Iron Maiden Wasted Years Solo

It's a shame people are more interested in critiquing the performance instead of the tone and the preset freely shared for both the II and XL.

Thanks for taking the time Mark Day. Sounds really good to my ears.
 
It's a shame people are more interested in critiquing the performance...

kavoo enjoys the original, looks to it as a standard, and discussed it with the idea that Mark might be similarly interested. Mark wasn't. Oh.


Tone-wise, I haven't heard a Maiden song that didn't sound like a basic Marshall sound.
 
Really great tone, keeping in mind it's a thick, all-mahogany Les Paul, not maiden-ish stratocaster! Great skill also, as usual :)

Just one thing...

Looks like you're playing this solo a bit wrong way in two moments. It's pretty common case, I've also tried to learn it same wrong way from various tabs. Same mistake appears in the Lick Library series presented by Danny Gill. But if you listen very carefully to the original recording (or better - Adrian's mastertrack), you can hear the difference in first and third repetitive lick. Those pull-offs on the B string at the beginning are actually played by Adrian on two strings - B and high E :) Third repetitive lick is based on exactly same structure, just higher on the neck.

Check out this tutorial, this is the most accurate way to play this solo (concentrate on Figures 2 and 5):



Of course it doesn't change the fact, that your preformance sounds great and most of the people doesn't give a damn about those nuances ;) But trust me, when you are aware of them and play those licks properly, the difference is clearly audible :) Give it a try :)

Mark doesn't give a crap, it is better to interpret songs your own way, it makes you a better player with a better ear.
Learning songs note for note is a waste of time, wasted years?, play your own way. Shit, Adrian himself plays it
different depending on his mood, how he feels, etc... Guitar is meant to express, not to regurgitate, the whole cover
thing drives me nuts. Learn a part or two of your favorite tunes and then spin it into your own thing. We need NEW
music!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
Me too have to defend kavoo a bit since was only trying to be helpful. And Mark understood that.
To give some more background for kavoo`s post. In the Maiden fan universe it`s always been debated how to play this solo just like the original, and I think nobody really knows for sure. So that`s maybe why kavoo wanted to share some of his experience and knowlwdge on this particular solo. That said, all above on expressing themselves different and playing it their own way, are great off course. Just like Adrian Smith does himself. This one from 2009 is almost a New solo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNvPT8hT2Aw
 
Mark, thanks for the Fx II preset. Sounds great with my Jackson. I play in a maiden tribute, but only send out mono to FoH. After hearing this stereo preset I'm going to think it over. Can you tell me what's the meaning of the compressor- and first pitchblock in scene one and two, to engage with exp. pedal 1?
 
Kavoo, I haven't had much of a chance to reply. I've been away in Canada for the weekend. I appreciate that you play it note for note and I thank you for lending a hand. Like I said I've never been very good at note for note and just try to go for the vibe and then put my on take on it. I'm on old dog and quite lazy when it comes to figuring out solos..very lazy actually.
 
Kavoo, I haven't had much of a chance to reply. I've been away in Canada for the weekend. I appreciate that you play it note for note and I thank you for lending a hand. Like I said I've never been very good at note for note and just try to go for the vibe and then put my on take on it. I'm on old dog and quite lazy when it comes to figuring out solos..very lazy actually.

It's a little known fact that Canadians have to return to the Motherland periodically to repower their batteries on maple syrup and poutine otherwise when abroad they become combustible.
 
Kavoo, I haven't had much of a chance to reply. I've been away in Canada for the weekend. I appreciate that you play it note for note and I thank you for lending a hand. Like I said I've never been very good at note for note and just try to go for the vibe and then put my on take on it. I'm on old dog and quite lazy when it comes to figuring out solos..very lazy actually.

I haven't had a chance to address many posts that appeared in this thread during last days, 'cause of the most important weekend in this year - an AC/DC concert in Warsaw + lots of beer/bbq/party on the occasion ;) Actually I'm not a "note-for-note player" too, but in my case it's not about being lazy guitarist... it's about being crappy guitarist :lol The only Maiden solo I can play note for note so far is Murray's part of the Seventh Son, which I've posted here some time ago ;)

As for the all of haters jumping on me in this thread. It's nothing wrong with improvising while playing someone's solo. As I said - even biggest guitarists are improvising when playing their own solos live and Adrian Smith is no exception. But there's one very important thing I've observed long ago...
For me every solo consists of parts of... well, let's call it different importance. There are some runs or patterns which I call "fills" of less importance and those licks are often tend to be improvised under the influence of emotions and that's great. But there are also licks which defines whole solo and makes it recognisable... and those licks are always played note-for-note, even live, because they are some sort of the cornerstone. And in case of the Wasted Years solo those two repetitive licks I've mentioned are the great example of this.

H Smith posted above a link to Youtube which is excellent example of what I mean. If you take Adrian's performance as a whole - it's way off the original recording, he plays it totally different. But those two repetitive licks I was talking about he plays exactly note-for-note... if you take a closer look at his fingers, you'll notice that he doesn't play simple pull-offs on the open B string, he keeps his index finger on the high E and picks a note on this string :) Exactly like in this tutorial I've posted at the beginning (which was so contemptuously addressed by some of the repliers). It's also clearly audible on the original recording :)

Of course it's just my point of view and my way of perceiving music, I'm not forcing anyone to agree with it :)

OK, enough of this vivisection ;)

Only one observation to conclude this topic:
I'm a member of this forum not for long, but I've already had a chance to notice that many users are disturbingly hostile to everyone who dares to state different oppinions than theirs. In other thread I've even had a chance to be contemptuously called "Polandsky who probably stole his Axe-Fx because not a long time ago he couldn't buy anything for his Zlotys"...
Of course I'm old enough to be aware of that every community consists of some percentage of idiots, who have so much tension in their asses that only bats can hear their farts... but really - it's not comes out in favour of the FAS forum reputation. Especially if forum administration ignores reporting of those hostilities...

Forum is about mature discussion, not about lame flaming and discriminating other's opinions. So let's stay cool and assertive. Let's enjoy the music, playing guitar and above all - live and let live :)
 
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Me too have to defend kavoo a bit since was only trying to be helpful. And Mark understood that.
To give some more background for kavoo`s post. In the Maiden fan universe it`s always been debated how to play this solo just like the original, and I think nobody really knows for sure. So that`s maybe why kavoo wanted to share some of his experience and knowlwdge on this particular solo. That said, all above on expressing themselves different and playing it their own way, are great off course. Just like Adrian Smith does himself. This one from 2009 is almost a New solo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNvPT8hT2Aw

I'm not a gigantic Madin fan but when did they add a third guitarist and why?
 
I haven't had a chance to address many posts that appeared in this thread during last days, 'cause of the most important weekend in this year - an AC/DC concert in Warsaw + lots of beer/bbq/party on the occasion ;) Actually I'm not a "note-for-note player" too, but in my case it's not about being lazy guitarist... it's about being crappy guitarist :lol The only Maiden solo I can play note for note so far is Murray's part of the Seventh Son, which I've posted here some time ago ;)

Just to be clear to other posters, Kavoo does play those two parts correct and I do not. If you are learning those two sections then that is the way it should be done.

Mark
 
I'm not a gigantic Madin fan but when did they add a third guitarist and why?

When Adrian returned to the band before Brave New World release (Yanick replaced Adrian after Seventh Son) and they figured out that's the good moment to realize Steve Harris's plan he had in mind when Iron Maiden was born - to play as a 6-person band with three 6-string guitars.
 
Gotta agree with Kavoo on the importantce of sections. Those runs and the flashy stuff that people spend so much time woodshedding are really just how the original artist got from one significant phrase to the next.

It's like listening to your girlfriend talk. She thinks every word she says is of the utmost importance, and to her it s, but really you're watching SportsCenter and listening to every third word for key words, phrases and inflections so that you can react (agree) with her at the right time so that it appears that you're paying rapt attention. You're listening for "the point" and not all of the umms, of's and the's. They're the natural part of speaking that you take as a matter of course.
Same for a guitar solo. All those scale/chromatic runs and ostinato repeating superfast licks are placeholders, bridges from one point to the next. The Wasted Years solo is mostly just your girlfriend complaining about her mom. The only intersting parts are the bends, that comvey some sort of emotion.
 
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