The Anatomy of an (Almost) Perfect Guitar Solo
Guitar solo courtesy of Neil Thompkins
Guitar solo courtesy of Neil Thompkins
photo by the author’s better half
I am not a good musician (heck, I’m sometimes not sure whether I’m even a musician to begin with since I have no music schooling); but I love music dearly and I welcome any opportunity to make music. I play guitar and bass, and am always on the lookout for music collaborations.
Back in 2003 I bandied up with my good friends Aurelio on bass and Neil on guitar, and we started rehearsing and recording ourselves as we were jamming. Fast forward to 2014, where I’m doing some housecleaning and wading through tons of previously recorded (and unreleased) material. All of a sudden, I’ve stumbled upon this gem. As I was listening to one of our lenghty jams that we used to record back in 2003 — 2004 time frame, my jaw dropped to the floor when I heard one of Neil’s guitar solos. I got so inspired by what I heard on the tape, that I’ve decided to share this with you, dear readers.
But let me set the stage first: as I’ve mentioned, I am a complete amateur when it comes to music. I am self-taught, but I do have a lot of guitar playing years under my belt, which makes me something of a tolerable player. Our bass player Aurelio was originally a keyboard player who decided to switch to playing the bass. And finally Neil, the only schooled musician in the band. Not only is Neil schooled, he had also spent some time making music professionally. And when you hear his solo, you’ll no doubt realize that here we’re dealing with a real talented musician.
So without further ado, here is the snippet I’ve fished out for your enjoyment; approximatelly 40 seconds of incredibly lucid guitar playing:
Let me now explain why I think this is an almost perfect guitar solo. I’ll start with a descriptive approach, and will then try to switch to a more formal analysis. In this snippet, Neil brings his guitar to life by using it to tell a story. Pay attention to how his guitar is being used in an almost conversational fashion. It begins the storytelling (around the 5 seconds mark; the first 4 seconds fade in as I was finishing my totally unremarkable solo) by setting a rather tempered, neutral tone — four repeated notes, a nice even-headed intro. Almost lazy, almost uninterested and emotionally non-engaging. Then it gradually warms up, after setting the tone, until it suddenly shifts into an incredibly articulate arch. This sudden, extreme gesture enters at around 11 seconds mark.
From that moment on, we are taken to an exilarating roller coaster emotional ride. The peak of emotional intensity is reached at the 22 second mark, and lasts for about 3 seconds. In there, Neil is making his guitar almost cry with some amazing vocalisations. The solo then continues in similar roller coaster fashion, up and down, in bold gestures, conjuring up articulated musical phrases and sentences.
I have pushed his solo into a fade out around the 41 seconds mark, not because the remaining portion of his solo is less remarkable, but because I didn’t want the analysis to end up being too long. This way, focusing on about 30 seconds of his brilliant playing, should give us enough material to get involved and to gain deeper understanding into what is it that makes a great guitar solo come to life.
Allow me now to go into a more formal analysis (or quasi-formal, as the case may be). As I’ve already mentioned, I am not formally trained in music, but I’ve nevertheless invested some time in trying to understand the basics of music theory. I hope more educated readers will forgive my naivete in the matters, as I try to articulate my thoughts around what makes Neil’s solo tick.
First, let me lay down the harmonic climate of this little jam. It’s in the tonality of D, which implies that the pleasing, agreeable notes in this harmonic cloud are D (the root), F# (major third interval), A (the fifth interval), and C# (major seventh interval). Other acceptable, and sometimes also agreeable notes are E (the ninth interval), G (the eleventh interval), and B (the sixth and also at the same time the thirteenth interval).
The most ambiguous interval in this tonality if the minor third (F); it creates ambiguity between the major and the minor flavour, and here Neil utilizes this ambiguity masterfully.
The most dissonant, disagreeable note in this tonality is G# (the so called “devil’s interval”); we will see that, perhaps to your surprise, Neil is using this disagreable interval to his advantage in some places in this solo.
The jam was played at a medium tempo, with a slight pull-back feel. We did that intentionally, if memory serves me, in order to avoid undesirable rushing and hyper-ventillating effect that many impromptu jams tend to suffer from.
The meter is four beats per bar (4/4).
The harmonic movement goes as follows:
D major 7 (4 beats) | C major 7 (4 beats) |
D major 7 (4 beats) | A minor 7 (2 beats) D7 (2 beats) |
G major 7 (4 beats) | C9 (4 beats) :||
This is a fairly standard harmonic progression, one might even say it’s a cliche.
Let’s now look into how Neil chose to navigate the above harmonic framework:
He starts with four repeated F# notes, played evenly over the D major 7 chord. This firmly establishes us in the major flavour, but also introduces certain interesting tension as the fourth F# note continues ringing while Aurelio and I shift down a whole step from D to C. F# is the “devil’s interval” for the C chord, and here it creates a much needed kick to propel us from the neutral, ‘safe’ territory of the major root tonality.
Once the band (i.e. the bass and the accompanying guitar) shifts back into D major chord, Neil decides to play a chromatic descending run, starting on A (the fifth) down to F# (major third), by going A-G#-G-F#. In here we see how he introduced the “devil’s intervall” once again, this time the effect is even stronger as it messes with the root tonality (D). However, since G# is used as a passing note (i.e. short lived), the effect is not jarring.
The above interplay between the safe, solid feel of staying anchored in the root tonality by reinforcing the major feel (repeated F# notes), and the uneasy, unstable feeling added by the chromatic run (involving the raised fourth interval G#), creates a shifting, insecure terrain from where the guitar takes a wide leap and quickly climbs all the way up to a higher octave F#. Neil makes his way up there by quickly raking the A minor 7 arpeggio, which gels really nicely with the way the rhythm section is making their choppy moves (i.e. from A minor 7 to D7).
Again, once he finds himself in the upper octave, Neil repeats the chromatic run that he initially made at the 7 second mark. However, this time around (at the 20 — 21 second timeframe), he made an interesting choice to run the same chromatic run but this time it’s an ascending run (i.e. from F# up to A). This intelligent choice is one more reason why is this solo so emotionally engaging, as it keeps repeating certain recognizable patterns and phrases, but at the same time avoids slavishly mimicking them. Intelligent playing always means avoiding foolish consistency in how we choose our patterns.
And now, the crowning moment — the three seconds starting at 21 seconds mark, and ending around 24 seconds mark. I call it the ‘cry’. It was accomplished (I think) by holding the F note on the first string, 13th fret, and bending the second string up to F# (I’m guessing from the 16th or the 17th fret). The clash between these two adjacent notes, where one note indicates minor flavour while the other note indicates major flavour, creates this immensely satisfying emotional moment. After that, the band downshifts gears back to the D major 7, and starts the harmonic progression all over again.
To recap: from the analysis of Neil’s guitar solo it is obvious that the recipe for success boils down to a few essential ingredients:
Start on an even keel, introduce the story line calmly and without much fuss.
Don’t let that calm beginning quickly turn into a snooze fest. Immediately after establishing clear harmonic and rhythmic tone, introduce a bit of tension. In this solo, we’ve seen how Neil stayed on the F# note even after the band switched gears to C major. Right there, we hear the beginnings of tension and the impeding clash that is about to come.
As soon as possible try to outline the story arch; in the world of music storytelling, that means either becoming more elaborate in your rhythmic structure, or adding interesting, intriguing intervallic leaps.
Once that’s established, reinforce some of the already introduced patterns. Repeat a pattern or two, but make sure you do that with slight variations. Avoid so-called foolish consistency at all costs, because it can quickly create boredom.
Make sure your story line reaches a climax. Typically, you do that around the two-thirds of the story telling, but it could be done sooner.
Leave enough breathing room for the story to wind down without rushing.
Conclusion
I like this solo so much that I simply cannot stop listening to it. It has it all — a compelling story line, perfect formal structure, it is simple, clearly told, while at the same time packing incredible emotional punch. One can learn a whole world of guitar improvisation and soloing from these brief 30 seconds.
In addition to that, Neil, being a consummate pro, took care to dial in the sweetest sound on his guitar/amp combo. A winning combination. Enjoy!
And Neil, thanks!