion of the guitar solo can be complete without some mention of the classic scene in This Is Spinal Tap where Nigel Tufnel plays a solo scraping a violin across his guitar. Someone wanna write this up? A screen cap from the film would be good too, which I'd do except my copy of the film was stolen by junkie scumbags. Shermozle 10:43, 12 December 2005 (UTC)

i thought that was jimmy page of led zeppelin??? unless the guy from spinal tap copied him. --JBrocksthehouse (talk) 03:02, 18 February 2010 (UTC)

Removed a commercial link
I removed a link to a web site run by a guitar teacher and selling instructional materials. There are a lot of sites offering this kind of service and it would be inappropriate for Wikipedia to promote any particular one. Ornette 16:22, 7 April 2006 (UTC)

bass solos need their own page
i was surprised by the redirect, as they are often quite different. at least a stub would be nice. Joeyramoney 19:16, 10 June 2006 (UTC)

Agreed. I don't think they belong here either. Vytal 05:16, 12 November 2007 (UTC)

Bass solos: "Although the solos are usually just the same set of notes used for the song, they are repeated quickly and played on a quicker tempo." Whats this crap? Bass solos surely need their own professionally done page. I am ready to begin one but would it be alright to remove all info from this page and start one afresh?Leif edling (talk) 07:45, 19 March 2008 (UTC)

Definitely needs to be on a seperate page. Anyone wanna sign up? Guitarplayer001 (talk) 02:49, 18 May 2008 (UTC)

longest guitar solo??
Where the hell did this come from: "The longest recorded guitar solo in history is in Free Bird by Lynyrd Skynyrd, at 4 minutes, 12 seconds"? There are tons of longer recorded solos. Look at any live Zeppelin or Cream album, for one.
 * There's also the 6-minute guitar solo at the end of CCR's "I Heard It through the Grapevine". &mdash;Gm1121983 01:39, 31 July 2007 (UTC)

The second solo [generally agreed to be performed by Dickey Betts] in the Allman Brothers Band "Mountain Jam" on "Eat a Peach" is significantly longer than 4:12.ROG 19 14:16, 16 October 2007 (UTC)

At Cunning Stunts, Jason Newsted did a bass solo clocking 5:12 -- PXK    T   /C  12:55, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

Grunge solos
The article says that the guitar solo lost popularity in the late eighties, when in fact guitar solos were still prominent in the early nineties during the grunge era. I think the guitar solo lost popularity starting with post-grunge in the mid-nineties.

SoLowRockerMan: While I agree with you that they weren't exactly less popular, but the extened and highly musical solos from 80s metal disappeared (I have heard these termed "extended solos"). Bottom line: they are fundamentally different from what many people consider to be guitar solos even though they are still viable. This point needs clarification.

SoLowRockerMan (talk) 07:56, 2 June 2008 (UTC)

Proposed Reformating
This article should probably be renamed Rock Solos instead of being too guitar centric. Perhaps including mention of piano solos (a la Jerry lee lewis?), synth solos (Van Halen/Yngwie Malmsteen), and bass solos (Billy Sheehan). What this article should probably be about is the concept and role that instumental solos played in the developement of Rock and metal (regardless of instrument) Justinmeister 15:26, 5 October 2006 (UTC)

I disagree. There is already a page about instrumental solos, I don't think there needs to be a rock solos page. Guitarplayer001 (talk) 02:51, 18 May 2008 (UTC)

Fair use criteria
The use of images not in compliance with our fair-use criteria or our policy on nonfree content is not appropriate, and the images have been removed. Please do not restore them. — M o e   ε  18:46, 13 August 2007 (UTC)

Cliff never used a pick
i edited the part about punk and heavy metal bass solos which implied that cliff burton used a pick to solo... he didnt. Leif edling 11:53, 13 November 2007 (UTC)

Bass on My Generation
John Entwistle never used a rickenbacker bass on my generation, it is widely known that he used the cheap danelectro long horn bass, wich he had to buy several times since the strings broke very easily and the cost of the bass was inferior to the price of the strings for that particular instrument. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 151.56.152.241 (talk) 18:53, 14 March 2008 (UTC)

It's me again, I found out on this site http://www.thewho.net/whotabs/equipment/bass/equip-entwistlegear-60-66.html that he recorded that solo on a Fender Jazz Bass. All the danelectros he bought had problems with the strings, and even the last one didn't made it through the studio's door since one string busted just before he went to record that bass part. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 151.56.162.232 (talk) 22:33, 14 March 2008 (UTC)

Nothing about Dream Theater for the Bass Solo section?
I believe that John Myung of Dream Theater is one of the first, if not the first person to implement use of two hand tapping in bass solos. I think he maybe should be mentioned? ALSO I still think that Bass Solos should have it's own page. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Guitarplayer001 (talk • contribs) 02:54, 18 May 2008 (UTC)

Sweep picking
Get rid of the sweep picking animated gif/video. At best post a link, or at least ref to it in the article. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 122.107.105.182 (talk) 14:51, 2 July 2008 (UTC)


 * Why? Hyacinth (talk) 08:42, 27 April 2010 (UTC)

History section?
I just moved some history here from T-Bone Walker, and it seems to me like history should have its own section here, before the rock section. I don't have the time/knowledge to more to get it started, other than to drop names like Les Paul (duh!), maybe Arthur Smith, and Louis Jordan's guitarist Carl Hogan, whom Chuck Berry has cited as an influence. --John_Abbe (talk) 01:45, 2 November 2008 (UTC)

Bass solo addition
I think it would be a great addition and a historical necessity to include the following in this topic:
 * John McVie of Fleetwod Mac performed a notable bass solo on The Chain from the 1977 record-setting Rumours album.

I believe the placement would be ideal under the following sentence as:
 * Cliff Burton's well known solo (Anesthesia) Pulling Teeth is featured, and is considered his greatest work by many. John McVie of Fleetwod Mac performed a notable bass solo on The Chain from the 1977 record-setting Rumours album.

Comments and input please. Source> back of the Rumours album cover. Master Tape (talk) 18:05, 15 February 2010 (UTC)

Guitar solos in the 21st century
I may not be reading this article properly, but will somebody tell me if guitar solos in rock music are becoming popular again in the 21st century? And is the art of guitar soloing considered a dying breed? Mr. Brain (talk) 04:58, 13 March 2010 (UTC)

nonsense piled on nonsense
Let's begin with a somewhat basic question: what the hell is meant by solo?

Is a guitar that repeats a melody line "a solo"? Explain.

If that is indeed "a solo," then how is every vocal line not also "a solo"? Explain. (After all, having a song carried by one voice rather than a choral ensemble ought to be as significant as a guitarist one-noting away.)

Is a repeated riff (one- or two-string, say) "a solo"? Explain.

If not, does it become "a solo" if it's only played once in a track or composition? Explain.

Is an instrumental "a solo"? Explain.

Is one or more bars of a guitarist hammering away at elementary chords "a solo"? Explain.

(FWIW, in the studio we used terms like "guitar break" and "guitar fill" if that's what the songwriter originally had in mind.) Weeb Dingle (talk) 16:39, 31 January 2019 (UTC)


 * I think all your questions really need to be answered by the writer, but maybe he just wants to introduce the solo form of the guitar, which is not only one kind of guitar, but I think that the instrumental can also be solo. For example, the instrument I learned myself is percussion, which contains many instruments, and the instruments inside can be played solo or together. TTKelly (talk) 04:03, 27 May 2022 (UTC)

Necessity in the "Rock" section
Hello! I am just thinking out loud here, but I am wondering how necessary the second paragraph in the "rock" section is. I feel like a simple sentence could suffice whereabouts a solo is generally placed within the structure of the song, without necessarily explaining the whole verse-chorus structure. Perhaps linking to an article on musical structure might be more appropriate than getting into it here. Casualorangejuicefan (talk) 02:51, 23 March 2022 (UTC)casualorangejuicefan