Lisser 16.08.2004 15:04 |
Yes..it was bound to happen. With my being a newer fan I wanted to know what everyone's opinions were on this...what is the most difficult guitar solo by Brian in a Queen song? I watched an unauthorized Queen documentary the other night and a man on it said that Brian had a huge reach on the guitar bc of his long arms and fingers. What I'm wondering is...does this have the makings for a difficult guitar solo, the "reach" or what does make a guitar solo difficult to play? How fast the song is? I have no knowledge about guitars. I just wanted to see what everyone's opinions are for which Queen song possesses the most difficult guitar solo, the hardest to play is what I mean. Of course people might disagree on this and that's fine. I just wanted to see if the songs I thought had "difficult" guitar solos in were similar to what more knowlegable Queen fans or guitarists thought. Shanks!!!! :) |
pma 16.08.2004 16:27 |
I have the guitar skills of Elvis (when drunk and lucky) so I'll say 'The Invisible Man' |
Gunpowder Gelatine 16.08.2004 16:39 |
I don't know much about the guitar, at least in the technical sense, but I think Dead On Time is probably pretty difficult. |
KJ 16.08.2004 16:41 |
I heard the "I was born to love you" guitarsolo took a lot of time for Brian to complete. |
Bob The Shrek 16.08.2004 17:47 |
The longer your reach, the better off you are because you can cover more frets without having to move your hand. |
Lisser 16.08.2004 17:51 |
But does that mean you can play more difficult solos or song? what makes the guitar solo difficult? |
The Real Wizard 16.08.2004 23:08 |
What makes a guitar solo difficult to play? That's an almost impossible question to answer, because it completely depends on which notes are involved, the speed, articulations, etc. A lot of things are involved mentally as well. For example, if a song is in a strange time signature, keeping your concentration while playing any guitar lick can make it more challenging right there. So it's really one of those questions that needs a more specific criteria to answer properly. But I have to agree, the solo from The Invisible Man is probably the technically most advanced solo Brian ever recorded. |
jasen101 16.08.2004 23:59 |
the first solo from "stone cold crazy" can be quite tricky played at the same speed brian plays it. I personally found playing the decending scale solo from "dead on time" to be harder than the one from "invisible man". "invisible" incorporates a style that the lead guitarist from metallica uses alot. |
Adam Baboolal 17.08.2004 08:51 |
The style in Invisible Man is called "tapping." It's very easy to do and is probably one of the first things a guitarist gets to learn when it comes to soloing. I've yet to bother about learning past one string! lol Now, about what makes a solo good. Personally, I think it's about all the little quirks thrown in. Little bends of the strings, light or tough, aggressive picking, etc. etc. It's all down to the guitarists' personal style. Peace, Adam. |
Fenderek 17.08.2004 08:53 |
Basically stuff from THE MIRACLE is pretty technically advanced, more than on previous records... |
FriedChicken 17.08.2004 08:58 |
Theres no tapping in Invisible Man. Just chromatic runs |
Oberon 17.08.2004 09:31 |
FriedChicken wrote: Theres no tapping in Invisible Man. Just chromatic runsI agree. I'm no great musician, but I can play a little guitar and it doesn't sound like tapping on Invisible Man. Tapping would be more like on Princes Of The Universe I think (trying to remember it in my head!). I would expect Invisible Man to be harder than Princes because of this. |
jasen101 17.08.2004 14:19 |
agreed. that's not tapping on "invisible"...rather more like reverse hammering on and scaling. I love the tapping Brian does in the intro to "Gimme the Prize"...I think that's the closest he gets to Van Halen's style. |
Somebody to loveeeee 17.08.2004 14:25 |
I don't think POTU has tapping. From the same album GTP may have it at the beginning though. Not sure. Songs that definitly have tapping are One Vision and the brilliant It's Late. This to me is also the most difficult BM solo, as it takes a lot of technical skills as well as feeling (an element lost to "the lead guitarist from metallica"). TIM isn't difficult. It just takes a lot of practice. Anyone know if the fast Resurrection part is tapping? Well, tata. |
FriedChicken 17.08.2004 14:41 |
Princes doesn't have tapping. only hammer ons and pull of from open strings (Which more or less has the same effect as tapping) One Vision, It's Late, Gimme the Prize are the only Queensongs that have tapping I think (From the top of my head) And Brian songs: Resurrection, Love Token, Rolling Over (I think), Business (I think) Not 100% sure aobut the last two. I lost my Brian cds :( |
Catgoddess 17.08.2004 14:48 |
*hums theme to the x-files |
Adam Baboolal 17.08.2004 15:56 |
Oops! I must be thinking of something else. Sorry. Peace, Adam. |
Sebastian 17.08.2004 16:03 |
As far as being difficult, I'd say his top one is Son & Daughter BBC Version. Also Put Out The Fire. But obviously it depends on your personal abilities. There can be very technically skilled classical guitarists who can do the chromatic runs Steve Howe put in 'Innuendo' (which is beyond Brian imo), but probably would have more troubles with something like Liar. Or vice versa. |
MexQueenFM 17.08.2004 16:22 |
Dead on Time i would say |
Virtuoso 17.08.2004 17:08 |
I agree with Bob on every terms of his response.And,of course there's no tapping or Legato on "The Invisible Man" solo.Like FC said, there's only some chromatic runs,not that it's hard if you ask me. |
Adam Baboolal 17.08.2004 20:12 |
Actually, maybe I was referring to the latter part of the IM solo at 2:22. Peace, Adam. |
Music Man 17.08.2004 20:35 |
I personally do not really look to May when I am in the 'technical prowess' mood. |
deleted user 18.08.2004 06:25 |
The latter part of the TIM-solo has some fast hammer-pull-figures, but no tapping. And I agree with some others here that it isn't paricularly difficult to do it in a technical sense. It becomes diabolically difficult though as soon as you try to play it exactly like Brian. The latter applies to most of his solos. You can't copy him and that makes him a good guitarist. He's also considered to be one of the greatest rock players, because he played with taste and feeling and because he actually was inventive and original, which legions of hyper-fast fretboard-masturbators invariably aren't. Technique isn't everything and in fact, it tends to be rather boring. Technical prowess may be useful to impress the girls in your rehearsal room, but what is it good for when you're not able to make a good song better through your playing (rather than just musically vomiting over every second bar) ? Everyone can reach a certain technical level once he practices with enough effort. There's no genuine talent behind it. Songs with tapping that weren't mentioned so far are Rain Must Fall, The Miracle and Cyborg. |
Bohardy 18.08.2004 07:08 |
To clarify things a little... - The Invisible Man has no tapping in any part of the song. The most impressive sounding parts of the solo are just fast descending chromatic runs over 2-3 strings. Queen songs with tapping: - It's Late - One Vision - Gimme The Prize - Don't Lose Your Head - The Miracle - Rain Must Fall - Bijou - I Was Born To Love You Non-Queen songs where Brian uses tapping: - Love Of My Life (with Extreme) - Love Token - Resurrection - Rollin' Over - Business - Cyborg I'm sure the Queen list there is exhaustive, but there may be other songs Brian's collaborated on that I've missed out. |
Sebastian 18.08.2004 14:57 |
Perhaps the Love Of My Life thing is Nuno, although they're both credited for guitars there, who knows... Regarding Phillip's points: there are usually two extremist sides of the story: the "purists" (who argue that "feeling" is just a word people invent to explain why a mediocre guitar player is still good in spite of being proven not technically skilled), and another group that starts with out of context data ("he built his guitar, he also sang, he played piano, he composed great songs..."). I'm not accusing you or anyone to be one of the two extremes of course, but many people are (not in this forum, but in rock circles in general). In my personal opinion, Brian is a very good guitarist, but slightly over-rated. And imho, John is slightly better bassist, Roger is slightly better drummer and Fred was slightly better pianist, than Brian as guitarist. |
The Real Wizard 18.08.2004 18:22 |
Sebastian wrote: In my personal opinion, Brian is a very good guitarist, but slightly over-rated. And imho, John is slightly better bassist, Roger is slightly better drummer and Fred was slightly better pianist, than Brian as guitarist.I usually trust your opinion, but you're way off the mark with this one. There's no way Freddie's a better pianist than Brian as a guitarist. No contest. All Freddie does is play ooctaves on his left hand and major and minor chords with his right. |
Virtuoso 18.08.2004 22:33 |
Like always,I agree with what Bob said.
Sebastian wrote: In my personal opinion, Brian is a very good guitarist, but slightly over-rated. And imho, John is slightly better bassist, Roger is slightly better drummer and Fred was slightly better pianist, than Brian as guitarist.As a guitarist,Brian's not at all overated,it's quite the 'contraire' my friend. |
Gunpowder Gelatine 18.08.2004 22:59 |
Actually, I think Brian's pretty underrated. He's usually overshadowed by other guitarists, but I think he deserves more credit. |
Sebastian 19.08.2004 05:31 |
To say all Fred does is octave bass and simple chords is just the same as to say all Brian does is pentatonic scales with ocassional blue notes. They're both great musicians and great with their instruments. Fred has done interesting stuff, like the solo in Love Of My Life, or the intro of Death On Two Legs. Of course I don't mean he's Rachmaninov, but he knew his way with the keys. As well as Brian with the guitar, or John with the bass or Roger with the drums or any of them with a pen and a blank sheet (it's just the expression, I know they didn't write songs that way....). |
goinback 19.08.2004 13:37 |
Wow this was actually a good question! lol |
muttley15 19.08.2004 15:41 |
I think the most difficult would be Innuendo - thats why Brian left it to an expert. |
Music Man 19.08.2004 17:13 |
Gunpowder Gelatine wrote: Actually, I think Brian's pretty underrated. He's usually overshadowed by other guitarists, but I think he deserves more credit.Agreed. Also, John is a decent bassist and Roger a decent drummer, and Freddie a decent pianist, but none of them were as groundbreaking in their instruments as Brian was for guitar. Even on the technical side, John and Roger get beat hands down, no contest, by greats like Entwistle and Myung, Bonham and Peart (not to mention Rich, whom I deem the greatest drummer to ever live). As for pianism...I really don't know enough to formulate an opinion, but I can assure you that Freddie was no 'great'. |
Ogre 19.08.2004 17:53 |
To call the lads 'decent' Music Man is a little harsh, but i agree fully on the comments made for Brian. |
Music Man 19.08.2004 18:03 |
Decent was meant as a compliment, forgive my misleading use of the adjective. |
Lisser 19.08.2004 18:56 |
Why thankies goinback!! I have tried and tried to listen and wonder which song had the most difficult guitar solo. I just do not have a trained ear. I wonder what song was the hardest vocally for Freddie..or I wonder what song is the most difficult for another vocalist that has a similar range of Freddie. Shall I start another topic??? lol ;) |
high-flying-adored 19.08.2004 22:25 |
Hell, start another. Quite interesting responses here. :) |
FriedChicken 19.08.2004 22:54 |
"I think the most difficult would be Innuendo - thats why Brian left it to an expert. " Thats nonsense. It doesn't mean it's hard. It means that Brian wasn't specialised in playing classical guitar, And therefor hired another guitarist. Is the sax solo in One Year Of Love hard because they hired a sax player? And no. the Innuendo chromatic runs aren't very hard. |
The Real Wizard 20.08.2004 02:05 |
Sebastian wrote: To say all Fred does is octave bass and simple chords is just the same as to say all Brian does is pentatonic scales with ocassional blue notes.Wow... I thought you were some kind of expert, but now I think you're just a fucking moron. Brian's original guitar orchestration approach in Queen songs is unmatched to this day. And his virtually impeccibly clean soloing style is definitely leagues beyond Freddie's talents on piano. FriedChicken wrote: Thats nonsense. It doesn't mean it's hard. It means that Brian wasn't specialised in playing classical guitar, And therefor hired another guitaristAgreed. Even today, if Brian really wanted to work hard to perfect chromatics at this speed up and down the neck, he could. But it's not really his style. Is the sax solo in One Year Of Love hard because they hired a sax player?That's a bit different Niek, as none of the guys in Queen knew how to play the sax at all! |
Sebastian 20.08.2004 04:57 |
As for my point in each one's abilities - As I said it's my opinion, I'm not saying it's a definitive truth or something, it's the way I see it. Being the lead guitarist it's easier for Brian to get noticed as a "master", because of the tons of songs with guitar solos, but it doesn't mean the others are in a lower level. As for GH's post, you can insult me as much as you want, but I won't insult you back. It's not worth it. As for Brian's guitar "orchestras": I personaly don't see them as orchestras, I see them as three-part choirs (ocasionally they went beyond that). They were creative, yes. But he wasn't the first or the last or the best imo. As for Innuendo: Brian himself admitted that he couldn't do the stuff Steve played. But yeah, before someone says it, it could be that Brian was just being modest, whatever. I personally agree with him in that, and I think Steve is way beyond him in both acustic and electric. |
Adam Baboolal 20.08.2004 08:15 |
"As for Brian's guitar "orchestras": I personaly don't see them as orchestras, I see them as three-part choirs (ocasionally they went beyond that). They were creative, yes. But he wasn't the first or the last or the best imo" Do explain who is first and the best. Plus, what do you mean by "the last?" Peace, Adam. |
The Real Wizard 20.08.2004 12:19 |
Sebastian wrote: Being the lead guitarist it's easier for Brian to get noticed as a "master", because of the tons of songs with guitar solos, but it doesn't mean the others are in a lower level.Good point, but I think you're going to have a tough time convincing people that Freddie was really that good on piano. LOML and Don't Stop Me Now vs Resurrection and Cyborg. It's a bit like comparing apples and oranges, as they're completely different instruments. But I just think that Brian is the most musically talented member of Queen. The signs are all there. As for Innuendo: Brian himself admitted that he couldn't do the stuff Steve played. But yeah, before someone says it, it could be that Brian was just being modest, whatever. I personally agree with him in that, and I think Steve is way beyond him in both acustic and electric.Definitely correct. Steve Howe is technically a much better player than Brian, and they both know it. |
Somebody to loveeeee 20.08.2004 12:33 |
To say that Cyborg is Brian's best guitar work (along with Resurrection) is a load of crap. The song works well for the game and in it's form it's a good song but it's definitly not Brian's best. Not even close. Why do people always assume that the "best" guitarsolo's are those which are the fastest? |
The Real Wizard 20.08.2004 13:02 |
Somebody to loveeeee wrote: Why do people always assume that the "best" guitarsolo's are those which are the fastest?I'm not saying they're his absolute best. What I'm saying is that it takes a great talent to be able to do the tapping technique in those songs with such precision, especially in Cyborg. But don't get me wrong... it's nothing like Joe Satriani's tapping skill, for example. List your top 5 Brian moments then... it'll only diminish the pro-Fred argument here.... :) |
Somebody to loveeeee 20.08.2004 14:01 |
Sir GH wrote:Well, you did say that before you edited your previous post. Never liked that editing function anyway.Somebody to loveeeee wrote: Why do people always assume that the "best" guitarsolo's are those which are the fastest?I'm not saying they're his absolute best. What I'm saying is that it takes a great talent to be able to do the tapping technique in those songs with such precision, especially in Cyborg. But don't get me wrong... it's nothing like Joe Satriani's tapping skill, for example. List your top 5 Brian moments then... it'll only diminish the pro-Fred argument here.... :) But anyway, I know nothing about playing piano so I dunno whether Freddie is a decent or an excellent player ...uhm... of piano's. What about his voice though? Is Freddie better at singing than Brian's at playing that out-of-shape fireplace? The voice is an instrument to, you know. |
Sebastian 20.08.2004 18:06 |
As for Fred at the piano - I'm not trying to convince anyone, I just expressed my opinion. Considering he did some very good stuff, rhythmically and technically (e.g. the intro of Lap Of The Gods). Of course he's not Rick Wakeman, as much as Brian is not Steve Vai. Guitar harmonies before Brian - Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck, even the Beatles (Birthday, And Your Bird Can Sing), even though the last example is obviously simpler than Brian's standards "Best" guitar harmonies - Again that's opinion. If you think Brian's the best at that I totally respect it. But imo, there are/were some people better in that - Mick Ronson, Jimmy Page. By "last" I meant that there were people doing guitar harmonies after Brian, for example Slash. Or the guys from Metallica |