This song always gets made fun of whenever the subject of cowbells come up, but I've always loved the guitar solo from 2:30 to about 3:30.

ARod, appreciate your specificity in this thredd. Im the same way. What is the nuance, the marrow, the turn-on? The details are too often missing. More peeps need to really detail the magic in music if they are gonna share it. Rock on, bra.

The Beat It solo doesnt meet the qualifications for this thredd, huh?

a great song from an amazing band featuring a solo from one of the GOAT guitar players alive.

and as a special bonus you get a pretty sweet trumpet solo thrown in.



you could pretty much youtube "derek trucks solo" and any one you click on is going to be amazing.

i mean the kid is 13 years old ffs

and just in case you thought he could only play slide:

I would have already posted it. But go ahead and post it anyway. I'd love to hear your thoughts on it. There used to be a YT video of the solo isolated but I was looking for it last week and can't find it anymore.

zomg, we've got a kudzu sighting.

The piano allows all fingers, acting independently, to play both note and rhythm.

Each finger individually may play more than one note simultaneously and in fact may control both the tone and rhythm of multiple notes within a given timeframe.

These are objective facts not duplicated on another instrument afaik.

And its not some idle point either. This is what makes it the hardest instrument to master.

Listen to the clips I posted above, there's nothing even remotely like that on the guitar, flute, trumpet, whatever. You have a soloist blowing lines over lush instrumental arrangements and an entire rhythm section keeping time in the background, and its all one dude.


And fwiw you could probably teach a monkey to play chopsticks. But objectively proving Art Tatum could outplay anyone on earth, that would take less than 5 minutes and the judge of it could be a virtually tone deaf imbecile on top, were the man still living.

Well that's because guitar is harder.

/trollface

Likewise you could argue that the motions required to activate notes are all the same, you press down. You don't have to master picking or plucking with the opposite hand, or bowing and so on. And on piano, you don't have to be concerned with intonation by sounding a note in a precise spot unlike many other instruments - just hit the key. And the notes are all arranged in a constant pattern each octave. And there's no confusion as to where on the keyboard a specific note needs to be sounded because there's only one key.

Then, as with guitar, there are almost unlimited resources available for learning and developing. You can find teachers for either anywhere. I imagine it's somewhat harder for someone who wants to play a less common instrument.

I'm still not sure what definition you're using for "mastery", but whatever it is seems to differ from how it's typically intended. And you're badly underappreciating the skill involved in mastering other instruments.

less arguing about which instrument is hardest to master more posting awesome solos.
lets either all agree its damn hard to become elite on any instrument or start a separate thread.

Well I do agree with that, but for whatever reason someone decided that it was actually the piano based on ________.

ya i wasn't singling you out.
i think your post was great and spot on (i am self taught guitar player so you know which side i come down on), i just think we are in for a potentially crippling derail.

Alright let's get back on track, I think this is Page's best solo. Though it almost is never talked about:

3:38-4:52 is just a 74 second epic blues solo. The climax occurs at 4:34 imo.

If that's your reasoning, then it's strictly from a technical and intellectual level, rather then a solo that is built on any emotion at all, like David Gilmour solos.

I MUCH prefer guitar solos because the guitar is much more individually expressive instrument in the right hands. Most keyboard solos (I'm excluding Jazz, because key-solos in that style are essential and pretty freaking awesome) are annoying to me.

Mastery of an instrument isn't possible. But what is possible is mastery of what YOU DO on an instrument.

Most piano/keyboard players began learning classical or things of that nature. Those style of music are more technical based (as someone playing them, not as they were composed) learned by practicing for years and years.

Most guitar players started learning stuff by ear or tab or just strumming until they like what they heard. They still had to practice, but they sounded like themselves based on a ton of factors. Where they fretted, how hard they fretted, where they picked, how hard they picked.

Grab 100 seasoned guitar players and have them play the same song on the same guitar/amp setup. It'll sound different almost every single time. Grab 100 seasoned piano/keyboard players and have them play the same song on the same piano, and it'll sound very similar.

I do think it's harder to be as proficient as a piano/keyboard player then as a guitar player, but that is mostly based on the design of the instruments themselves.

I know I'm missing a few points on my side of this discussion, but I think I got the gist of it up there

great post.
I didn't post this solo cuz it's in no way under rated, but gilmore's comfortably numb solos are 2 of my absolute favs, and really speak to your point about conveying personal feeling.
def not the most technically challenging solos, but godamn whenever that song comes on it gets my undivided attention.

http://youtu.be/R4emJASIuYA?t=52m27s

How he ends the solo with the tremolo and distortion after the soft, clean lead-up hah absolute joy on his face and a joy to behold, lights fading to black. Goat. Woot woot.

Good god, Jeff Beck. At GIT, damn near our entire class went trying to learn Nadia. There were even a few "Beck-Heads" who couldn't even grasp it. I got fairly close, but his control in that song is just ridiculous. Here is one of his best solos:



Talk about expressive, jesus ****ing christ!!

Someone please play this on a guitar:



Judging by the general commentary and the infinite wisdom of youtube comments, Finnissy's English Country Tunes is def. unheralded.

Ofc piano is more difficult than guitar. It is strange to think otherwise. At least set the bar at hardest instrument at the violin.

There are videos of guys playing 2 guitars simultaneously. That way they can play different octaves at the same time, like a piano.

So what's harder, playing a piano or playing 2 guitars at once? I mean if the argument is "both hands are hitting notes!"

Anyway this sidetrack is dumb. The answer is they are both equal. If you pick an arbitrary % of people who have mastered* each instrument, then that, by definition, means they are equally difficult. Same with bongos. Or cowbell.

Back to underrated solos!

*What I mean is, you define "mastered" as top .1% or something. Otherwise, how the **** do you define "mastered" anyway?

the ironic part of this debate is most musical genius' can play multiple instruments.
the difficult part is mastering the theory and thats universal.

you learn the scales, the relative minors and chord composition etc.

once you master that its just a matter of learning the physical aspects of the new instrument. (obv drums are slightly different, but still mostly applicable).

if jimmy page wants to learn to play the piano he could easily.
drummers play keyboard, guitar players play drums etc.

the physical part of it is inconsequential.

its just a matter of putting in the time.

just in case some of you non guitarists have never heard of him... the late great Danny Gatton

Good stuff ^^^^

His grimace as he reveals the first note, once he and his band mates complete the crescendo lead-in lol then the imitating he does with different trios of notes a short time later. Great, great player in general that maybe doesnt get deserved kudos. Perhaps the least lauded of this three titans collective.