Adrian Smith

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I agree with Cried's SIT comments. Most of the lead stuff on that album is not that difficult to play, apart from the solos, of course. I'm a bass player and I'd consider myself only at intermediate level on guitar but I got almost all of SIT leads (again, apart from solos) on my first attempts to get them.
 
I was being serious! :D
(Seriously, I'm not that good; it's not as hard as you think.)

I learned Dave's HCW lead way back in the early nineties when I first got my electric. More recently, now that I have marginally better gear, it's amazing how close I can sound to the album. It's a lovely little solo, skipping over notes, with nothing unbelievably fast, by Dave's standards.

Adrian's Stranger lead is just lovely, if you get the tone right. But, I'm not sure; Adrian's sound here is... twinkling --that's the only word to describe it. There's more than just his guitar going on there; I suspect guitar + synth were employed.
 
Oh, just to clarify, I (perhaps a little loosely) use the term "lead" principally to describe "the solos" (i.e. the improvised bits Steve doesn't bother to stay in the studio to hear! :D) --not Adrian & Dave playing harmonies for example. I consider these just other rhythm parts; I'd call these "fills", "bridges", etc.
 
The Flash said:
I agree with Cried's SIT comments. Most of the lead stuff on that album is not that difficult to play, apart from the solos, of course. I'm a bass player and I'd consider myself only at intermediate level on guitar but I got almost all of SIT leads (again, apart from solos) on my first attempts to get them.
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Well, you also have never been the most modest guy on the forum, also not about your musical talents. This post was no exception (how surprising!). The thing is: you've never showed it either: Words are wind.

Seriously, this guy was really good and when you two say it was not that difficult, then forgive me for saying that it doesn't come across as very convincing.
 
If you think I'm going to make some crud YouTube video to satisfy your suspicion that I can't play SiT very well (in reality), then... I'm afraid you misjudge what kind of guy I am, Forostar.

Do you say this as a guitarist?

[EDIT: Btw, I didn't say he wasn't good.]
 
I never said this guy wasn't any good. He plays great and enjoyed the video, too. I don't know what you got furious about so quickly Foro, so much that you went ahead to argue with my modesty and my musical talent that you have no idea about. I don't need to prove you anything, excuse me. I play for myself, I do what I'm pleased to do and I don't care about any appreciation about it. I do get them, though. Hell, why would I brag about an instrument I'm only intermediate at ? That doesn't make sense. Somewhere in Time's leads ARE not that difficult to play and many guitarists would tell you the same.

Actually, just ask the guys on the forum who play the guitar and posted stuff of theirs here. Maiden leads are in general not that hard to play. There are of course, exceptions.

Want example of something I can't play by Maiden ? Opening riff to Back in the Village.
 
Alright, then I'm curious if anyone would like to show other vids (there must be tons out there!) with the same quality playing. Playing the same songs of course.
 
No, I can't be bothered trawling through YouTube to show you; it's mind numbingly tiresome. Plus, YouTube appears to be peopled by thousands of people who think they can play something, but really can't. These guys you stumble upon (like the above) aren't geniuses, they're just decent guitarists, who have a half decent gear set-up. The rest (of the decent players out there) don't spend hours posting crap videos.
 
Alright then: this is all about this guys tone (see his own comments). What Dave actually plays is not (by guitar standards/rock standards) that technically difficult in Powerslave. But this guy adds a pretty good (I'm not saying it's amazing or anything) imitation of his style with a pretty good attempt at Dave's tone, from around this time.

 
This kids cover of AtG (commented on in other part of the forum a while back; particularly in respect to his attempt at Adrian's bridge in the middle) is also pretty decent. Note his tone is nothing remarkable --but the playing is good. (He doesn't do Dave's lead.)

 
The bass in this is pants, but I think he just recorded it to play over. It's also not really stylistically very Maiden, but he can play decent enough.

 
This is a silly argument. With practice, an intermediate guitarist should be able to play SIT material with ease. Who cares about that though? It's all in the song writing. I'd take SIT over a good amount of Dream Theater's super hard guitar wank any day. Has nothing to do with difficulty.
 
I know I can't. I wouldn't even consider touching that song
 
All right, I've solved this little dilemma.
I just happen to have a Jackson guitar (a black one, which will naturally throw the tone a little off-colour).
And I happen to have a Digitech RP250 (which, of course, is only half as good as the RP500).
But it does have the solo delay setting that I am able to customize with a chorus effect.
Even pushed through my Roland 15-watt practice amp, when I squint my ears the sound is not way different from Somewhere in Time.
The music, that is another story.
But I blame that on that well-known malady — Canadian lumberjack fingers. Quite common up here.
(Everyone knows Alex Lifeson was actually born in Serbia or Croatia, or some place like that).
Non-Canadians I'm sure would sound just as good as that nice Irish fella in the movie.

Edit: (I'm not kidding about the equipment, or the results)
 
Mosh said:
With practice, an intermediate guitarist should be able to play SIT material with ease.
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It also has to do with talent. Not only practice.
CriedWhenBrucieLeft said:
YouTube appears to be peopled by thousands of people who think they can play something, but really can't.
Click to expand...
However: there are not thousands of people on YouTube playing SIT songs.

edit: Just heard the videos and these guys were certainly not bad! The first guy certainly had that Dave tone. I liked the 2nd the most because what he did was most difficult to play. He also did a decent job from Deja-Vu!

So, good vids but that still doesn't mean it is not difficult. These guys come close, but lots of others can't. So about the earlier guy: he was not pretty able and familiar, he was very able and very familiar! Not sure what is meant with an intermediate guitarist but I don't think this stuff is played with ease, also with practice. After all, Maiden is no easy music.
 
Mosh said:
This is a silly argument. With practice, an intermediate guitarist should be able to play SIT material with ease. Who cares about that though? It's all in the song writing. I'd take SIT over a good amount of Dream Theater's super hard guitar wank any day. Has nothing to do with difficulty.
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I agree with this comment but way to diss DT. And I know you like them too. Not saying DT don't wank ever but I don't think they should be the first example about guitar wanking. Most people seem to pick DT as their go to example and that annoys me.
 
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