Chords for How-to Play An Amazing Guitar Solo w/Triumph's Rik Emmett

[N] _ _ Hi, I'm Rick Emmett from Triumph, and we're here to talk a little bit [Ebm] about lead guitar soloing, [B] which is maybe a bit of a lost art.
[C] Certainly there's not as many records that have guitar solos as there used [D] to be.
Keith [C] Moon once said that a good concert [Ab] set was start with a [Eb] bang, end with a bang, and then [B] everything in the middle doesn't matter.
And so, you know, a guitar solo can kind of sort [Dbm] of be like that too.
It really should have a good [Eb]
starting note, and guys that I've played in [Db] bands with would always say, you know, when the solo comes, [D] like, really make a nice definitive statement.
[Bb] And so whenever I start, I want to have a note that has a lot of expression to it.
And one of the things that I [Db] learned early on was a thing [Eb] about over bending.
So [E] a bend is always a good thing to start with.
So if I [Cm] was playing in Kiev and I started a solo with this note, _ _
[E] _ that nice bent note.
[A] _ _
[F] But I warm it up with vibrato after I [Em] do it because it gives it character, [D] gives it personality.
It's not just [A] boring.
_ _ Now it [E] starts to sing [G] a little bit.
_ _ [B] _ _ _
That vibrato, that laughing [Eb] kind of quality, that's the thing that sort of makes the notes jump out when you start.
But the over bend is instead of just, [A] I might go [B] like, _ so [Em] _ _ [A] _ [B] _ _ [G] _
_ _ _ [Gb] instead of bending just one tone, [E] I'm bending a [G] couple.
_ _ _ [Eb] That's a minor third.
[G] _ _ _ [E] _ _
[Eb] And [Db] I'm sorry I make faces, but [Bb] I can't help it.
That's [B] what guitar players do.
When you play [Db] this note, you [Gb] have to make this face.
_ [Eb] _
[Em] It's just in the rule [G] book.
_ [C] Once [Eb] you're into a solo, the next thing you're trying to do is [G] just kind of capture [Eb] an emotional feeling of the song.
So for myself, I might pay [E] attention to what the melody was that the singer [Eb] was [C] singing, [D] what maybe the main theme of the song was.
And [Eb] I wouldn't want to [F] necessarily [E] play it just exact.
I would look [F] to, it's like theme and variations.
You sort of figure out a way to give [Db] it a little bit of variety [Eb] or color.
[A] Then if I was trying to develop the solo, then I would think, okay, so now I'm supposed to [Eb] maybe show off some chops or get a little busier, _ _ _ [Gb] ratchet up the energy that's going [Gm] on.
So now I might employ techniques like pull [G] offs to [D] get more notes in shorter spaces of time.
[Gb] _ _
_ [A] _ _ _ [E] _ Use kind of scales to [Em] build upon. _ _ _ _ _
[F] That kind of stuff.
[A] And that would create [E] the energy.
And now you're getting towards the [Ab] ending.
So to go back to the Keith Moon thing, [Gb] you start with something [E] good and you end with something good.
You look for something that _ caps the solo for the end.
So you might, I don't know, I might use a [B] two string bend. _ _
[G] _ _ _ It has a real truck [Eb] brakes [F] kind of _ [A] sound to it.
That [E] works.
You know, there's other ones. _
_ [A] _ _ _ Something like that.
I think the mistake that a [D] lot of guitar players [Eb] make with solos is they think, oh, I have to [D] show how great I am right from the beginning [E] and I have to play really fast.
It's not his speed that makes [Eb] Eddie Van Halen a great guitar player.
It's [E] the fact that his feel [Db] is so great and his ability to [D] hit the right notes in the right places.
So, you know, _ there are easy things [Eb] to do to make lots of notes happen.
[G] Like [B] you can play _ arpeggios that pull [Em] off to open. _ _ _
[B] And [C] that's [Eb] it gives energy [F] without necessarily being [E] overly crazy busy.
[F] As soon as I start running double [A] picked kind of.
[Em] _ _ [Am] _ _
[D] And these are [G] flurries of notes.
[Em] _ [Eb] Flurries of notes shouldn't exist as the [Bbm] main statement.
They should only exist to get you from one place to the other.
[Gbm] There's guys that teach jazz guitar, say, you know, [Eb] if you get yourself paint yourself [D] into a corner, you're only ever one fret away from solving your problem because that's kind of how music works.
[E] And in rock guitar for rock [B] soloing, one of the easy ways to be able to if you paint yourself into a corner, there's little tricks that you [D] can use.
And one of them would be a pick slide, you know.
So [Gb] your fingers are getting tired because you've been wanking away for so long that, oh, my God, you know, you're [D] you're out of ideas and your hand is sore.
So you do [A] one of these things where you use the edge of the pick and [Gb] you just kind of. _ _
It's great sound.
_ _ [Eb] And I start fast, so I get high pitch and then I slow [Gb] down. _ _
_ _ _ [Dbm] _ _ _ [Gb] You've heard, you know, tons of guitar players do it, but it's kind of a cool thing. _
_ _ _ _ Just create sound [A] effects.
You know, another one is a little slide off some things like there's things where you just give it a [Gb] so I'm playing a blues kind of [Bm] _
_ _ [F] _ _ [D] _ _ _ _
_ _ little [Eb] slides like glissandos.
And, you know, _ [Bm] I'm _ _ _ _
_ _ _ [B] _ [Bm] _ _ [E] _ _
_ [F] also [D] doing a thing there where I'm [E] doing edge of pick harmonics.
So instead of a note just [D] being.
_ [A] _ _ _
_ _ All along a [E] string's length, there [B] are places where you can [D] pick it where they're like they're harmonic [E] nodes.
So if the edge of the pick [D] hits in a place where [Gbm] _ _ [G] _ _
[A] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ [D] _ _ Billy [C] Gibbons of ZZ Top was a guy that does a lot of that and [Db] Brian [D] May of [B] Queen uses a coin to play.
And so he uses [Gbm] the.
[B] _ _ _ _
[A] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ [D] You [B] can hear how there's [C] like two octaves up.
There's [B] something there that's dogs are beginning to bark all over the [N] neighborhood.
_ _ _ I miss [D] guitar solos, _ but I always liked it when [Gb] songs had [F] solos because solos functioned in the same way that a bridge [Eb] functions in a song.
[D] It gives you [Bb] a vacation from the song a little bit.
And the solo to me [D] was like this, this second vacation that would happen in a tune.
And I really [A] liked him, but [F] we don't get him as [Db] much. _
[E] _ But, you know, I think fashion is kind of like [Db] a wheel [D] or maybe like the [C] pendulum of a clock.
You know, it goes out of fashion.
It'll come back.
You know, [E] you [Gb] can't stop people that play like [B] David [C] Gilmour and Alex [Db] Lifeson [C] and Billy [Bb] Gibbons.
And, you [Ebm] know, those kind of guys [Db] are going to [C] find ways [Bm] to [D] reach the public and the public's going to go, wow, that's a cool guitar player. _ _ _ _ _ _