What's the difficulty of these songs / solos

MentalSharps

Would appreciate to hear how people consider the difficulty of some of these as I'm going to pick a few to try and learn over time - I'm trying to set myself a few targets / milestones to try and aim for over my first 2 years to help keep me on track giving me something to aim for and a variation of styles.

Also interested to hear if any of them stand out as "must learn" for whatever reason in terms of helping develop as a player. 

Deep Purple - Smoke on the Water (the alternate Solo on the 25th Anniversary Machine Head release)

Deep Purple - Highway Star (Solo)
Cream - Sunshine of Your Love (Solo)

Led Zeppelin - Stairway to Heaven (Solo)

Buckethead - The Patrolman

Lamb of God - Redneck 
Guns N Roses - November Rain (Solo)

The Eagles - Hotel California (Solo)

Pink Floyd - Comfortably Numb (2nd Solo)

ZZ Top - Blue Jean Blues
Iron Maiden - The Trooper
Megadeth - Tornado of Souls
Eric Johnson - Cliffs of Dover 

Joe Bonamassa - Sloe Gin (Solo that starts 5 mins in, the last 3 minutes of the song)
Jimi Hendrix - Purple Haze
Jimi Hendrix - Red House
Jimi Hendrix - All Along the Watchtower
Jimi Hendrix - Voodoo Child

Jimi Hendrix - Little Wing

robgilmo

That's a lot of songs to learn in one sitting.

Bellycaster

Everyone's idea of "Difficulty" is different. Don't go believing what some random Guitar Jock on t'internet says (me not included)

axisus

I'd say that some of them are tough, but what do I know, I can't seem to learn anything. Just start with a relatively easy one like Hotel California and work up to stuff like Cliffs of Dover.

bingefeller

I'd say that Stairway to Heaven is a must learn because it's a great solo and a lot of guitarists know how to play it.  It's a legendary song too.  

Hotel California is another music learn IMO.  It has great solos with really nice harmony parts and loads of tasty phrasing.  I'd go for this one first.  

bingefeller

Forgot to mention, MentalSharps, there is an Eagles song called Long Road Out Of Eden which has a great Joe Walsh solo, as impressive as Hotel California IMO.  

Roland

Steuart Smith’s solo work on Boys of Summer is good too, but not really suitable for a jam session.

MentalSharps

robgilmo said:

That's a lot of songs to learn in one sitting.

Yikes.. definitely not that. I am hoping to pick one to learn after 6 months, one for 12 months, one for 18 months, and one for 2 years, all scaled accordingly to keep pushing me forward with a sense of progression.

And even if I don't achieve them at the target time, hopefully I'll still be gaining a lot from it.. and then will keep working on them in between the next target.

It's just tough for me to judge how hard things are to play as I've just started learning. Little Wing sounded simple to my ears, but then I read how it's more tricky than it seems and a fair bit harder to make it sound halfway decent, especially for a beginner with crap "feel" for the instrument.

@Bellycaster I'm sure you're right. I'm sure someone who does speed exercises daily and practices tapping and sweeping to a metronome right from when they start playing would find a superfast shreddy pentatonic tapping solo easier to play at 12 months than someone who had a more balanced approach to learning a bit of everything. But that same person would probably struggle like hell to play some expressive blues piece. But is there not even a really general idea on difficulty for learning things at certain times in a player's progression and when they might be most useful to learn for most people?

. 

MentalSharps

bingefeller said:

Forgot to mention, MentalSharps, there is an Eagles song called Long Road Out Of Eden which has a great Joe Walsh solo, as impressive as Hotel California IMO.  

Thanks, that's a great shout. I've not listened to any Eagles except Hotel California.

IvanMC

Tornado of Souls is not of this Earth. It's got everything: massive amounts of feeling, a variety of modes, it's technically demanding... it's epic.
November Rain is incredibly melodic. I can't think of anything better for that musical context.

CarpeDiem

I'd suggest Comfortably Numb (both solos), November Rain, and Along The Watchtower as the first ones to try. You may find that you don't get all of each solo initially, and can come back to any parts you find challenging. This could take weeks or months. I've suggested these solos as they have sections that should help you get your timing/phrasing/string bends right; all essential skills you can build on. Some of the solos such as Tornado Of Souls and Cliffs Of Dover are at the Advanced Player level, but you could try sections of these as your proficiency increases. In terms of timescales, this will partly depend on how much time you can devote to your playing. Good luck, and have fun with it!

fastonebaz

High way star guitar solo is pretty easy.  But the key board solo played on guitar is pretty hard to master at the right speed . took me a while to get it and I still wouldn't say I've mastered it. 

Placidcasual79

MentalSharps said:

It's just tough for me to judge how hard things are to play as I've just started learning. Little Wing sounded simple to my ears, but then I read how it's more tricky than it seems and a fair bit harder to make it sound halfway decent, especially for a beginner with crap "feel" for the instrument.

I am far from an advanced player and don't play a lot of rock (Ive never heard the majority of songs you mentioned) 

But I learnt little wing simply because it moves me and that motivated me to learn it. If your not enjoying what your doing chances are your not going to put the time in. The solo(s) are pretty simple to learn and id suggest learning the rest of the song would be advantageous to your development as there are interesting melodic ideas within each of the chords......

Anyway you've got a plan and thats more than Ive ever had - so I am sure you'll get there and good luck!