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Memorable lead breaks


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I was thinking about this, and a documentary about ACDC I saw around Christmas time. The bit that struck a chord (ahem) was that all the guitar parts had to be singable by a listener by design.

 

Thinking about that I get it - if you can whistle it or hum it in the car when you are listening to it, it sticks in your head.

 

taking it away fro guitar parts I worked out that some of my favourite bits of some old 80s songs were the sax parts, which often turned up the hook or soaring lead break.

 

This one for example isn't everyone's cup of tea, but I absolutely love the sax part in the intro, which is picked up and expanded at they change two thirds into the song - really memorable.

if I ever try to write something, that's the kind of thing I'm sure I'd want tot try to incorporate, rather than my boring and piss-poor Blues based shitty waddling.

On the radio today in the car was View to a Kill by Duran Duran... The bassline is awesome! Using some proper listening, amazing what you can hear :)

 

What other memorable non guitar breaks do you lot like? What do you think - does this make sense..?

 

 

 

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Loads of Mike Campbell leads on Petty tunes. Woman In Love comes to mind. MAry Jane's Last Dance too.

Honky Tonk Woman...both rhythm and solo.

Van Halen---So This is Love has a very singable solo.

 

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Nearly all of Dickey Betts' solos could have been copped note-for-note by a human voice or whistle and sounded natural within the song. Ditto for Gilmour. 

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This isn't a particularly hummable or singable song, it has a repetitive beat more than anything else, plus the solo is all guitar...I can whistle it, but only because I've heard it a zillion times before.  However, it drove many a guitar player to learn (or try to learn) the licks note-for-note almost immediately, regardless of whether you caught it all with the first listen or not.  The fun starts at 2:39:

 

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Lemmy bass in Ace of Spades. Does that count. Even if it does not count I don't care. It awesome! And you for sure can't whistle it. You have to shout out: dö dö dö dö dö dö dööö döö, dö dö dö dö dö dö dööö döö, dö dö dö dö dö dö dööö döö, dö dö dö dö dö dö dööö döö, dö dö dö dö dö dö dööö döö, dö dö dö dö dö dö dööö döö, dö dö dö dö dö dö dööö döö!!  The best melody line ever for beer drinking.

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Three more:

The sax break on this one always gets me high and singing (go to 1:19 if you don't want to listen to the whole song):

 

This one is a clarinet, I think. I love it. I sing it. If you cannot handle Spanish or cannot overcome the cultural barrier, just jump to 1:11. The solo break remains universal: :) 

 

Besides those two, the solo in Lionel Richie's "Hello" sounds melodically awesome to me as well, but I cannot find it in YouTube. It's a guitar, but I always hear a sax in my mind on that one. Here's the Spotify link to the song. If you cannot handle the syrup, just jump to 2:40:

 

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11 hours ago, Jakeboy said:

Loads of Mike Campbell leads on Petty tunes. Woman In Love comes to mind. Mary Jane's Last Dance too.

Campbell's solos are deceptively simple so that anyone should be able to sing them.  Nailing them to get the same effect is harder than it sounds.  Even if someone does not have the range to sing the parts they still want to try.  The same could be said for Dave Gilmour's first solo in Comfortably Numb.

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Back when I was attempting to teach younger players about general guitar topics, I held one guy up as the undisputed (in my mind) king of fantastic, singable lead breaks: Elliot Easton.

When it comes to non-guitar, my indisputable lead break king is Paul Desmond.  Butter flowed from every note and was the perfect counter to other instruments in any group with which he performed (Dave Brubeck being his most famous gig).

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Whether whistled or sung, there is something to that, I think. It's maybe an excuse for my slow fingers, but I've always been drawn toward melody and my favorite solos are singable. Off the top of my head...

  • The solo Elliot Easton plays in "Shake it Up" by The Cars is perfection
  • The above-mentioned "Comfortably Numb"
  • The main melody from Mozart's overture to Le nozze di Figaro
  • The guitar solo in Cheap Trick's version of The Move's "California Man"
  • Half of Mike Campbell's solos, as already mentioned
  • Miles' great first solo in "So What," in which he flubs it and keeps going
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Just now, velorush said:

Back when I was attempting to teach younger players about general guitar topics, I held one guy up as the undisputed (in my mind) king of fantastic, singable lead breaks: Elliot Easton.

When it comes to non-guitar, my indisputable lead break king is Paul Desmond.  Butter flowed from every note and was the perfect counter to other instruments in any group with which he performed (Dave Brubeck being his most famous gig).

Desmond was THE MAN. His solo in Strange Meadowlark is genius. My brother and I both used to play alto sax (he still does) and we both tried to ape his sound. Paul Desmond's fluid melodicism was the perfect balance to Gerry Mulligan's more angular, aggressive baritone.

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Perry's first solo in Walk This Way and the beginning of the outdo.

 

Whiteford's solo in Dream On...at least the first half where he just walks us down the pentatonic minor scale in F.

+1 on Shake It Up a masterful and FUN solo!

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22 hours ago, Bennyboy-UK said:

I was thinking about this, and a documentary about ACDC I saw around Christmas time. The bit that struck a chord (ahem) was that all the guitar parts had to be singable by a listener by design.

 

Thinking about that I get it - if you can whistle it or hum it in the car when you are listening to it, it sticks in your head.

 

taking it away fro guitar parts I worked out that some of my favourite bits of some old 80s songs were the sax parts, which often turned up the hook or soaring lead break.

 

This one for example isn't everyone's cup of tea, but I absolutely love the sax part in the intro, which is picked up and expanded at they change two thirds into the song - really memorable.

if I ever try to write something, that's the kind of thing I'm sure I'd want tot try to incorporate, rather than my boring and piss-poor Blues based shitty waddling.

On the radio today in the car was View to a Kill by Duran Duran... The bassline is awesome! Using some proper listening, amazing what you can hear :)

 

What other memorable non guitar breaks do you lot like? What do you think - does this make sense..?

 

 

 

That song might just be one of the absolutely best 80's pop songs there is :D

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