Guitar: With apologies to Slash

I spent about four hours today working on the second solo from "Sweet Child O' Mine".

It's pretty easy but I can't figure out the last bit; I've got the tabs but they make no sense to my ear so far.

listen: Sweet Child O' Mine solo 2

I can just barely do the half-step bends, though you'll hear some sourness in there. The whole-step bends are too much, so I have to change them to hammer-ons or slides.

And the end is just a mess; I'm playing the notes from the tab but I have no idea how it's supposed to sound, and clearly sounds nothing like the end of that solo.

I've resorted to slowing down Guitar Hero II in practice mode to see if I can figure out how that ending is supposed to sound. No joke.

Guitar: Modest progress so far

I have two minor musical victories to share.

I'm not saying these are earth-shattering performances--I'm not even claiming that they're good!--but considering that I'm starting from nothing, I'm psyched and my progress makes me happy.

listen: "And I Love Her" solo

I know it's a little choppy, but it's getting there. Notice all the fun slides. The solo itself isn't terribly hard but it's very satisfying. The song is even in my vocal range. Good stuff.


listen: "Put Your Lights On" acoustic intro

You'll notice my difficulty in getting into the F chord at the end. I'm working on it. But otherwise this intro is really quite easy and also very satisfying; I actually feel like I'm kinda sorta playing music!

Even though these are both supposed to be acoustic, I was playing my electric and recorded it by plugging my amp into my laptop's line in jack. The sound quality is surprisingly not awful.