the impossible song for you

[SloeGin]

Hey guys,

What song you have been working on just seem so out of reach for you?
For me it's definatelly Crazy Train. All the fills and the solo itself ... i just can't seem to master it.
Been on and off working on this song for 2 years now but my fingers just don't have that strength and speed required. Damn you Randy Rhoads
The most challenging solo's I can play sofar are Back In Black and Iron man ... Randy Rhoads is just way above my league ...

What song/ solo makes you curse?

 

[Aewrik]

Anything by Nuno Bettencourt. His hands just seem to reach places in ways my knubs never could in a comfortable way. I can play many Extreme songs sitting down, but standing there's just something uncomfortable that was never a problem with other guitarists. Rest in Peace is a great example of a song that should be simple but is just so weird to play.

 

[GoldDragon]

Anything by Nuno Bettencourt. His hands just seem to reach places in ways my knubs never could in a comfortable way. I can play many Extreme songs sitting down, but standing there's just something uncomfortable that was never a problem with other guitarists. Rest in Peace is a great example of a song that should be simple but is just so weird to play.

My advice is when sitting, play with a strap in classical position. That way the guitar is in the same position as when standing. When you stand up you can still play everything.

For me, Andy James is the final frontier for lead guitar challenge.

And also Paul Gilbert. PG uses some asshole licks that I'm convinced you need spider fingers for, but that he does as easy as breathing. At least AJ has normal size hands.

 

[broj15]

Pretty much any of the songs I can hear in my head and then when I pick up my guitar it either escapes me completely or my hands decide that they just don't wanna make those sounds right now.

 

[Kaura]

Overtoure 1928 by Dream Theater. When it comes to the unison solo section I just can't nail it no matter what.

 

[Lorcan Ward]

My biggest problem is songs that are just that little bit too fast. Like Scarified. I can play it but at that speed it’s just so uncomfortable and fatiguing. How Gilbert can still play that live 30+ years later is a testament to is his ability. It’s the same for Jason Richardson’s album, it’s super technical but it’s also like he recorded 5-10 bpm faster than he should of.

 

[USMarine75]

Jason Becker. I've tried so many times to learn Perpetual Burn, but by the time I learn the next couple measures, I forgot the ones before it. My musical memory is... wait... what were we talking about again? Ooh, piece of candy.

And also Paul Gilbert. PG uses some asshole licks that I'm convinced you need spider fingers for, but that he does as easy as breathing. At least AJ has normal size hands.

A lot of PG's stuff is horizontal stretches plus string skipping. Not good if you don't stretch. He also likes to begin licks on the upstroke... so if you start with your normal downstroke you end up fighting the string change/skip! He loves the 3NPS extended on each string and then skipping to give it that almost sweep picked octave sound... e.g. 5th 12(u)-15(d)-17(u)-15(d), 3rd 12(u)-14(d)-16(u)-14(d), 1st 12(u)-15(d)-17(u)-15(d)-12(u)-15(d)-17(u)~

There's another great one I learned of his... basically outlining the pentatonics using 3 or 4 strings and skipping.

Another of his up the fretboard that sounds like sweeps:
6th 3-7h, 4th 5, 3rd 4-5h, 1st 3-7, 3rd 5-4p, 4th 5, 6th 7
6th 5-8h, 4th 7, 3rd 5-7h, 1st 5-8, 3rd 7-5p, 4th 7, 6th 8
6th 7-10h, 4th 9, 3rd 7-9h, 1st 7-12, 4th 9, 3rd 9-7p, 6th 10
6th 12-15h, 4th 14, 3rd 12-14h, 1st 12-17 etc...

I hammer-on the 6th string parts but I think he picks every note (can't remember I've been doing it prob 20 years since the REH video days so I might have bastardized it lol)

(apologies if I dicked that up its 2am here... but you know what I mean lol)

 

[GoldDragon]

My biggest problem is songs that are just that little bit too fast. Like Scarified. I can play it but at that speed it’s just so uncomfortable and fatiguing. How Gilbert can still play that live 30+ years later is a testament to is his ability. It’s the same for Jason Richardson’s album, it’s super technical but it’s also like he recorded 5-10 bpm faster than he should of.

I'm in the same boat with the PG stuff. I have thought about it, and he has really long hands and probably, really long wrists. This makes it easier for him to do the string skipping licks.

For him, skipping over a string takes the same range of motion that a normal person uses going from one string to the next.

I can play the string skipping licks, but *slower*. I dont know anyone else who can do those with the same speed and consistency as PG. I think his hands are in the 99.5th percentile.

And while that may sound defeatist or making excuses, there are tons of other licks that are just as musically useful that don't require such deterity and stretch. So I dont bother with them anymore. I can't dunk a basketball either.

 

[chopeth]

Any Tech Death song from most crazy bands as Necrophagist, Obscura, Beyond Creation, and the like. I'm able to play some parts but then I arrive to some point I notice my technique is too poor and dirty to go on.

 

[Anquished]

I keep coming back to it every now and again to laugh at how far out my reach it is but XIV/Behold by Born of Osiris.

 

[Zender]

My "Damnit" song is Seek and Destroy. But only the fast section just before the solo, in all down-picking...
It's silly, but I always trip up there, even after a few years.

In "Songs I hope one day to be able to play" : Tumeni Notes by Steve Morse. But that is still very far away in skill level.

 

[AxRookie]

The impossible song is the song you never try to learn how to play...

 

[Spicypickles]

The alternate picking part in the Follow the Signs solo. I can do the sweeps and arpeggio bs in the beginning just fine, and to speed, but my fingers get twisted on the alt picked section. Most notably the last 16 or so notes.

 

[Musiscience]

The intro lick to Colony by Wes Hauch. It's actually much harder than it sounds. Been trying for the longest time but never quite seem to get it right.

 

[Corporial Bodies]

Finding "the way the news goes" hard at the moment, cant seem to nail the clean part, been at it for 4 weeks. Solo wise, "tender surrender" by vai been trying to nail that for the past year