Classic Solo: Whole Lotta Love

Artist: Led Zeppelin | Album: Led Zeppelin II | Guitarist: Jimmy Page | Year: 1969

This solo features some signature Jimmy Page licks including extreme bends and fast pentatonic licks. It’s essentially six licks that respond to the E chord in the backing so I’ve listed them all separately. In keeping with Jimmy’s tendency to mix things up live this is not meant to be a note for note copy of the recorded album track but a showcase for his commonly used licks.

The majority of the  solo uses the E pentatonic minor and E blues scales but it does sometimes dabble with the E pentatonic major scale.

|------------------12---------------------------------|
|---------------12------15p12-------------------------|
|----------14b16----------------15-14p12-14-12--14b16-|
|-----------------------------------------------------|
|-----------------------------------------------------|
|-----------------------------------------------------|

|-----------------------------------------------------|
|---------------3-------------------------------------|
|----------2s4-----4p2p0--4p2p0-----------------------|
|--------------------------------2p0-----2p0----------|
|-------------------------------------2-------2-0h2---|
|-----------------------------------------------------|

|----------------12----------------15---------|
|-------------12------15b17--15b17----15b17v--|
|--------14b16--------------------------------|
|---------------------------------------------|
|---------------------------------------------|
|---------------------------------------------|

|-------------------------------------------------|
|-----------/17----20b22----------17------20p17v--|
|------------------------------------18-----------|
|-------------------------------------------------|
|-------------------------------------------------|
|-------------------------------------------------|

|----------------19----19--18--17-------------------|
|------------17--------------------20p17--20p17v----|
|---------------------------------------------------|
|---------------------------------------------------|
|---------------------------------------------------|
|---------------------------------------------------|

|-------------------------------------------|
|------------17----20b23=====---------------|
|--------/18--------------------------------|
|-------------------------------------------|
|-------------------------------------------|
|-------------------------------------------|

A selection of Riffs from Rock Band 3

Last week saw the release of Rock Band 3 so I thought it would be appropriate to feature some of the tracks played on guitar. I’m not here to preach about the benefits of spending time practicing for real rather than pressing buttons in time with a game as you know what, these games are actually a hell of a lot of fun and if gets more people into music then it’s a good thing.

It also seems as though this latest version has a lot more emphasis on learning to play the real instruments. I personally cannot wait to have a go on the keytar! Anyway, dreams of 80s stardom aside, these riffs were all recorded in standard tuning on my Telecaster.

Plush

Artist: Stone Temple Pilots | Album: Core | Year: 1992 | Difficulty: Medium

   G5        D/F#        F             C           Ebmaj7/Bb            F5
||-3-3-x-x-x-2-2-2-x-x-x-1-|-1-1-x-x-x-0-0-0-x-x-x-3-3-|-3-x-x-x--------------||
||-3-3-x-x-x-3-3-3-x-x-x-1-|-1-1-x-x-x-1-1-1-x-x-x-3-3-|-3-x-x-x-3-3-3--------||
||-0-0-x-x-x-2-2-2-x-x-x-2-|-2-2-x-x-x-0-0-0-x-x-x-3-3-|-3-x-x-x-3-3-3--------||
||-0-0-x-x-x-0-0-0-x-x-x-3-|-3-3-x-x-x-2-2-2-x-x-x-1-1-|-1-x-x-x-1-1-1-3--3---||
||-X-X-x-x-x-X-X-X-x-x-x-3-|-3-3-x-x-x-3-3-3-x-x-x-1-1-|-1-x-x-x-1-1-1-3--3---||
||-3-3-x-x-x-2-2-2-x-x-x-1-|-1-1-x-x-x-------x-x-x-----|---x-x-x-------1--1---||

The Verse riff features a common descending chord pattern but uses the Ebmaj7 chord to good effect. Use your thumb over the top of the neck to play the note on the 6th string in the D/F# chord.

Dead End Friends

Artist: Them Crooked Vultures | Album: Them Crooked Vultures | Year: 2009 | Difficulty: Medium

                            B5 Db5       B5 Db5
||---------------------x-x-|---------x-x------------||
||---------------------x-x-|---------x-x------------||
||-/18-18-14s17-17-17--x-x-|---------x-x------------||
||---------------------x-x-|---------x-x------------||
||-/16-16-12s15-15-15--x-x-|-9-11-11-x-x-9s11-11-11-||
||---------------------x-x-|-7-9--9--x-x-7s9--9--9--||

The Hardest Button to Button

Artist: The White Stripes | Album: Elephant | Year: 2003 | Difficulty: Easy

  A5      C5      A5      C5      A5     C5       B5      D5
||---------------|---------------|---------------|----------------||
||---------------|---------------|---------------|----------------||
||---2-------5---|---2-------5---|---2-------5---|---4-------7----||
||----2-------5--|----2-------5--|----2-------5--|----4-------7---||
||-0---0---3---3-|-0---0---3---3-|-0---0---3---3-|-2---2---5---5--||
||---------------|---------------|---------------|----------------||

No difficulties here- simple yet effective when in the context of the song.

Bohemian Rhapsody

Artist: Queen | Album: A night at the opera | Year: 1975 | Difficulty: Medium

     pm..             pm..                                 Bb5
|-----------------------------|---------------------------|-----------------|
|-----------------------------|---------------------------|-----------------|
|-----------------------------|---------------------------|-----------------|
|-----------------------------|---------------------------|-8---------------|
|-/6-------3-5-6--6-------3---|-6-------3-5-6s8-------5---|-8---------------|
|----3-4-6----------3-4-6---6-|---3-4-6---------5-6-8---8-|-6---------------|

Yep, it just had to be the head banging riff!

I have covered a few other songs that appear in Rock Band 3 elsewhere on the site: One Armed Scissor and Crazy Train

Free VST Plug-ins

This article features a couple of my favourite free VST plug-ins and where to download them. 

Installation

Some of the effects come with their own installation program so make sure  you install them to the  folder where you keep all your VSTs. Other effects will just be contained within a zip or compressed folder where you can extract them to your VST folder.  The effects themselves are just .dll files eg. univibe.dll. If you haven’t already read it, click this link to read my beginner’s guide to recording guitar on PC for a brief introduction to using VST plug-ins in Reaper.

SimulAnalog Guitar suite

This comes with 7 effects and is a great place to start. In the pack you get 3 classic distortion pedals (Boss DS1, Boss SD1 and Tube Screamer), 2 vintage amplifiers (Fender Twin and Marshall JCM9000), a Univibe and phaser.

Website: http://www.simulanalog.org/guitarsuite.htm

Shred 1 Suite

This is seriously generous of the developers to give away for free! You get 6 fully customisable amplifiers based on classic head units plus the Frankenamp that allows you to mix and match different parts of the 6 heads to create your own amp. It also comes with loads of presets so if it all looks a bit daunting you can flick through them instead. You can vary every part of the sound including simulating room size and changing the speaker sizes!

Website: http://www.acmebargig.com/shred/

That’s it for now but I’ll be back with more musical based ramblings soon!