Music Magazine

A heavy metal guitar solo is a musical piece or passage, which is a part of the whole musical performance. Guitar solos as such, have been the mainstay of guitar performances for quite some years now. So, if you have been fascinated by the magnificent guitar solos of heavy metal music or any other genre, knowing few important facts about them might help you to understand them better.

Guitar solos can be performed with an acoustic or an electric guitar, but for heavy metal music, you would need to use an electric guitar. They can be performed without any accompaniments, like in case of classical or folk music, an acoustic guitar solo is usually performed without the support of any other musical instrument. They can be performed along a band, which is precisely the case in rock and metal music. They can be even performed along with a full drawn orchestra.

Although lead guitar riffs have been used across many genres, the rock and the metal music schools have used them more than anyone else. The 1960s and the 1970s can be termed as the golden period of guitar licks and solos. This time period also coincides with the rise of many classic heavy metal bands like Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, and Judas Priest and so on. In the early 1980′s one of the most famous bands in metal guitar playing is Iron Maiden as they popularized metal music with their blend of galloping and harmonizing guitar music. Read the rest of this entry »