In that he was a genius.
My latest project to learn theory and technique is ‘Top of the world’ from F.U.C.K.
Several challenging phrases (well for me anyway) but good god, there are so many imaginative components in there.
The basic chord structure is so simple and generally diatonic E major stuff. But the actual guitar parts are epic.
Intro- simple melody (developed from solo outro of Jump) with e pedal note
Verse- hybrid picking thing with pedal open strings but with amazing feel (swing) and using simple melody lines using the 7th
Chords- sus 4s everywhere
Chorus- same base chords as verse but different voicing (A is a root and major 3 as opposed to root and 5 in the verse)
Liberal use of over dubbed tapped harmonics (haven’t figured this out yet) but it sounds lovely
Break down- there is a arpegiated chord section starting B, C, D just before the solo which is nice but bloody hell, the rhythm is hard to get. Nowhere near the beat
Solo- very tasteful and melodic. A slow wah part, picked arpeggios, and a couple of quick runs (which I haven’t analysed as yet from a theory perspective but is adding a few outside notes that aren’t in the major scale)
all up it’s been a very enjoyable song to learn.
Genius.... but that’s a statement of the obvious and you already knew that right?
An official Foo liked guitarist since 2024
Comments
For me, no one after him has done anything significantly new in rock and pop guitar.
the final solo legato run is 4 5 b7 root 2 b3 4 5 5 6 b7 root 2 b3 2 root b7 then bent up to the root
By my reckoning that’s an E natural minor in a song that’s in E major. While that’s outside traditional diatonic convention, it sounds well - is this because the run is so fast, the notes are effectively’passing notes’ so it ‘doesn’t matter’
Hows my analysis on this? Ok or utter bs?
Knowing theory actually slowed me down learning VH solo's because I was always trying to play his solo's and stay in key, when in fact I should have just used the same pattern across the strings like he does. It's basically almost Bebop
The solo changes key, but as it is predominantly power chords there's a fair bit of 'overhang' in the ear so to speak.
That legato run is over Bsus (i think!), or a B5 at least. To my ears that section is in D (typical rock bIIV IV I thing), it looks like he used B Natural minor (same pool of notes as D major) for the final legato line. It doesn't matter that he plays a C# in the line despite the C chord in the previous set chords. The ear accepts it as we're hearing D as home and that ambiguous B chord which our ear hears as the relative minor (but actually throws us back to the key of E). Plus the speed he plays it helps too.
I agree with what @Danny1969 says, I doubt he would have thought too hard about the notes, just using his ears and a scale shape that works. Although I disagree that it's almost basically Bebop
Almost all rock solo's have some kind of passing note which isn't technically in key. You can describe it as modal and in some cases it intentionally is ... in other cases it's not totally intentional but the result of a pattern on the guitar that's comfortable to play.