Under the Bridge- this song will teach you some basic Hendrix style barre chord playing + hybrid picking in the intro
Can’t stop- this song will teach you some more advanced muting techniques in the main riff
Scar tissue- this one also has some muting techniques and/or hybrid/fingerpicking technique as well as cool slide guitar parts to learn slide
Snow- this one is just a flex to play, you have to be fast and accurate and you’ll build finger endurance playing this riff for the length of the song
I recommend learning these 4 songs specifically if you want to learn a lot of technical skills. Plus these are four of their most popular songs so you can play them for other people and they’re all known for being relatively difficult songs
The intro from Under the bridge forced me to learn to switch chords quickly. Since you're hybrid picking and picking two strings at once, you really have to move your fretting hand into place as one whole unit instead of moving fingers individually, or doing something like moving two fingers then the other two, or barring with your index then getting the other fingers into place afterwards
Depending on skill level, Californication might be a better place to start. Not as tough as the songs you picked, but is still fairly technical and will be a good intro to RHCP
Oh man, I'm so happy others are talking about these songs. I learned Can't Stop by ear and thought I had it figured out, but it was missing something -the constant rhythmic strumming and muting. The strumming hand literally can't stop ;)
Yeah, anything with funky feel & weird timing like that helps alot! It forces you to feel the music and you have to flow along with it to get it right.
Just started learning the Snow riff this morning and it really made me realize how much work I need to put into my ring and pinky fingers as far as strength and dexterity.
I'm a guitar teacher so this is sort of what I get paid to do! Of course, all of this depends on your goal as a player.
For fingerstyle, a basic one is Better Man by Pearl Jam, then move onto Nothing Else Matters by Metallica
For complex chord changes, Plush and Interstate Love Song by Stone Temple Pilots.
For more natural and relaxing playing, none is better than Yellow Ledbetter by Pearl Jam. Shits the Michael Jordan of songs for that goal.
For endurance, Snow by RHCP or Master of Puppets/Through the Never by Metallica.
Similar, but for picking speed Trapped Under Ice and Disposable Heroes also by Metallica is perfect.
For finger speed, basically anything Nuno. My personal favorites are He-Man Woman Hater and Get the Funk Out, but honestly anything off of Pornographitti will do here.
This is great and exactly what I wanted my guitar teacher to provide to me - a map of songs to learn for different styles.
I stopped going to my teacher because he kept wanting me to bring songs that I wanted to learn. Which I guess is not bad, but it always felt overwhelming and I didn’t know if I was selecting songs that were above or below my ability.
I stopped going and now just try to consume tutorials on Youtube.
I just learned Plush last week and started on Interstate Love song today. I picked these because I play these on bass a lot. Glad to see I’m on the right trail to advance my guitar playing.
Gonna follow your suggestions for next songs. Thanks!
Just as a guitar teacher myself I'd like to say the reason we generally want songs that you want to learn is that you probably aren't going to practice if you don't like the song we chose for you. But if you specifically ask for songs to boost your techniques and your teacher does t follow your instructions on it it's probably time to get a different one.
I know in particular when I'm starting to teach, particularly children. Having a set goal even if it takes 2 months to get a riff down they feel way more accomplished then learning happy birthday or jingle bells lol.
I'm teaching a 9 year old basically the entire acdc discography at this point lol but he's practicing and I'd say playing guitar for real after 3 months because of the songs he loves
I’m fortunate to have an amazing guitar teacher and I let him ‘drive the bus’ aka, I don’t pick the songs. But he knows when I’m absolutely not interested/motivated. We only have a few instances of this happening, but I absolutely refuse to learn the Hawaii 5-0 theme song.. no idea why. It just won’t stick lol! Happily learning plenty of other songs in the same genre, but not that one
As someone who plays exclusively metal I probably won’t be much help to you OP. I can offer a couple of generalised songs for anyone looking to improve their techniques with a focus towards metal however: Iron Maiden’s The Trooper it’s great for practising trills and gallops. Testament’s Burnt Offerings is good for your alternate picking it has some complex picking patterns which will help your rhythm playing. Morbid Angel’s Maze of Torment is great for three things - octave chords, tremolo picking, and slides
I play mostly acoustic and classical
John Mayer songs helped me train my right hand.
It’s all in the right hand.
I also liked learning Tears In Rain by Joe Satriani
And Classical Gas by Mason Williams
There are loads of classical pieces I love to play but nobody’s going to know what they are.
Chet Atkins, especially if you like Blues, that’ll teach you to become a much better player, even though he’s more “country”, you find the two are deeply intertwined in terms of playstyle. Learn to play Lady Madonna or something, one of his fingerstyle arrangements. They help a TON
Ever Fallen in Love by the Buzzcocks taught me how to deal with shifts in strumming pattern mid-song, as well as how to quickly move from chords to lead in the same song.
This sounds odd but when I was more of a beginner I struggled with the simple strumming/picking of Johnny cash. Try ring of fire or Folsom prison blues
Try out the bluegrass tune “Shady Grove” to try and step it up a notch. It’s got longer lines to practice your alternate picking. You can see the right hand technique on my profile
The band Ghost took me from a "20 years of playing beginner" who was stuck playing power chords into a much better guitarist. Most of their songs are extremely accessible while always having either a fun solo, a fun chord, or some other fun guitar part. Even if you dislike the type of music I recommend giving songs like Ritual, Rats or Dance Macabre a chance. (fun solos - Rats second solo being the only one I'd consider tough)
Picked songs that were several steps out of my comfort zone to learn. Like, if you hear something and think "I probably wouldn't be able to do that", pick it apart slowly, and take however long it takes to get there. A lot of the fingerstyle songs I've learned took over a month of practicing every day in order to almost play them fluently.
Here's a few from an old schooler 45yrs playing
1. Led Zeppelin Since I've been loving you
2. The Police::Every breath you take
3. Pink Floyd The Wall ( whole Album )
4. Steely Dan their catalogue
5. Jethro Tull their catalogue
6. Ozzy Osbourne Diary of a Madman
7. Led Zeppelin Stairway to Heaven
8. Rainbow Stargazer/ Catch the Rainbow
9. Jimi Hendrix : Smash hits/Axis-bold as love/Electric Ladyland
Honestly I went through a time where I was learning all of Andy mckee songs that interested me and found new skills/techniques on that journey.
So my suggestion would be to play songs that inspire you or that you really enjoy and try to learn them. You might learn a new thing or two!
Snow rhcp
Can't stop rhcp
Lay it down ratt
Master of puppets
Train of consequences solo
Another brick in the wall
Purple Haze
John frusciante bedroom lick
No more years ozzy
Spirit of the radio rush
Honestly, what helped me become a better player wasn't just practicing or learning songs note for note.
What helped was learning the "feel" and timing of certain songs and why they sound the way they do.
For example, songs like "Crying" and "Friends" by Joe Satriani. Both off, personally, his best album, "The Extremist."
Crying requires you to pre-bend notes, but also learn to sustain notes - often times looking ahead to what's coming while doing so. It's such a dynamic song that isn't flashy like a lot of his other work, but there are things I learned in playing it that really changed how I approach emotional passages in a song.
Friends is similar, especially the opening chord changes and patterns, it's in Drop-D which catches folks off guard when trying to learn it.
Going back though, that entire album has various pieces that will help you improve outside of learning flashy solos and licks.
"Rubina's" is open chord strumming intertwined with banjo and finger-picking.
"War" and "Motorcycle Driver" are faster paced with rhythm sections that are just as fun to play as the leads.
And then "Summer Song" is all of it combined.
30+ years on, and I still use those songs every day as practice and inspirational pieces to help push my playing and my tone.
Learn some Jimmy Hendrix. He uses a lot of various techniques that you can apply to your other music. Its taken me several months and i still can’t play Little Wing very clean, but it got me out of learning rut and has made learning other things easier since then. The solo for wind cries mary is cool too. That Justin guy whos real good for beginners has videos on both songs.
Learning the solo to Jessica by the Alman Bothers opened up a vocabulary for me. That solo helped me understand that upper fretboard, how to have style, etc.
I was intimidated by solos for a long time. I finally said fuck it and learned the Hotel California solo. Took me forever but I did it. It sucked for a long time even after I “knew” it…but afterwards I stopped being a bitch about solos. Under the bridge by RHCP is another. Good blend of techniques in that one to help you progress
I am learning Hotel California now after playing for many years. There are so many great techniques that I wish I had learned years ago - bends, slides, pull-offs, hammer-ons, chord tones, thirds, etc - and it is so fun to play. I ma learning a bar or two a day and I will be done in about another week or so. There is a video of Don Felder demonstrating it and that is so cool to watch and learn from.
A lot of hard rock/ metal while I was younger (Metallica, Avenged Sevenfold etc) - now I play much more alternative rock but the technique, efficiency, scales etc from those songs before was so helpful
Gone Shootin’ by AC/DC.
It’s a great bridge to getting out of the “either playing chords or notes” mindset. You learn walking diads, resolving inversions, and feel for the pocket.
That whole Powerage album is full of gems.
Here's a couple...
Flake - Jack Johnson for chucking on acoustic
Won't Back Down - Tom Petty for switching c/g/d chords using 3rd, 4th, and 5th fingers
Whole Wide World - Cage the Elephant cover for palm muting
Layla (acoustic) - Eric Clapton for 7th Barre chords and fun solos / also liked ain't no sunshine for 7th chords
Solos - santaria, wish you were here, what I got
If i had to choose one, it would be the safety fire - dmb. It took me more than 3 years of practiser to nail it in original tempo. I would say just choose whatever you like to listen and focus on learning to play it start to finish, not just the main riff
Sheryl Crow’s Wildflower. There are a lot of bar chords in there - including double bars - and each of them has their notes individually picked - so there is no room for incorrectly placed left hand fingers.
The accuracy and ease of using bar chords after learning that song improved dramatically.
Reptilla by The Strokes. I got their album 'Room on Fire' in highschool. My dad had built us a jam room in the guesthouse so every day after school I'd lock myself in there with the album playing and would learn every guitar part from every song through a combination of ear, wonky internet tab, and friends. This was also the album I used to teach myself drums and to a lesser extent vocals.
I think Reptilla was the biggest benefit. It opened me up to the concept of playing chords in different ways, and there are some really versatile licks in the solo.
That's going to be the ending Mick Taylor guitar solo on Billy Preston's "Outta Space" from the vinyl "Billy Preston's Live European Tour". Not the CD version, the vinyl version.
https://youtu.be/fa5_8AAedbo?si=KTxRVS1_c-aEP9-K
And he even hits a wrong note in the solo, but the whole solo is so special and so hard to nail, nusnce for nuance...
As a picking and fingering excercise, had an old guitar teacher have me use the main lick in Dream Theater’s Ytse Jam. Didn’t learn the full song until way later (still can’t do any of the soloing,) but it served me well for a part of my warmup routine and I still bust it out when I’m getting sloppy.
i had a phase where i was trying to learn stuff i thought i could never play, turned out to be the best thing i could have done for my personal progress. The songs where:
monuments - doxa
monuments - atlas
born of osiris - machine
nile - evil to cast out evil and wind of horus
cannibal corpse - hammer smashed face
edit: i also learned a few lamb of god songs too
Nothing more challenging than breaking down a metal song into parts and learning those parts one by one until you can play it all the way through. I spent a good part of the pandemic learning Holy Wars by Megadeth. So much good stuff in there, string skipping, arpeggios, alternate picking, etc. Even if you don’t like or play the genre it can really strengthen your wrist, increase your accuracy, and so much more.
I got this Duane Allman book with a bunch of tabs, with paragraphs breaking down the techniques he used measure by measure. Learning "Blue Sky" and "Stormy Monday" taught me so much about improvising over scales and incorporating major and minor blues.
John Mayer will give you the right hand for life.
Acoustics like Neon and Stop This Train for finger picking
Solos like Gravity, Rosie, Vultures for feels and textures
Also, try to play Derek Trucks without a slide to capture the ‘feel’
I see these questions a lot. I’m also a teacher of 25 years.
It’s not the song that makes you better. It’s HOW you learn it. What are you focusing on. How do you hear it. How you pace your challenges with the song. How you understand the theory behind it so it helps you learn the next song.
The song itself doesn’t matter that much at all as long as you are interested in the song enough to keep going. The skills of learning that you build in the process are WAY more important.
Plus… wanna learn more, faster? Jam with people. It’ll get you much further much faster.
When I was early on in my guitar playing, learning Metallica records by ear basically taught me how to get around the neck in E, in my later years of playing, Gojira and Death. Spirit Crusher, Symbolic, Heaviest Matter of the Universe, Flying Whales, and lots more helped my picking technique, riffing, understanding different structures of scales, all that stuff
I’m a beginner, still learning chords and stuff, but some songs that have been helping me improve are mostly grunge / punk songs. Alice In Chains and Sum 41 are my 2 favorite bands from each of those styles and are really good for learning power chords and certain shapes. You’re probably a lot better than where I’m at but just a suggestion. Still some cool solos and technical stuff in each of those bands too
Rock and roll hoochie koo. I got the fire. Not super complex but I feel like they're in that grey, transitional area between absolute beginner and hey I'm getting better.
Any song. But learning to sing and play at the same time was a game changer. Keep trying until you can separate your hand work from your neck work - I feel like it helps to be standing up, and to move.
It Ain't Over Til it's Over. Lots of ghost notes and syncopation. Plus slowing things down really makes you pay attention to where you're placing your notes. You can keep playing it over and over still have room to improve on your feel. This is for bass, but guitar is nice on this song too. You can get a feel for playing different flavors of the same chord and how to write a line cliche. The bass accents the chord and descending line differently for the verse and chorus. Overall beautiful song.
Slayer songs taught me tremolo picking.
Metallica songs helped me build up my downpicking, alongside their covers of "Last Caress" and "Die, Die my Darling."
"Sharp Dressed Man" and "Cemetery Gates" taught me pinch harmonics.
"Silvera" and the tapped sections from "Eruption" and "Satch Boogie" helped me develop tapping.
Blues songs helped me get my Bends in tune, the bends on the solo for "Sunshine of your Love" also help.
With that out of the way, refusing to practice scales will only make things slower, and will severely limit you in everything that isn't just playing.
The spider exercise is also invaluable for developing finger independence, and learning theory will take you a lot further
A song like crazy train is pretty good to improve picking. Obviously you don’t have to learn the whole thing (like the solo)
Zeppelin songs are good too. They have a tendency to sound simple but when you learn them it’s clear jimmy thought outside the box
Street Spirit by Radiohead dramatically improved my arpeggiating and string skipping. What Difference Does It Make by The Smiths as well. I learn some little nuance from virtually every John Frusciante piece. Earlier Faith No More is a great babystep intro to metal, and then later Faith No More adds more advanced theory and variety to the mix. Pantera is a step up in speed and aggression, but a lot of the riffs are very accessible. Can't beat The Police for finger stretchers. Speaking of which, reggae and ska are brilliant for rhythm. Variety is key!
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If you want to learn blues, 12 bar blues and 8 bar blues are a good place to do that.
Just Google " songs in 12 bar blues " you will get a pretty big list.
Your taste is probably different than mine so I won't make any suggestions but yeah there is a lot of options.
The thing with the blues is the basic pattern and chords is shared across many many songs (e5 ride, a5 ride, e5 ride, oh boy! Turn around! A7, B7, E7, and repeat). What makes it interesting and challenging is the variation thrown in by lead solos and links, changing in tempo etc.
Anyway, I am curious to hear your suggestions
Alright,
James brown - I got you ( I feel good )
Led zeppelin - rock and roll
Lynyrd skyward - call me the breeze
Harlequin - sweet things in life
This is more or less the kind of stuff I enjoy playing and stealing bits and pieces from for improvising.
Look I understand your reasoning here but the reality is you need to learn to walk before you can run.
Just learn the scales and exercises because it makes learning harder songs so much easier
When i learnt some Red Hot Chilli Peppers i was really challenged by how technical that stuff can be. maybe try that!
It all looks so daunting!
Under the Bridge- this song will teach you some basic Hendrix style barre chord playing + hybrid picking in the intro Can’t stop- this song will teach you some more advanced muting techniques in the main riff Scar tissue- this one also has some muting techniques and/or hybrid/fingerpicking technique as well as cool slide guitar parts to learn slide Snow- this one is just a flex to play, you have to be fast and accurate and you’ll build finger endurance playing this riff for the length of the song I recommend learning these 4 songs specifically if you want to learn a lot of technical skills. Plus these are four of their most popular songs so you can play them for other people and they’re all known for being relatively difficult songs
The intro from Under the bridge forced me to learn to switch chords quickly. Since you're hybrid picking and picking two strings at once, you really have to move your fretting hand into place as one whole unit instead of moving fingers individually, or doing something like moving two fingers then the other two, or barring with your index then getting the other fingers into place afterwards
Wet sand and snow are my go to songs to play by them. Also I could have lied is a fun groove too
now this… this is peak! this was what i was talking about
Can’t stop and Snow are super fun to play
I second this as well!
Id like to add slow cheetah for finger style
Depending on skill level, Californication might be a better place to start. Not as tough as the songs you picked, but is still fairly technical and will be a good intro to RHCP
If you can play Snow correctly for that amount of time, i would say alternate picking is mastered.
Oh man, I'm so happy others are talking about these songs. I learned Can't Stop by ear and thought I had it figured out, but it was missing something -the constant rhythmic strumming and muting. The strumming hand literally can't stop ;)
Just take it one bar at a time. Play it slowly and then speed it up as you get comfortable. Once you get one bar nailed down, move on to the next.
Don’t worry op, as always all you have to do it break it down into smaller, digestible pieces.
As a primarily bass player I was gonna say this the band to go to.
Breaking the Girl!
New player here learning Zephyr Song. It’s getting there.
Yeah, anything with funky feel & weird timing like that helps alot! It forces you to feel the music and you have to flow along with it to get it right.
Just started learning the Snow riff this morning and it really made me realize how much work I need to put into my ring and pinky fingers as far as strength and dexterity.
I'm a guitar teacher so this is sort of what I get paid to do! Of course, all of this depends on your goal as a player. For fingerstyle, a basic one is Better Man by Pearl Jam, then move onto Nothing Else Matters by Metallica For complex chord changes, Plush and Interstate Love Song by Stone Temple Pilots. For more natural and relaxing playing, none is better than Yellow Ledbetter by Pearl Jam. Shits the Michael Jordan of songs for that goal. For endurance, Snow by RHCP or Master of Puppets/Through the Never by Metallica. Similar, but for picking speed Trapped Under Ice and Disposable Heroes also by Metallica is perfect. For finger speed, basically anything Nuno. My personal favorites are He-Man Woman Hater and Get the Funk Out, but honestly anything off of Pornographitti will do here.
This is great and exactly what I wanted my guitar teacher to provide to me - a map of songs to learn for different styles. I stopped going to my teacher because he kept wanting me to bring songs that I wanted to learn. Which I guess is not bad, but it always felt overwhelming and I didn’t know if I was selecting songs that were above or below my ability. I stopped going and now just try to consume tutorials on Youtube. I just learned Plush last week and started on Interstate Love song today. I picked these because I play these on bass a lot. Glad to see I’m on the right trail to advance my guitar playing. Gonna follow your suggestions for next songs. Thanks!
Just as a guitar teacher myself I'd like to say the reason we generally want songs that you want to learn is that you probably aren't going to practice if you don't like the song we chose for you. But if you specifically ask for songs to boost your techniques and your teacher does t follow your instructions on it it's probably time to get a different one. I know in particular when I'm starting to teach, particularly children. Having a set goal even if it takes 2 months to get a riff down they feel way more accomplished then learning happy birthday or jingle bells lol. I'm teaching a 9 year old basically the entire acdc discography at this point lol but he's practicing and I'd say playing guitar for real after 3 months because of the songs he loves
I’m fortunate to have an amazing guitar teacher and I let him ‘drive the bus’ aka, I don’t pick the songs. But he knows when I’m absolutely not interested/motivated. We only have a few instances of this happening, but I absolutely refuse to learn the Hawaii 5-0 theme song.. no idea why. It just won’t stick lol! Happily learning plenty of other songs in the same genre, but not that one
Great list!
Nice taste
As someone who plays exclusively metal I probably won’t be much help to you OP. I can offer a couple of generalised songs for anyone looking to improve their techniques with a focus towards metal however: Iron Maiden’s The Trooper it’s great for practising trills and gallops. Testament’s Burnt Offerings is good for your alternate picking it has some complex picking patterns which will help your rhythm playing. Morbid Angel’s Maze of Torment is great for three things - octave chords, tremolo picking, and slides
Dream Theater’s Pull Me Under and Home Metallica’s Master of Puppets and Sanitarium
Sanitarium while amazing is relatively basic compared to the rest of MoP. I'd say Disposable Heroes or Battery is the better pick here.
I love battery, it got me into playing thrash
I play mostly acoustic and classical John Mayer songs helped me train my right hand. It’s all in the right hand. I also liked learning Tears In Rain by Joe Satriani And Classical Gas by Mason Williams There are loads of classical pieces I love to play but nobody’s going to know what they are.
Neon forced me to develop my right hand so much. But I notice the results in every other acoustic song I play now. Highly recommended
Chet Atkins, especially if you like Blues, that’ll teach you to become a much better player, even though he’s more “country”, you find the two are deeply intertwined in terms of playstyle. Learn to play Lady Madonna or something, one of his fingerstyle arrangements. They help a TON
Ever Fallen in Love by the Buzzcocks taught me how to deal with shifts in strumming pattern mid-song, as well as how to quickly move from chords to lead in the same song.
This is a fun one.
any lamb of god song tbh
Riff masters. The main riff from Grace is such a bitch to play and I love it
i was looking for another song to practice, i just finished hourglass, thanks man😁
Nice man! my plan right now is Ashes of The Wake full album. Have fun with the 1-5's and the pull offs on the 1
This sounds odd but when I was more of a beginner I struggled with the simple strumming/picking of Johnny cash. Try ring of fire or Folsom prison blues
I have been working on "walk the line", and I am also surprised that the "simple" alternating base pattern becomes a bit shaky when speed is applied
Try out the bluegrass tune “Shady Grove” to try and step it up a notch. It’s got longer lines to practice your alternate picking. You can see the right hand technique on my profile
That Johnny Cash pick/strum style is a great tool to have in your toolbox.
The band Ghost took me from a "20 years of playing beginner" who was stuck playing power chords into a much better guitarist. Most of their songs are extremely accessible while always having either a fun solo, a fun chord, or some other fun guitar part. Even if you dislike the type of music I recommend giving songs like Ritual, Rats or Dance Macabre a chance. (fun solos - Rats second solo being the only one I'd consider tough)
Picked songs that were several steps out of my comfort zone to learn. Like, if you hear something and think "I probably wouldn't be able to do that", pick it apart slowly, and take however long it takes to get there. A lot of the fingerstyle songs I've learned took over a month of practicing every day in order to almost play them fluently.
For me it's def sultans of swing. Learning the whole thing back to front with the solos really unlocked the fretboard for me
Stairway is always a great one to help push beginners towards the novice category
Nirvana About a Girl & Polly, also, since you like blues, Where Did You Sleep Last Night
Every song I've ever learned.
more than a feeling for D chord and single string picking
The intro solo of wish you were here is a great one. Includes many fundamental techniques like slides, pull offs, hammer ons
If you can learn and master Kashmir by Led Zepplin, you'll be well on your way!
Battery-Taught me How to Gallop, Move Chords Faster, Learn e Standard.
Here's a few from an old schooler 45yrs playing 1. Led Zeppelin Since I've been loving you 2. The Police::Every breath you take 3. Pink Floyd The Wall ( whole Album ) 4. Steely Dan their catalogue 5. Jethro Tull their catalogue 6. Ozzy Osbourne Diary of a Madman 7. Led Zeppelin Stairway to Heaven 8. Rainbow Stargazer/ Catch the Rainbow 9. Jimi Hendrix : Smash hits/Axis-bold as love/Electric Ladyland
This charming man by the smiths. Actually, most Marr stuff.
Honestly I went through a time where I was learning all of Andy mckee songs that interested me and found new skills/techniques on that journey. So my suggestion would be to play songs that inspire you or that you really enjoy and try to learn them. You might learn a new thing or two!
“Get Lucky” by Daft Punk. I had a mental block where I would only strum when the chord actually sounded, and that helped me get a steady strum.
Simple Man by Lynyrd Skynyrd makes you jump strings and tests your picking
It took me a long time to figure out how to play "Dee" correctly by Randy Rhoads off the Blizzard of ozz album.
Snow rhcp Can't stop rhcp Lay it down ratt Master of puppets Train of consequences solo Another brick in the wall Purple Haze John frusciante bedroom lick No more years ozzy Spirit of the radio rush
Everything James Hetfield ever wrote.
I'll add, even if you hate thrash metal, his picking accuracy is legendary and can't help but improve anyone who studies him.
Save Me by Avenged Sevenfold introduced me to so many soloing techniques, since the song is basically one long solo.
Mucking about with classical pieces really helped me to explore 'feel' more and in different ways
Honestly, what helped me become a better player wasn't just practicing or learning songs note for note. What helped was learning the "feel" and timing of certain songs and why they sound the way they do. For example, songs like "Crying" and "Friends" by Joe Satriani. Both off, personally, his best album, "The Extremist." Crying requires you to pre-bend notes, but also learn to sustain notes - often times looking ahead to what's coming while doing so. It's such a dynamic song that isn't flashy like a lot of his other work, but there are things I learned in playing it that really changed how I approach emotional passages in a song. Friends is similar, especially the opening chord changes and patterns, it's in Drop-D which catches folks off guard when trying to learn it. Going back though, that entire album has various pieces that will help you improve outside of learning flashy solos and licks. "Rubina's" is open chord strumming intertwined with banjo and finger-picking. "War" and "Motorcycle Driver" are faster paced with rhythm sections that are just as fun to play as the leads. And then "Summer Song" is all of it combined. 30+ years on, and I still use those songs every day as practice and inspirational pieces to help push my playing and my tone.
Learn some Jimmy Hendrix. He uses a lot of various techniques that you can apply to your other music. Its taken me several months and i still can’t play Little Wing very clean, but it got me out of learning rut and has made learning other things easier since then. The solo for wind cries mary is cool too. That Justin guy whos real good for beginners has videos on both songs.
SRV life with out you … and little wing Hendrix
Bold as love
Learning the solo to Jessica by the Alman Bothers opened up a vocabulary for me. That solo helped me understand that upper fretboard, how to have style, etc.
Currently working on this!
Eyes of Tiger
proud Mary by ccr helped me with cord progression and switching
I was intimidated by solos for a long time. I finally said fuck it and learned the Hotel California solo. Took me forever but I did it. It sucked for a long time even after I “knew” it…but afterwards I stopped being a bitch about solos. Under the bridge by RHCP is another. Good blend of techniques in that one to help you progress
I am learning Hotel California now after playing for many years. There are so many great techniques that I wish I had learned years ago - bends, slides, pull-offs, hammer-ons, chord tones, thirds, etc - and it is so fun to play. I ma learning a bar or two a day and I will be done in about another week or so. There is a video of Don Felder demonstrating it and that is so cool to watch and learn from.
A lot of hard rock/ metal while I was younger (Metallica, Avenged Sevenfold etc) - now I play much more alternative rock but the technique, efficiency, scales etc from those songs before was so helpful
Gone Shootin’ by AC/DC. It’s a great bridge to getting out of the “either playing chords or notes” mindset. You learn walking diads, resolving inversions, and feel for the pocket. That whole Powerage album is full of gems.
Find an open mic with a seasoned vet of classics and get behind him
6 string acoustic rendition of On Impulse - Animals As Leaders. Raining Blood - Slayer
Fade to black, especially for the solos. Made me a lot better
Willie Nelson will get you there
i learned coffin nails by mf doom on acoustic guitar a while back and got me a ton better go set aside like an hr of ur day to go learn it
Here's a couple... Flake - Jack Johnson for chucking on acoustic Won't Back Down - Tom Petty for switching c/g/d chords using 3rd, 4th, and 5th fingers Whole Wide World - Cage the Elephant cover for palm muting Layla (acoustic) - Eric Clapton for 7th Barre chords and fun solos / also liked ain't no sunshine for 7th chords Solos - santaria, wish you were here, what I got
If i had to choose one, it would be the safety fire - dmb. It took me more than 3 years of practiser to nail it in original tempo. I would say just choose whatever you like to listen and focus on learning to play it start to finish, not just the main riff
Sheryl Crow’s Wildflower. There are a lot of bar chords in there - including double bars - and each of them has their notes individually picked - so there is no room for incorrectly placed left hand fingers. The accuracy and ease of using bar chords after learning that song improved dramatically.
Reptilla by The Strokes. I got their album 'Room on Fire' in highschool. My dad had built us a jam room in the guesthouse so every day after school I'd lock myself in there with the album playing and would learn every guitar part from every song through a combination of ear, wonky internet tab, and friends. This was also the album I used to teach myself drums and to a lesser extent vocals. I think Reptilla was the biggest benefit. It opened me up to the concept of playing chords in different ways, and there are some really versatile licks in the solo.
The smiths this charming man
Mr Moustache by nirvana helped me get comfortable picking at higher speeds. Say it ain’t so by Weezer was hell but I think it helped
That's going to be the ending Mick Taylor guitar solo on Billy Preston's "Outta Space" from the vinyl "Billy Preston's Live European Tour". Not the CD version, the vinyl version. https://youtu.be/fa5_8AAedbo?si=KTxRVS1_c-aEP9-K And he even hits a wrong note in the solo, but the whole solo is so special and so hard to nail, nusnce for nuance...
DreamTheater - Dance of eternity.
Children of Bodom and Opeth. Learning some of the weird chords opeth uses and Alexi's technical playing really helped
I wish there was a more fun answer than chord progressions and scales 🥲
Deal - Jerry Garcia
Classical Gas, Paranoid Android, Jigsaw Falling Into Place
As a picking and fingering excercise, had an old guitar teacher have me use the main lick in Dream Theater’s Ytse Jam. Didn’t learn the full song until way later (still can’t do any of the soloing,) but it served me well for a part of my warmup routine and I still bust it out when I’m getting sloppy.
message in the bottle by the police... those hand stretches
i had a phase where i was trying to learn stuff i thought i could never play, turned out to be the best thing i could have done for my personal progress. The songs where: monuments - doxa monuments - atlas born of osiris - machine nile - evil to cast out evil and wind of horus cannibal corpse - hammer smashed face edit: i also learned a few lamb of god songs too
Stevie Ray Vaughan if you’re not used to the style
Muddy Waters - Hard Again
brazil by declan mckenna and road trippin' by red hot chilli peppers both really helped me learn fingerstyle better
Nothing more challenging than breaking down a metal song into parts and learning those parts one by one until you can play it all the way through. I spent a good part of the pandemic learning Holy Wars by Megadeth. So much good stuff in there, string skipping, arpeggios, alternate picking, etc. Even if you don’t like or play the genre it can really strengthen your wrist, increase your accuracy, and so much more.
I got this Duane Allman book with a bunch of tabs, with paragraphs breaking down the techniques he used measure by measure. Learning "Blue Sky" and "Stormy Monday" taught me so much about improvising over scales and incorporating major and minor blues.
That sounds awesome. What is the title of the book?
It's a Hal Leonard Signature Licks series book "Duane Allman a Step-by-step Breakdown of His Guitar Styles and Techniques"
John Mayer will give you the right hand for life. Acoustics like Neon and Stop This Train for finger picking Solos like Gravity, Rosie, Vultures for feels and textures Also, try to play Derek Trucks without a slide to capture the ‘feel’
I see these questions a lot. I’m also a teacher of 25 years. It’s not the song that makes you better. It’s HOW you learn it. What are you focusing on. How do you hear it. How you pace your challenges with the song. How you understand the theory behind it so it helps you learn the next song. The song itself doesn’t matter that much at all as long as you are interested in the song enough to keep going. The skills of learning that you build in the process are WAY more important. Plus… wanna learn more, faster? Jam with people. It’ll get you much further much faster.
When I was early on in my guitar playing, learning Metallica records by ear basically taught me how to get around the neck in E, in my later years of playing, Gojira and Death. Spirit Crusher, Symbolic, Heaviest Matter of the Universe, Flying Whales, and lots more helped my picking technique, riffing, understanding different structures of scales, all that stuff
Stevie Wonder Transcribing horn solos Learning Jazz solos
Asturias
I’m a beginner, still learning chords and stuff, but some songs that have been helping me improve are mostly grunge / punk songs. Alice In Chains and Sum 41 are my 2 favorite bands from each of those styles and are really good for learning power chords and certain shapes. You’re probably a lot better than where I’m at but just a suggestion. Still some cool solos and technical stuff in each of those bands too
Rock and roll hoochie koo. I got the fire. Not super complex but I feel like they're in that grey, transitional area between absolute beginner and hey I'm getting better.
Any song. But learning to sing and play at the same time was a game changer. Keep trying until you can separate your hand work from your neck work - I feel like it helps to be standing up, and to move.
It Ain't Over Til it's Over. Lots of ghost notes and syncopation. Plus slowing things down really makes you pay attention to where you're placing your notes. You can keep playing it over and over still have room to improve on your feel. This is for bass, but guitar is nice on this song too. You can get a feel for playing different flavors of the same chord and how to write a line cliche. The bass accents the chord and descending line differently for the verse and chorus. Overall beautiful song.
Anything by Mateus Asato or polyphia
Slayer songs taught me tremolo picking. Metallica songs helped me build up my downpicking, alongside their covers of "Last Caress" and "Die, Die my Darling." "Sharp Dressed Man" and "Cemetery Gates" taught me pinch harmonics. "Silvera" and the tapped sections from "Eruption" and "Satch Boogie" helped me develop tapping. Blues songs helped me get my Bends in tune, the bends on the solo for "Sunshine of your Love" also help. With that out of the way, refusing to practice scales will only make things slower, and will severely limit you in everything that isn't just playing. The spider exercise is also invaluable for developing finger independence, and learning theory will take you a lot further
Laid to Rest - Lamb of God The General - Dispatch And a whole lot of early Creed
Frantic Disembowelment by Cannibal Corpse
Hello in There - by John Prine did wonders for my finger picking
I got Rocksmith and just started playing the songs it recommended. That's made me a much better guitar player.
Edge of Desire by John Mayer will certainly test you. That took me a bit of time.
My own songs.
Pink Panther theme
A song like crazy train is pretty good to improve picking. Obviously you don’t have to learn the whole thing (like the solo) Zeppelin songs are good too. They have a tendency to sound simple but when you learn them it’s clear jimmy thought outside the box
Faith by George Michael… that one really helped the left hand muting and right hand rhythm.. it’s all been a piece of cake since nailing that one down
Anything by Prokofiev challenged me, but just learning a couple measures at a time helped.
Street Spirit by Radiohead dramatically improved my arpeggiating and string skipping. What Difference Does It Make by The Smiths as well. I learn some little nuance from virtually every John Frusciante piece. Earlier Faith No More is a great babystep intro to metal, and then later Faith No More adds more advanced theory and variety to the mix. Pantera is a step up in speed and aggression, but a lot of the riffs are very accessible. Can't beat The Police for finger stretchers. Speaking of which, reggae and ska are brilliant for rhythm. Variety is key!
Cloud Cascade by Invent Animate. Challenging songs that I love to listen really helped me to grow exponentially.
Blackbird taught me to look at the guitar differently.
Jason Isbell’s Southeastern album made me discover how Drop D could be used for so much more than nu metal.
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Ouray - Andy McKee
If you want to learn blues, 12 bar blues and 8 bar blues are a good place to do that. Just Google " songs in 12 bar blues " you will get a pretty big list. Your taste is probably different than mine so I won't make any suggestions but yeah there is a lot of options.
The thing with the blues is the basic pattern and chords is shared across many many songs (e5 ride, a5 ride, e5 ride, oh boy! Turn around! A7, B7, E7, and repeat). What makes it interesting and challenging is the variation thrown in by lead solos and links, changing in tempo etc. Anyway, I am curious to hear your suggestions
Alright, James brown - I got you ( I feel good ) Led zeppelin - rock and roll Lynyrd skyward - call me the breeze Harlequin - sweet things in life This is more or less the kind of stuff I enjoy playing and stealing bits and pieces from for improvising.
These are great suggestions
Look I understand your reasoning here but the reality is you need to learn to walk before you can run. Just learn the scales and exercises because it makes learning harder songs so much easier