Check out my video lesson here:
You can download the free tabs for all five solos here:
Learning your first guitar solo is one of those milestones that makes you feel like you’re finally becoming a proper guitarist. The problem is that a lot of lists of easy guitar solos are from songs that just aren’t that exciting.
So I’ve picked five solos that are relatively approachable, genuinely great and all from incredible songs from the indie and alternative rock world. I’m a 90s kid, so it’s this era that still excites me the most about guitar playing.
These aren’t all complete-beginner solos. If you’ve only just picked up a guitar, some will be challenging. But if you’ve been playing for a few months, can move around the fretboard reasonably comfortably and are ready to start playing lead, they’re excellent songs to work towards.
I’ve arranged them roughly from easiest to hardest. You might not be able to play them all.. but that doesn’t matter. Hopefully they’ll inspire you to keep going and get them down.
High and Dry – Radiohead
High and Dry is a brilliant place to start if you’re new to guitar solos. There isn’t anything particularly intimidating technically, but that’s precisely why it’s such a useful solo to learn.
Instead of relying on speed or difficult techniques, the solo is all about phrasing. It’s a good demonstration of how a simple melody can sound expressive when the notes are given enough space.
It’s all about letting that open E ring out, and getting the timing right.
Difficulty: ★☆☆☆☆
Smells Like Teen Spirit – Nirvana
Kurt was an underrated guitarist. Probably because he dissed ‘virtuoso’ guitar playing and music theory at every opportunity. But there’s some great solos in Nirvana songs, and Smells Like Teen Spirit has to be the most iconic solo in all of alternative rock.
The solo closely follows the vocal melody, which makes it relatively easy to remember. If you already know the song well, you can probably hear where many of the notes are going before you’ve even learnt them.
That’s useful practice in itself – it’s great ear training.
Rather than thinking of a solo as a collection of fret numbers, try to hear the melody in your head while you’re playing it. Eventually you want the connection between the melody you hear and the notes underneath your fingers to become instinctive.
There are also bends to negotiate, so make sure you’re actually reaching the target pitch. A bend that’s slightly flat can make an otherwise accurate solo sound wrong.
Play the target note normally, listen to its pitch, then bend up to it. It’s one of the simplest ways to train your ear.
Difficulty: ★★☆☆☆
Supersonic – Oasis
Noel Gallagher’s lead playing is a fantastic gateway into pentatonic soloing. Check out my other video on Noel’s lead guitar playing.
The Supersonic solo contains the kind of vocabulary you’ll find all over Noel’s playing: bends, repeated phrases and licks built around familiar pentatonic shapes. But the key with Noel is, it’s always melodic and musical.
That’s what makes it worth learning beyond simply being a great Oasis solo.
Once you’ve got it under your fingers, look at where the notes sit within the minor pentatonic scale. You’ll start to see that the solo isn’t a random collection of notes. It’s built from shapes and phrases that you can steal, change and eventually use in your own improvisation.
The bends are particularly important. Don’t rush them. A slower bend that reaches exactly the right pitch will sound much better than a fast bend that doesn’t quite get there.
This is where the five solos start moving from simply playing the notes towards learning some genuine lead-guitar vocabulary.
Difficulty: ★★★☆☆
Mayonaise – The Smashing Pumpkins
NOTE: remember to tune down to Eb standard for this one (that’s a half step down for every string.
Mayonaise is a different challenge – and makes this lesson take a big leap in difficulty. On reflection, this solo might just be harder than the last one in the list.
What I love about this solo is that it demonstrates how melodic alternative-rock guitar can be. Billy Corgan isn’t simply running up and down a scale. The guitar feels like another voice within the song. I just love his playing. For me he’s one of the guitar greats, even though he gets overlooked a lot.
There are bends, slides, hammer-ons and pull-offs to deal with, but don’t let the notation distract you from the bigger lesson: make the solo flow.
Learn it in short phrases rather than trying to memorise the entire thing in one go. Get one phrase comfortable, play it along with the recording, then add the next.
This is also a good solo for practising transitions between techniques. A bend might be followed by a quieter note, slide or legato phrase, so you need to control the dynamics rather than attacking every note with exactly the same intensity.
Once the notes are correct, play along with the record and listen to the character of the original guitar. That’s where the solo really starts coming alive.
Difficulty: ★★★★★
Seven Nation Army – The White Stripes
Seven Nation Army is tricky for beginners, but it’s also a great example of why technically perfect guitar playing isn’t necessarily the most interesting guitar playing.
Jack White’s playing has personality.
The original solo uses a slide and is tuned to Open A, but you don’t need to suddenly become a slide guitarist to learn something from it. In the lesson, I show you a version that can be played conventionally with your fingers. Specifically one finger (mostly) and in standard tuning.
The challenge is getting it to sound convincing rather than merely hitting the right frets.
There are bends, changes of position and phrases that need to feel loose without becoming sloppy. It’s a useful distinction: playing with attitude doesn’t mean abandoning control.
Learn it slowly first. Once you’re confident about where the notes are, start concentrating on the bends, timing and attack.
If you’ve worked through the previous four solos first, this makes a great target to finish on.
Difficulty: ★★★★★
What These Five Guitar Solos Can Teach You
The point of learning solos isn’t just to collect songs.
Each one gives you another piece of lead-guitar vocabulary:
- High and Dry – phrasing and open strings
- Smells Like Teen Spirit – melody and accurate bends
- Supersonic – pentatonic licks and rock vocabulary
- Mayonaise – expressive, melodic lead playing
- Seven Nation Army – feel, bends and personality
Once you’ve learnt them, try taking a phrase you particularly like and playing it somewhere else on the guitar. Change the ending. Change the rhythm. Move one of the notes.
That’s the point where you’re no longer simply copying somebody else’s solo. You’re beginning to understand why it works and building a vocabulary you can use in your own playing.
Download the Free Guitar Tabs
I’ve put together the tabs for all five solos so you can follow along with the lesson and practise them at your own pace.
[DOWNLOAD ALL 5 GUITAR SOLO TABS FREE]
If Mayonaise and Seven Nation Army feel impossible right now, that’s fine. Come back to them after learning the others. The whole idea is that each solo gives you something that makes the next one a little easier.
I hope you find something that gets you excited about soloing.
Drop me a comment with any suggestions for other solos to teach. Wow, you read all the way down here… thanks!
