Now theres a player who deserves credit where credits due. I've been a longtime abstainer of floyd, much over 3.5 minutes bores me to tears. But the other day whilst sat in a curry house listening to my ipod waiting for my takeaway i stumbled across speak to me/breathe. That band are utter genius with their mix downs. You need wide stereo to enjoy it though.

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No no and no

hey thanks for the tip, and i'm sure those lead breaks are just fine too....

totally agree with what you say. for me a good guitar solo is really something to listen to. like duane allman's stuff on the Live at the Filmore album for example. i must've listened to that hundreds of times since i first bought the old double album in 1971 or whenever it was, and if i listened to it again tonight i know it would still blow me away.

mIAMI MIKE,I have to agree I picked up JEFF BECKS LIVE AT RONNIE SCOTTS DVD AND HAVE NOT STOPPED WATCHING,it does not get better than that and ditto for PHISH who I think is the band choice of the kids of deadheads

exactly.

i must say im astonished at all this banter talking smack on solo's. half of what i'm reading is such a slap in the face to numerous musical geniouses and pioneers, what a lack of respect!

dude, you guys are building mountains out of mole hills by just debating over this. the solo is supposed to be a simple concept. it's where the musician expresses themself through the instrument. it's about being in the moment, and FEELING the music. it's just such a release if nothing else. of course, there have been plenty of wankers and violators of this principle who totally throw the true meaning out the window, but a good, true, well-done solo from the heart is absolutely warming. i like to call it a "soul-o". this is why i hate metal btw, its not pleasing to hear, its like an assault on my ears. no soul or feeling, just a musical blitzkrieg. a typical shredmetal solo sounds like the Putties from Power Rangers. (haha, i never really watched that btw, friends did way back when).

what i dont understand is how alot of musicians on the guitar forums out there will talk bad about something like guitar solo's, but then they turn around and praise stuff like doom, shoegaze, ambient, etc. TALK ABOUT BORING! either its the droning monotone noise that basically lulls you to sleep, or the depressing motionless musician standing still staring at his pedalboard all night. at least alot of the solo's being referenced here are relatively upbeat in most cases, such as southern rock, which btw has got to be the best feel-good music in the world.

as for the general listener public, i guess i cant speak for them, nor can i resist them alone. but imo, the majority of consumers are a bunch of puppets. they eat up the mindless junk that gets spit out by the record companies, and totally forget about the good stuff behind the curtain. or perhaps their brains are just deteriorating and have no capacity to appreciate a good jazz piece. its too complex for them to understand. i just picture a flock of frat/sorority hipsters plaguing the streets in their typical american eagle clothing, texting as many people as possible on their iphone's, and listening to Snow Patrol. should a song come on that contains a solo, they'll skip to the next song as soon as they hear a solo open up. its all about the verse chorus verse chorus hook bridge chorus (2x) equation. its all the same! everything i hear on the radio sounds the same. same format, same power chord progressions, same messages, same everything. again, BORING

thats why stuff like jazz, prog., and fusion, etc. (you know, the stuff some of you probably dont like) is actually interesting. its all different, and based around improv. i could see not liking the blues, cuz its all i, iv, v, but thats another story which i wont write another novel on. i'm starting to think you are guilty followers of the very evil you cast aside, and that is mainstream pop. its plain and simple, no solo's. cut and dry, right to the point. get in, get out attitude. 3:00 minutes about how you love her so much, and then next song. so improv...you indirectly say thats boring, i say its the beauty of the music. you can go in any direction you like. its ART people! not saying you have to like it, it is about personal taste, but Art shouldn't cause such a controversy as this.

its about soul and passion, thats what the solo is about. guitar, harmonica, drums, bass, keys, ukelele, clave's..... any instrument is capable of serving as a media for expression. ever check out some of Santana's stuff? very cool. they all get into it, and its very soulful music.

look, i understand this is all very subjective and can only be based on opinion. and also, i dont expect anyone to give in to my argument. i got very heated and had to express myself (maybe i should go play my guitar... ) but i dont get how debates like these even happen. its like saying whether vanilla is better than chocolate, or vice versa. completely ludicrous. as for the almighty solo, just absolutely cant get into it? fine, whatever, but why make something so innocent out to be a terrible thing?

Talking of guitar solo's on a guitar forum is pointless. To put this in perspective, how do we all feel about drum solo's?

Not as strongly in favour as people on a drum forum? I strongly suspect so.

Ever wondered why band members dont like long solo's? Its because they know (particularly vocalists/frontmen) how a stretched solo alienates non guitar playing people in the audience. Were not in 1975 now, people have learnt that they dont have to accept the rubbish. Thats why you dont hear it on the radio at 5pm. Its just not comercially viable the music buying public doesnt want it. Never mind guitarists wanting it, were a very small part of that market.

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Van halen's Eruption 1978 in my opinion
the best 2 minute solo on vinal eddie van halen
and jimi hendrix are the masters at soloing theres a few
others but know one like van halen or hendrix.

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sombody get me a doctor!

msvolpe, all I can say is... AMEN, AMEN, AMEN!!!

And even though I play guitar I do enjoy other instruments solos (drums, keys, bass, whatever) just about as much as guitar solos. But I'm a weird, anti-popular-music-of-any-kind type of kid who likes instrumental music more than any other kind.

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Thank you both! And Allen Collins never got his due respect, The Music World lost a great musisian in his passing. There are great solos some old some just havent been played yet. So to all the cry babies out there pick up your Guitar and Write the next Great Solo!

I write some crackers they just dont go beyond 16 bars. You can have too much of a good thing.

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It's this simple:

People like songs.

They don't like long solos.

And that's no reflection on anybody's intelligence, or musical development, or anything else. It just means they don't play the guitar, or the saxophone, or whatever. Or maybe they do, but they haven't developed some kind of junior-high gunslinger attitude about it, or outgrew the one they had, or something.

It reminds me of a story from many years back, when I had finished an album of instrumental music that I was especially proud of, and my wife took a copy to her office to play it for some co-workers. The first track come up, and her co-workers nodded and smiled, and listened... and got restless, and shuffled their feet... and finally, after about 1 minute of the first tune, one of the women she worked with blurted, "Jesus... that's the longest introduction I ever heard!"

It alsp reminds me of seeing a KT Tunstall live in HD on Palladia last night, and her guitar player Sam Lewis, who oozes talent... but held it in check so as to not overshadowed KT or the song. Then, when he DID flash what he had at you, it blew through the band like a lightning bolt. Now, THAT'S a musician. You can keep all the guitar "heros" there ever were. I really prefer guitar players.... musicians who just happened to choose guitar.

Your KT Tunstall/Sam Lewis story reminds me of the Zappa Plays Zappa show I went to a couple of months back... Dweezil was doing his best Frank impersonation (which is getting pretty damn good these days) and everybody was playing up a storm apart from the second guitarist (Jamie Kime). Not that he wasn't playing well -- he just understood that with so much craziness coming from the marimba, keyboards and woodwinds the last thing the audience probably needed would be duelling guitarists.

After a while, though, I began to wonder whether this Jamie guy was on the same level as the other musicians, as regardless of what else was going on he seemed happy strumming his little Les Paul through an old Vox AC30 with minimal effects while everybody else strutted their stuff.

Then came one of those set pieces where everyone got to show off a bit, and Mr Kime stepped forth and traded licks with Scheila Gonzalez (who was playing sax at the time). Oh, man. Never have I heard such fluid lines from a guitarist -- he was able to take the phrases from the sax and run with them, then toss them right back to Scheila instead of going "meedly-meedly-meeeee pheeeeeeowwww bwarp" like a regular guitarist. His moments in the spotlight really made the night for me. He has a wicked sense of humour, too, which is probably a prerequisite if you want to make a living playing Zappa music.

I can imagine that the general public might not be interested in extensive soloing. But if you can make it just right...or if you can put so much passion and love into it, it can take a musical piece to a higher level.

Hendrix and Stevie Ray and several others had the capacity to put a lot of soul into their music so as to make it much better.

Little Wing is a great example. The intro is a solo, but it is short, and very soulful. As is the outro.

Now, i am not a guy who tends to be emotional. But, one of Hendrix's most underrated or under-viewed pieces, Bold As Love, is absolutely beautiful. I swear, every time i hear the ending i nearly feel like crying. A solo, yes, but unrivaled in its beauty, skill, and intense passion. That, friends, is what a solo, and any musical piece, should be.

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I think a simple answer is: consider the venue! I love to solo too but in most venues, no one wants to hear the guitarist ... or even the same song ... go on for 10 minutes. I doubt the classic 3 minutes, give or take, song format came about by accident. And people not wanting to hear long solos in most venues is hardly new -- a lot of serious (and great) jazz musicians were angry at Glenn Miller.

If (as one quoted Wynton Marsalis) be bop killed the rising popularity of instrumental jazz, Miller wrote the funeral dirge. The complaint: he had an ear for pop hooks and cutesy lyrics but as a 2nd rate trombonist, had no use for great instrumentalists.

Nevertheless, instrumental music has survived but it usually isn't going to be what most audiences want to hear. Nothing to do with the ability of the player. Each generation seems to have some instrumentalists who come out with a new thing ... they can get away with soloing and eventually they will become the classics of their generation.

I'd rather listen to an hour long solo from Clapton, Jeff Beck, Hendrix, Duane Allman & Dickey Betts or Rory Gallagher or Glen Campbell, than listen to the mindless wanking of Ballonknot er sorry, I mean Slipknot, Metallica, Nirvanna etc. etc.

You don't hear solos because a lot of the people can't play them. I see so many young kids in GC and Sam Ash playing with 2 fingers in dropped D tuning. Playing with 2 fingers works for Les Paul who is 93 years old because he's working around arthritis and Django Reinhardt who had only 2 working fingers on his left hand. As a guitarist, drum solos don't bother me one bit.