Guitar solos

Hi!

So today I was listening to my iPod on shuffle and "November Rain"  by Guns 'N' Roses came on. Guns 'N' Roses is a band I have listened to most of my life, mainly because of my dad. Anyway, as I was listening to this great, over nine minute long song, Slash's infamous guitar solo began to play. I then started to think of other songs featuring guitar solos and what makes them so great.

As I'm sure all of you are aware, most radio play songs are around 3 or 4 minutes long. A guitar solo in a song can be anywhere from a couple of seconds long to a couple of minutes long. In the longer cases, like in "November Rain", there is usually a radio edit, partially cutting off the guitar solo or entirely cutting it out from the song.

This proves most true in the song "Free Bird" by Lynyrd Skynyrd. When performed live, the song can go over 14 minutes long. During that 14 minutes is a 5 minute and 12 second guitar solo. The guitar solo is longer than most songs even aired on radio today. Needless to say, it's pretty impressive.

The element of a guitar solo that I enjoy the most is just allowing myself to get lost in the music. A lot of great music and talent is often covered up by catchy lyrics and hooks. However, when there is an instrumental break to really let other band members shine, it can be quite spectacular.