music What Makes a Good Guitar Solo?

[Rolls Royce 606]

In your mind, what do you look for in a guitar solo to make it truly great. For me, I look for the amount of emotion put into the solo. When I hear a solo that has lots of shredding, I'm usually just impressed with it. However, when I hear a solo with lots of emotion, I usually respond "my...GOD!" or am at a loss of words. For example, take this song. The solo is at 3:00, it's short, but it left me awestruck, and is one of my all time favorites.

[DusK 1,264]

A guitar solo should be 100% musical substance, something that often comes as a result of emotion when expressed by a creative individual. Too many young guitarists focus entirely on things that should really be an after thought, like sweeping and tapping, completeing forgoing things key and rhythm, and it ends up sounding contrived.

[DeiStar 248]

A great solo doesn't consist of a bunch of random riffs and chords being played frantically.

 

I'd say a great solo is just a catchy and melodic solo that it's friendly to the ear and pleasant to hear.

 

This, for example, I think is a great solo: (starts at 1:35)

 

[MVC NVMXD JVRXD 2,406]

Recently, I've discovered it's often the atmosphere it creates, not necessarily the technical proficiency. Though I do love me some shredding.

For example, every post-rock song ever would be ruined if instead of a mellow slew of notes for a guitar solo, the solos were replaced with a Buckethead-esque tapping adventure. Atmosphere, baby.

[Dusty Soul 2,611]

A solo should flow well with the music. It doesn't have to be fast as long as the guitarist is playing from the heart. That's why I really don't look up to, nor think highly of Yngwei Malmsteen, because he plays it, but honestly the way he plays it is hollow. Those people that feel the music going through their entire bodies, to where it makes them go ape-shit crazy (Angus) or just shake their heads to the rhythm (Hendrix), they really know how to play. Jimi Hendrix hardly played in key, and yet his guitar playing gets named the best, this is because his solos came from his heart.

[~Asuka <3~ 867]

I value a rapid dash of notes all over the place, but the best guitar solos, at least to me, are mid tempo emotional pieces. For example, the solos in "Have a Cigar" and "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" are beautiful. When appropriate, a slew of notes played at fast tempos can also be great, most commonly seen in thrash metal.

 

In short, it basically has to either fit the music, or create an emotional sonisphere.