For sure the most infamous Children Of Bodom solo, Kissing The Shadows is up there with the most legendary shred solos of all time and is (unsurprisingly) a serious challenge!
The one redeeming factor of this solo is that all of the shapes, patterns and fingerings are all very bog-standard and probably nothing you haven't encountered before. The only trouble is the sheer speed! Executing some of these runs cleanly at the required BPM is no easy task and will be an ultimate test of your...
2025-08-21 14:28:43 +0000 UTC
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Quintuplets is the name given to groups of 5 notes, as opposed to triplets (groups of 3s) or eights/sixteenths (groups of 4s). Popularized by legendary players like Eric Johnson and Shawn Lane, quintuplets are often overlooked by most guitarists, so today I wanna change that!
In this video I'm gonna show you a relatively straightforward way that you can implement them into your playing with economy picking to really spice up your solos and set your playing apart from the triplet-spammi...
2025-08-16 21:16:13 +0000 UTC
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Hey everyone! I've been so focused on creating new lessons and developing sick new features for all of you that I realize it's been a while since I posted a proper update. So in case you've missed anything over the past few months here's EVERYTHING that now comes with a membership of Bradley Hall's Guitar School...
Free Membership
- A small selection of free lessons and exercises to give you a taste of what we offer
- Access to the public channels of the BHGS...
2025-08-14 21:19:34 +0000 UTC
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One of, if not the most, infamous sweeping solos of all time, Jeff Loomis unleashed the ultimate sweepy challenge on this legendary song. No melody or feel to be found here, just 16 bars of pure shredding hell!
It goes without saying that a firm grasp of sweeping mechanics is required to attempt this at full speed, but regardless of where you are on your guitar journey this is an AMAZING workout for practicing your core arpeggios shapes - especially those pesky rolling ones.
2025-08-08 15:38:31 +0000 UTC
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Would you like to win a free 30 min one-on-one guitar lesson with me? Well now's your chance!
The rules are simple - simply download the backing track attached to this post, come up with a cool solo and film yourself playing it! Then when you're done just upload it to the Google Drive in the pinned post on the Discord Server (in the special monthly solo challenge channel).
But there's a catch! Your solo has to adhere to the following rules for it to qualify (bec...
2025-08-05 20:16:13 +0000 UTC
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Easily the sickest solo from any Death song, Trapped In A Corner is a super cool trade-off between Andy LaRocque and Chuck. It's unusually technical for a Death solo and will definitely put you through your paces, with some pretty furious alternate picking lines and fiddly fingerings. In true Death fashion there's a whole lot of Harmonic Minor everywhere but Andy adds some variety with some exceedingly tasty melodic passages during his part.
This is a super fun solo to jam for mid-leve...
2025-08-04 22:07:40 +0000 UTC
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Sight-reading is the ability to play a piece of music from the tab/notation with little-to-no preparation and is an incredibly useful skill to have as a musician. The faster you can sight-read the quicker you can process and learn musical information, which can greatly increase your efficiency when it comes to learning new songs! It's also an absolutely essential skill if you plan to get into either session work or function work.
Sight-reading is something that I've continuously worked...
2025-07-26 13:50:12 +0000 UTC
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Alex Skolnick of Testament is for sure way up there in a list of most criminally underrated guitarists of all time. Not only does he have killer chops, but his sense of melody and creativity is world class - so I figured it's about damn time we went over one of his solos!
The awesome solo in Electric Crown is perhaps his most iconic, featuring all of his signature moves such as big legato runs, fat pinches, tasty Blues licks, and even some modal interchange. It's also surprisingly easy...
2025-07-18 11:16:06 +0000 UTC
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An interval is the distance between two notes, described by their quality (i.e. major, minor) and size (i.e. 2nd, 5th). They're part of the key building blocks that make up the core of music theory fundamentals and absolutely all guitarists should spend some time understanding them and familiarizing yourself with them!
Being able to quickly process intervals and translate them to the fretboard will make an absolutely monumental difference to your ability to quickly work out son...
2025-07-10 16:41:29 +0000 UTC
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As we get closer to ticking off all of the biggest, most iconic solos in Metal I realized I've somehow missed this absolute classic! This s
As we get closer to ticking off all of the biggest, most iconic solos in Metal I realized I've somehow missed this absolute classic!
This super fun solo should be very comfortable for experienced beginners and low intermediate players as there's not too much going on technically. The biggest challenges I faced with nailing this one was keepin...
2025-07-04 14:00:28 +0000 UTC
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My monthly solo challenges are the perfect chance to put everything you've learned so far to the test! Download the backing track, see what you can come up with, film it, and share it with us on the Discord server. Good luck!
2025-07-01 11:19:30 +0000 UTC
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Pantera solos are not only excellent technical studies for intermediate-level guitarists, but also amazing exercises in feel and articulation - and Domination is no exception!
Domination has all the hallmarks of a classic Pantera solo: Dime's trademark combination of fast legato and alternate picking, brutal vibrato, crazy whammy bar work, and not to mention some absolutely obscene, stretchy wide-interval licks.
Word of warning: if you don't have much experience with wide-interv...
2025-06-26 17:30:39 +0000 UTC
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What exactly is it that gives a guitarist's sound personality? Yes, things like tone, gear and phrasing are all big factors, but in my personal opinion the #1 biggest contributor towards a guitarist's musical personality is their vibrato.
Vibrato is an incredibly subjective and personal topical which makes it very challenging to teach - but I'm proud to present this comprehensive masterclass where I break-down all the different types of vibrato, how they function and ...
2025-06-18 22:57:33 +0000 UTC
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It's getting to the point now where I've done a good portion of the big iconic solos and can start going a lil' deeper. Which should I do next? Also feel free to comment additional suggestions down below! Multiple choice allowed btw.
2025-06-16 07:41:48 +0000 UTC
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I've been bombarding y'all with some pretty advanced stuff recently so I figured it's time to briefly chill and provide something for our less experienced brethren!
The solo to this classic tune consists of very straightforward fingerings and patterns, making it a perfect introduction to lead playing. There's also a good amount of 3/4-step bending and some syncopation in the rhythms, which will most likely provide a lil' bit of a challenge for fresh-faced guitarists.
Go...
2025-06-10 13:09:21 +0000 UTC
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My monthly solo challenges are the perfect chance to put everything you've learned so far to the test! Download the backing track, see what
My monthly solo challenges are the perfect chance to put everything you've learned so far to the test! Download the backing track, see what you can come up with, film it, and share it with us on the Discord server. Good luck!
2025-06-07 11:44:06 +0000 UTC
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By far the hardest solo I've covered so far here at the Guitar School, Winter Madness has (rightfully) earned itself a reputation as one of the most challenging solos in the Metal guitar repertoire - so proceed with caution!
Unlike many solos where the difficulty revolves around 1 or 2 particular techniques, Winter Madness is the ultimate test of technical ability and will really push your alternate picking, sweeping, legato, economy picking and tapping.
It may seem scary but it...
2025-06-04 13:53:01 +0000 UTC
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My band Twilight Force is renowned for having some of the most dense, complicated orchestrations in Metal, with hundreds of tracks and compositions closer to classic film scores than typical Metal songs.
In this bonus masterclass video myself and Alvo sit down with band mastermind Daniel "Blackwald" Beckman to go over his creative process and offer loads of amazing tips for incorporating orchestration into your own music!
0:00 Intro
4:21 What is a virtual orchestra?
12:3...
2025-06-01 21:00:24 +0000 UTC
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Out of all of the core guitar techniques, alternate picking is by far the most nuanced and difficult to master. Being able to obtain strong, consistent, clean alternate picking is a goal that the majority of guitarists strive for and spend countless years pursuing - and what better time to start your journey than now!
After covering all the basics in pt.1 we're moving on to the next logical topic - the dreaded string transitions! Alternate picking is not much of a challenge when playin...
2025-05-30 20:05:36 +0000 UTC
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Out of all of the core guitar techniques, alternate picking is by far the most nuanced and difficult to master. Being able to obtain strong, consistent, clean alternate picking is a goal that the majority of guitarists strive for and spend countless years pursuing - and what better time to start your journey than now!
I've teamed up with our head tutor Joe Potts to bring you an extensive 3 part masterclass on alternate picking where we take you through all of the essential information ...
2025-05-30 14:10:19 +0000 UTC
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No matter how long you've been playing guitar I firmly believe that bending is something you should be continuing practicing. It doesn't matter how fast you are or how good your technique is, if your bending accuracy and quality sucks then it's automatically gonna make you sound like an amateur.
Achieving consistent and accurate bending pitch is a discipline that can take years to perfect and something that requires frequent upkeep to maintain. Whether you're a beginner or a seasoned v...
2025-05-23 15:32:35 +0000 UTC
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It's no secret that my favorite guitarist of all time is Marty Friedman - my approach to playing and how I visualize/conceptualize guitar music is nearly entirely down to him and his super unique philosophies towards the instrument.
So I was obviously insanely stoked to finally get a chance with the legend himself and pick his brain about all things guitar, Megadeth, songwriting, soloing, philosophy and even martial arts!
Sit back, relax and enjoy this full 90 min extended cut esp...
2025-05-15 16:44:12 +0000 UTC
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Today's lesson is very special as it's the first student request! If you're not aware you earn a special currency called BEANS (obviously) on our Discord server which you can spend on awesome rewards such as free membership, guitar lessons and song requests (like this). Our esteemed member Heat Death was the first to earn enough to buy a lesson request, so congrats to him!
He was super keen for me to cover some Carcass so I thought I'd go with their most well known song, the absolute c...
2025-05-13 15:14:59 +0000 UTC
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Despite "Bed Of Razors" being one of Children Of Bodom's most famous songs, the solo is among the easiest Alexi ever composed for the band (thankfully for us mere mortals!). It has a super cool, steady triplet feel throughout which it never accelerates past.
If you're interested in Alexi's signature style of playing but have been intimidated by the difficulty of many of their songs then this is the perfect introduction to get you started! With just some basic sweeping and alte...
2025-05-08 22:17:41 +0000 UTC
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My monthly solo challenges are the perfect chance to put everything you've learned so far to the test! Download the backing track, see what you can come up with, film it, and share it with us on the Discord server. Good luck!
2025-05-03 12:13:59 +0000 UTC
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"Nobody" by Avenged Sevenfold is a modern day classic and is already infamous for its insanely demanding technical requirement. This solo will test your economy picking and sweeping precision to its limit!
I used the official transcription from Synner as a base for this lesson, but fixed a bunch of parts to match the proper album version (the official transcription is the live version for some reason), so you can jam along to the original.
Also, if you're looking to spice-up you...
2025-04-30 15:35:11 +0000 UTC
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In my opinion this is a top 3 Iron Maiden solo of all time and for some reason often overlooked in favor of their other big songs. This solo oozes energy and contains some seriously fun, addictive licks!
Even though the licks and shapes aren't particularly hard, at a no-messing-about tempo of 200 bpm this solo will really put your Blues-y boomer-bends chops to the limit and demand some incredibly on-point hand synchronization.
Good luck and don't forget to share...
2025-04-24 16:34:35 +0000 UTC
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I know a lot of you are super keen to either learn how to do whammy bar techniques or expand your current repertoire, so I figured it's time to finally tick this one off the list!
I've written this fun lil' workout which incorporates a bunch of different whammy bar tricks which you can incorporate into your playing. It's divided it up into 3 parts in order to cover as much ground as possible: core techniques, subtle/expressive techniques, and dives/squeals. Please note that you'll need...
2025-04-17 21:51:39 +0000 UTC
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The time has come to wrap-up the Rust In Peace solo transcriptions with the final song on the album, the groove-laden "Rust In Peace...Polaris".
Unlike all the other songs on the album (minus "Dawn Patrol, of course), there's no 'prop' solo to be found on this one; only a couple of short, 4 bar mini-solos. They're still fun to rip though and worth transcribing for completion's sake.
It's been a tonne of fun (and a huge challenge) to "solve" these solos for you all and I sincerel...
2025-04-10 21:44:24 +0000 UTC
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Take no prisoners! Take no shit! The Rust In Peace solo transcriptions continue with this balls-to-the-wall Thrash classic.
This solo is quite similar to Five Magics in the sense that it mostly seems very off-the-cuff, with many of the licks having a much looser, and more improvized, feel compared to the more well known solos on the album. It's nowhere near as fiddly and adventurous as many of the Rust In Peace solos but should still provide a fun challenge for experienced intermediate...
2025-04-08 18:38:00 +0000 UTC
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