Who´s playing that ?

MigDaimon

Trooper
Maiden has 3 guitarrists. And most of the songs have 2 or 3 solos. So who is soloing in each song ?

Here´s an interesting method that can be used so you can learn the differences beetween the 3 main guitarrists of Maiden and even recognise who is soloing. You can search in the commentary for these information or even visit a webpage that I made about the subject which have a list of every main solo in Maiden songs. However I think that this method is more enjoyable and really teaches you. Its different when you get a list already made and when you make a list after understanding how it is made.

But first, a couple of things must be said. First one is that words are not as good as sounds. That means that the explanations given here are more usefull and even easier to understand when you listen to the songs. And even to get the feeling and style of every single guitarrist HEARING is more important and the most easy way, although some kind of interpretations are too subjective and in this case you should remember that I´ll give MY POINT OF HEAR so it may differ from yours.

Second is : I am not a musician. At least not yet ! I want to take some guitar lessons in a couple of months. But although I have a good hearing and a good musical ear I am not a musician. That means that I may say some wrong words or even worst things. Please, forgive me, I´ll try to do my best, so you do your best to forgive my ignorance. And in the end, if I do not have a musical formation, I can write things that other non-musicians might understand.

Ok so here we go. As I said each guitar player has its own style. With time you will realise this and learn each style.

So lets start. Get you Live After Death copy. An awesome album ! Now get a good headphone, earphone or anything that has the word "phone" on it (but please, not the telephone). With a headphone its easier to listen, you´ll see.
Now comes the good part of the method. All you have to do is listen Maiden ! Can you imagine something better !?
You should know that EVERYTHING that you hear in LEFT SIDE belongs to DAVE MURRAY while in the RIGHT SIDE you have ADRIAN SMITH. That´s how official live albums works: DAVE MURRAY ON THE LEFT AND ADRIAN/JANICK on the other side (this doesn´t count to albums which came after BNW).
So listen and write down the solos that you hear. For example: In the song Rime of the Ancient Mariner you will hear that the first solo goes to the right side (Adrian) and the second goes to left side (Dave) so write in a piece of paper all the songs like the following.

Rime of the Ancient Mariner
Adrian/Dave

You can start with any other live official albums, for example ARLO or ARDO. It’s the same method. But avoid Rock in Rio and bootlegs. Some bootlegs are done the same way official live albums (Dave on left and the others on the right) but that´s not for sure. Most boots are the reverse of what I have explained and some are just, lets say, "mono" so you don´t listen two separeted channels. Rock in Rio and all live recordings with the "3 amigos" together are hard to listen the guitarrists in separated ways. Only those who have a 5.1 sound system may listen Rock in Rio in full glory. In this case Dave is on the left, Adrian is on center and Janick gets the right channel.

After you had finished LAD (or other live album) come back to your studio albums and listen to the song which you had noted down the solos. You may ask me: Why ?! Well, while playing live the guys tend to be a little faster or even to improvise a little bit (a lot if we speak of Janick) . So here it’s the main part of the method. You had discovered who does the solos. Now you will learn the style of each guitarrist. Now only you can do that. Listen, listen, listen and listen again to the songs. Try to describe how the solos are and compare your descriptions.

I´ll try to make a brief description of each style. Here you have to remember again THAT I AM NOT A MUSICIAN.

Since I am not so good in English I will use the word "high" to say sharp notes and the word low to say "notes that are not sharp" (Yes I don´t know the opposite of sharp)

Dave Murray - Dave has a very characteristic sounding. Listen to his solos in Prowler and in The Trooper for example and you will hear the "real Dave Murray sounding". He likes to make high notes. Its very commom to listen a Dave solo that starts with high note. In others he starts with lower notes and once he gets to the higher ones he never gets down. He is fast although when he does a slow solo he almost overflow with feeling (see Intro solo of Still Life). When he plays you get the feeling that you are travelling to another dimension, specially in faster ones on which he can play lots of notes (usually high notes) in little time.
When you listen to a Dave solo and don´t see where it starts and where its ends.

Adrian Smith - Almost the opposite of Dave. He "never" starts on high notes, instead he likes to go up and down, from high to lower notes. But never as high as Dave. His notes are almost "centered" ones. Since he really compose his solos, he does the most perfect ones. When you listen to a Adrian solo you see that it has a begin, a middle part and an end. Another difference is that usually he doesn´t do fast solos, he prefers mid tempo or even slower ones. Exceptions are Children of The Damned for example. When he comes to slow solos he is the king. There are no words to describe this, just listen the solos of Wasted Years or Stranger in a Strange Land and you will see what is a "real Adrian Smith slow solo".

Janick Gers - The most easy to define. He likes to used I lot of distortion (yes I know what you, MUSICIAN, will say : Without distortion there is no rock and roll). I know that, but Janick uses a special kind of distortion, allied with low notes, which gives a "dirty" sound to his guitar (can´t remember the name of that now). Listen to the awesome solo of The Aftermath or Montsegur and see the "real dirty solo of Janick Gers". Please, I´m not saying that Janick is bad or something like that. I´m trying my best to just say the characteristics and not give any opinions. Sometimes a Janick solo can send you to travel, he is kind of "lysergic" (The Aftermath is the one I remember now).
In these days Janick added a lot of new elements to his solos. He is still dirty but not that dirty anymore. He has become a little bit more progressive. Listen to his solo in Dance of Death (third one) and see what I´m talking about. Also we have some exceptions (for example the second solo of Blood Brothers) that sound totally "Unjanick".

When I started paying attetion to solos I used a method that can be called listen and exclude.

When you listen a solo :

Is it dirty ? Then is Janick

It has lots of notes in high speed : Dave

Its none of the above : Adrian

This is very usefull to BNW and DoD. Also you can think this way : If its not fast, not perfect, a little bit dirty then its Janick.

Anyway, this is very generic, but is useful. Listen with YOUR ears and learn


After you have finished all solos you can visit the lyrics in the commentary and see if you´ve done right. Or you can go to

[a href=\'http://www.maidensolos.hpg.ig.com.br/Solografia.doc\' target=\'_blank\']Maiden Solos (Solography)[/a]

which has a list already made and very reliable (that´s my website I mentioned, although you my not understand the language, please, visit the rest of it).

In closing, I just want to say that it would be good to have some comments by musicians who can clarify and explain things better. In fact, any kind of commentary is good !

Hope I´ve done myself clear and hope that I could help a bit.

Thanks !
 
I'm not a musician (I'm a bloody drummer!!! [!--emo&:p--][img src=\'style_emoticons/[#EMO_DIR#]/tongue.gif\' border=\'0\' style=\'vertical-align:middle\' alt=\'tongue.gif\' /][!--endemo--] ), but this was a very enjoyable read. Thanks, Mig.

Can LooseCannon beat the length of this post? [!--emo&^_^--][img src=\'style_emoticons/[#EMO_DIR#]/happy.gif\' border=\'0\' style=\'vertical-align:middle\' alt=\'happy.gif\' /][!--endemo--]
 
[!--QuoteBegin-Maverick+Jul 20 2004, 06:44 PM--][div class=\'quotetop\']QUOTE(Maverick @ Jul 20 2004, 06:44 PM)[/div][div class=\'quotemain\'][!--QuoteEBegin--] I'm not a musician (I'm a bloody drummer!!!  [!--emo&:p--][img src=\'style_emoticons/[#EMO_DIR#]/tongue.gif\' border=\'0\' style=\'vertical-align:middle\' alt=\'tongue.gif\' /][!--endemo--] ), but this was a very enjoyable read. Thanks, Mig.

Can LooseCannon beat the length of this post?  [!--emo&^_^--][img src=\'style_emoticons/[#EMO_DIR#]/happy.gif\' border=\'0\' style=\'vertical-align:middle\' alt=\'happy.gif\' /][!--endemo--] [/quote]
Many thanks Mav, but it seems the others don´t think that [!--emo&:unsure:--][img src=\'style_emoticons/[#EMO_DIR#]/unsure.gif\' border=\'0\' style=\'vertical-align:middle\' alt=\'unsure.gif\' /][!--endemo--] [!--emo&:unsure:--][img src=\'style_emoticons/[#EMO_DIR#]/unsure.gif\' border=\'0\' style=\'vertical-align:middle\' alt=\'unsure.gif\' /][!--endemo--] [!--emo&:unsure:--][img src=\'style_emoticons/[#EMO_DIR#]/unsure.gif\' border=\'0\' style=\'vertical-align:middle\' alt=\'unsure.gif\' /][!--endemo--] [!--emo&:(--][img src=\'style_emoticons/[#EMO_DIR#]/sad.gif\' border=\'0\' style=\'vertical-align:middle\' alt=\'sad.gif\' /][!--endemo--]
 
Wasn't my stuff copyrighted? ;-)

No, seriously, good to see more people are busy with analyzing Maiden-solos!

Myself I never "thought" about the solos, but after hearing I "felt" which guitarist plays which solo. I recognized the style and sound. Nice to see that there are also other ways to find out! I especially like the way you described the 3 amigos! And yes: The LAD video is a good way to start orientating. [!--emo&:)--][img src=\'style_emoticons/[#EMO_DIR#]/smile.gif\' border=\'0\' style=\'vertical-align:middle\' alt=\'smile.gif\' /][!--endemo--]


I remember, for me, the hardest solos to analyze were "Mother Russia" (at some point it's very difficult to hear if it's Dave or Janick) and "Invasion".

Cheers!
 
Maverick, the current length record holder is Perun. His AtG post blew all of mine out of the water...


...till I finish a neigh-undethroneable post that will soon be done!
 
Loosey, wow!

[img src=\'http://hjem.get2net.dk/hosser/bb/SMARTASS.jpg\' border=\'0\' alt=\'user posted image\' /]



[!--emo&:lmao:--][img src=\'style_emoticons/[#EMO_DIR#]/lol.gif\' border=\'0\' style=\'vertical-align:middle\' alt=\'lol.gif\' /][!--endemo--]
 
[!--QuoteBegin-MigDaimon+Jul 20 2004, 12:05 PM--][div class=\'quotetop\']QUOTE(MigDaimon @ Jul 20 2004, 12:05 PM)[/div][div class=\'quotemain\'][!--QuoteEBegin--] ...and the word low to say "notes that are not sharp" (Yes I don´t know the opposite of sharp) [/quote]
Flat is the opposite of sharp, musically speaking. But that's not the word you're looking for - your selection of "high" and "low" is much better here. So relax, don't sweat not knowing the technical music terms, you're doing great without them.
 
Back
Top