Pro Guitar Solos - Play & Help

Smudge Mouse

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Right, the intention of this thread is for us to suggest and discuss our favourite solos within rockband 3 (whether it is being played in-game with the Mustang/Squier or played on an amp).

This has come about mainly because I've become obsessed with being able to perform the solo part of Smoke on the Water. One day it is my belief I can do it at full speed :laugh:

Attached is a template if you want to follow the same format. I've placed a Key Section to the right so you can easily grab the symbols/colours used.
 

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Man, I love this solo :D, I just wish I could play it at any decent speed.

Charting

Where to start? Ok, first things first. I've attached a spreadsheet version of my scribings from the game charts. It follows the same flow as rb3, i.e. bottom-top approach but doesn't show any of the timings. Instead I've broken down the solo into discrete sections which kinda play at their own speed (I've also indicated fast sections with an 'F').

I was debating whether to just chart it in normal tab convention but decided to try this as it keeps the same layout as rb3 and it fits neatly on a single screen.

Suggested Amp Settings


Bass:9 Middle:7 Treble:3 Gain:9
Reverb On, Metal

Tips/Advice

No real tips I can give out yet ;) but I do have a questoin about the sustain and repeats on the 5th section of the chart. Here we go 10, 11, 13 and then a 13 sustain on the High E. Whatever I try to do, that second 13 just sounds wrong. It's the right note but I can't figure out what I'm supposed to do with the string to make the right noise.

Any ideas?
 

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  • SotW-Solo.png
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  • SotW-Solo-Squier.xls
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No real tips I can give out yet ;) but I do have a questoin about the sustain and repeats on the 5th section of the chart. Here we go 10, 11, 13 and then a 13 sustain on the High E. Whatever I try to do, that second 13 just sounds wrong. It's the right note but I can't figure out what I'm supposed to do with the string to make the right noise.

Any ideas?

I'm pretty sure this is a full bend from listening to it now. The idea is you play the note then bend the string up (towards the lower pitched strings) till it sounds the same as the note 2 frets higher (in this case 13 from 11). Rock Band can't chart this so it appears as 2 separate notes rather than a single note with a bend - the bridge of More Than A Feeling is similar. You'll need to use 3 fingers including the fretting one to have the strength to bend the string - it's impossible with one finger.

Nice idea though about the charts.
 
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I've noticed on tabs that you get full bends, half bends etc... but how far is a full bend? Up to the next string or further? Or is it something you can eventually tell by the sound?
 
I've noticed on tabs that you get full bends, half bends etc... but how far is a full bend? Up to the next string or further? Or is it something you can eventually tell by the sound?

It's all in the sound. How much you bend will depend where on the fretboard you are and which string. As I say a half bend takes you up 1 fret and a full bend 2 frets. There is even a quarter bend to take the bend out of pitch - this is used during the intro to Led Zeppelin's Whole Lotta Love.
 
Well done Smudge, can I suggest you post a blank template here so that anyone can adapt and post further solos in similar style? (Assuming it can be read in Excel/Works spreadsheet or similar)
 
Not to undermine all Smudge Mouses hard work, hopefully to complement it, but there's a guy on the RB forum doing something similar.

He's done a few of the solos now, but his are in standard tab, with any bends, vibrato, slides etc and also proper musical notation as well. No idea how accurate it is and it's probably not as easy to read as Smudge Mouse's if your only used to the RB3 format.

http://http://www.rockband.com/forums/showthread.php?t=213376

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Well done Smudge, can I suggest you post a blank template here so that anyone can adapt and post further solos in similar style? (Assuming it can be read in Excel/Works spreadsheet or similar)

I can put up the spreadsheet here (later tonight), just thought the image format would be more immediately presentable. ;)
 
Not to undermine all Smudge Mouses hard work, hopefully to complement it, but there's a guy on the RB forum doing something similar.

He's done a few of the solos now, but his are in standard tab, with any bends, vibrato, slides etc and also proper musical notation as well. No idea how accurate it is and it's probably not as easy to read as Smudge Mouse's if your only used to the RB3 format.

http://http://www.rockband.com/forums/showthread.php?t=213376

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It's excellent stuff. I think I'll print out a copy to learn the bends :smashin:. As you say I went for being compact with my description.

One thing of note is that those versions are for the mustang only (although I can't believe it would be too difficult to adjust for the squier).
 
It's just some of the higher frets need to be upped an octave for a proper guitar or something, which is sadly beyond my limited knowledge :)

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I actually like Smudge's new format, now used to RB, copyright it quickly!
 
Excellent work Smudge, cheers for the effort :thumbsup:
 
AndrewH13 said:
I actually like Smudge's new format, now used to RB, copyright it quickly!

Most definitely, Smudge's is so much easier to read at anything other than an extremely slow crawl for me :)

I still spend way too much time working out which string is which on anything other than either E when it comes to proper tab.

Outside RB the other one is good for doing the bends and stuff that you cant do in game.

We're lucky to have two such excellent resources available to us and what with Smudge's template and the other guy's leg-work charting those other solos, which I'm sure can easily be put into Smudge's format, we're laughing :devil:

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The other thing that would be useful is a list of arpeggio shapes for each song. These are intensely annoying as they aren't chord numbered and are a guaranteed missed note if you haven't played the song recently.
 
Great Work Smudgy
 

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  • Smoke On The Water - Deep Purple.zip
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Just been having a look at that, I'm pretty sure it's been asked before in one of the threads, but I can't remember what the answer was, but right at the end of that tab there's a sequence of 10s, 9s and 8s but all in brackets so like (10)(10)(10)(9)(9) etc... What does that mean? Play muted notes or something?

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Just been having a look at that, I'm pretty sure it's been asked before in one of the threads, but I can't remember what the answer was, but right at the end of that tab there's a sequence of 10s, 9s and 8s but all in brackets so like (10)(10)(10)(9)(9) etc... What does that mean? Play muted notes or something?

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That is a sustained note. If you look at the musical notation able the notes are connected by a curved line - usually because the note can't be displayed easily without using 2 connected notes, or it crosses into another bar. You play the first note 8 then the second note is a continuation so not strummed, hence is in brackets. I think you have the iPhone version of Guitar Pro so play it and listen as the bar progresses.

See this section I've taken a screenshot of. All three notes are sustained and of different duration, but note the final part of the sustain is in brackets. The 3 is held for 6 beats in total (1+1+2+2)
 

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They don't appear to be tied (I'm not questioning you, btw I dare say you know a lot more about musical notation than me :rotfl:) I understand the concept of tied notes, but the ones I mean are from the solo tab that you posted, in bars 21-23, they appear to be 8th notes (I think!) The ones that look like a u with a lump on each prongy bit, to use the technical term :rotfl:) but not actually tied. In fact some of them only have brackets around the latter half of the u. In bar 23 you even have rests between the bracketed notes.

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They don't appear to be tied (I'm not questioning you, btw I dare say you know a lot more about musical notation than me :rotfl:) I understand the concept of tied notes, but the ones I mean are from the solo tab that you posted, in bars 21-23, they appear to be 8th notes (I think!) The ones that look like a u with a lump on each prongy bit, to use the technical term :rotfl:) but not actually tied. In fact some of them only have brackets around the latter half of the u. In bar 23 you even have rests between the bracketed notes.

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Which instrument are you looking at? All the bracketed notes cross into a second bar and are continuous. At the start of bar 22 this is a quaver (1/2 beat or 8th note), but is continuous with the crotchet (quarter note or full beat) that preceeds it in the previous bar. You need to look at the musical notation above to see the notes joined together the bracket is the way it is shown in tab.

Or are you looking at something else?

The musical notation is above the tab, not below it. There are no rests in bar 23 which makes me wonder if you are pairing up the wrong things.
 

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  • Screen shot 2011-05-12 at 14.29.39.png
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I wonder if we're actually looking at the same tab:D

The one I'm looking at is called Smoke on the Water - Solo

Don't know how to post a screenshot from my iPhone or I would:)

Actually, I've just found out how to take a screenshot, so let me see if I can upload it.

I had a listen to it as well and it definitely sounds to my untrained ear like seperate notes, played very quickly rather than sustains.
 
Let's try this then

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Let's try this then

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I've had to look that up, but they seem to be "ghost notes" that are effectively optional.

Not to be confused with muted notes that have an x as part of the musical notation.
 
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