What Maiden Songs can You Play?

Been playing bass for a couple of weeks, I can play The Clairvoyant, Only the Good Die Young and Caught Somewhere in Time. Just because of the speed of my fıngers. Playing with just two, too. Kind of a natural ability, I think.  :lol: But I'm still not good at controlling the fingerboard.
 
You little Steve Harris you! (Except he didn't have enough room)
 
Bit new around here (read for a while but newly signed up :)), so not seen this section before.. was wondering why there wasn't one :D

I play guitar, no where near as well as I'd like given I've been playing best part of 6 years.. but, I have no one to play with so there's less sort of.. push to improve. I'm more of a rhythm player due to the simple fact: I can't do solo's, and I know no scales or music theory of any kind (even chord names!) so I can't really improvise well ;) Can't sweep pick or anything like that :(

So... to a good or 'passable' degree, the songs that come to mind as being playable all through by Maiden (excluding solo's):

Final Frontier - When the Wild Wind Blows (the only one I've tried so far)
AMOLAD - Different World, These Colors Don't Run, Brighter than a Thousand Suns, The Pilgrim, The Longest Day, The Reincarnation of Benjamin Breeg, For the Greater Good of God, The Legacy
Dance of Death - Wildest Dreams, Rainmaker, No More Lies, Dance of Death, Paschendale, Face in the Sand, Age of Innocence
Brave New World - All
Virtual XI - Clansman
X Factor - Sign of the Cross, Lord of the Flies
Fear of the Dark - From Here to Eternity, Afraid to Shoot Strangers, Wasting Love, Fear of the Dark
No Prayer for the Dying - Holy Smoke
Seventh Son of a Seventh Son - All but Prophecy (never tried)
Somewhere in Time - Caught Somewhere in Time, Wasted Years, Heaven Can Wait, Stranger in a Strange Land
Powerslave - Aces High, 2 Minutes to Midnight, Losfer Words, Flash of the Blade, Powerslave, Rime of the Ancient Mariner
Piece of Mind - Where Eagles Dare, Flight of Icarus, Die With Your Boots on, The Trooper, To Tame a Land
Number of the Beast - Children of the Damned, The Number of the Beast, Run to the Hills, Hallowed be Thy Name
Killers N/A
Iron Maiden - Phantom of the Opera, Remember Tomorrow

There are very few tracks I've tried to play and can't, things like Alexander the Great I can play all but that bit before the solo's that's in the funny timing, and the solo's... I don't consider that part of the solo though so I don't consider myself able to play the song Can do the other guitar line though :p). I can't remember the vast majority of the above song's off by heart, as almost all my guitar playing is done to PowerTabs/GuitarPro - That's how I have learnt all songs, I sight read. But essentially, I will learn the most 'lead'like gutiar line for a song that I can, and give the solo's a go if I can. I can do most harmonies just not the solo's.

I can't think off hand what other song's I've tried and fail at (I think Man on the Edge is one due to that bit towards the end!) most the Maiden songs that aren't listed above are just a case of never trying to play them.

Most fun to play I think is either Phantom, Hallowed or Dance of Death.
 
Just learned Hallowed Be Thy Name on bass yesterday. So, I can play four Maiden songs for now, Hallowed Be Thy Name, The Clairvoyant, Only the Good Die Young, Caught Somewhere in Time. I've been playing bass for 1-2 months and learning by myself, I suppose it's a good start  :bigsmile:
 
Man there's some impressive musicians on these boards. I bet H can't play most of Davey's solos and vice versa, but yet there's people on here that can play both! All lead, all rhythm of every Maiden song!
 
This is a total myth. If you listen to quite a lot of Dave's lead work on SiT (& TFF), some of it is very like H's, on the same album. But you very, very rarely hear H (or Janick) play anything even remotely resembling Dave's more "twiddley" stuff. I'm sure they could though. All three a very good guitarists.
 
CriedWhenBrucieLeft said:
This is a total myth. If you listen to quite a lot of Dave's lead work on SiT (& TFF), some of it is very like H's, on the same album. But you very, very rarely hear H (or Janick) play anything even remotely resembling Dave's more "twiddley" stuff. I'm sure they could though. All three a very good guitarists.
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Ah I didn't mean it quite that literally. My point is that it's very easy to pretend to be a guitar god on the interweb, when in fact the reality is quite different.

Frankly I don't believe those who say they can play all. Those who say they 'improvise the solos', like they have a choice, are basically saying they can't play the solos.

Honesty on these threads makes for more interesting reading IMO
 
Not really taken literally, just observing what I think some folks might genuinely think.

I agree with what you just said above. I'm a pretty poor rhythm guitar player; I've never really liked chord work, always favouring picking etc --whether classical, or metal, or whatever. I like lead/solo Maiden the most; and I'm alright with most Maiden stuff --but if you can only play the solos, you can't really play along to the whole song --so I tend to make an effort to learn a whole song that I really like, while picking up & learning the odd lead/solo for others. Example: I love ATG --so have learnt all the parts. There are a few small quick runs, like at the end of H's solo, which I can play as fast, but just don't seem to quite play in time. Other than that, it's really just about remembering --if you really want to play along you have to learn everything thoroughly; there isn't really any shortcut. But, like you say, I'm not sure if I believe some claims --I see stuff on YouTube, & I'm like "What the fuck is that? --you aren't even close to playing that right!". To me, "just improvise the solos", means either can't be bothered learning the solo, or simply can't play it --as you say.
 
I used to study the Steve Harris basslines..  I learned every song through the 7th Son album, when I started getting busy with my own bands.
 
CriedWhenBrucieLeft said:
Not really taken literally, just observing what I think some folks might genuinely think.

I agree with what you just said above. I'm a pretty poor rhythm guitar player; I've never really liked chord work, always favouring picking etc --whether classical, or metal, or whatever. I like lead/solo Maiden the most; and I'm alright with most Maiden stuff --but if you can only play the solos, you can't really play along to the whole song --so I tend to make an effort to learn a whole song that I really like, while picking up & learning the odd lead/solo for others. Example: I love ATG --so have learnt all the parts. There are a few small quick runs, like at the end of H's solo, which I can play as fast, but just don't seem to quite play in time. Other than that, it's really just about remembering --if you really want to play along you have to learn everything thoroughly; there isn't really any shortcut. But, like you say, I'm not sure if I believe some claims --I see stuff on YouTube, & I'm like "What the fuck is that? --you aren't even close to playing that right!". To me, "just improvise the solos", means either can't be bothered learning the solo, or simply can't play it --as you say.
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Yeah the youtube thing is quite funny sometimes (I actually have a few vids up under this username, so hopefully am not in the same category as the people we're talking about!). There is an element of disbelief with some people where you wonder how they think they are even close to getting it right.

Frankly, I just try my best to follow who I consider to be 2 of the best guitarists around - H and Davey. No one can play like H, Bruce's quote on the main website sums him up perfectly - "His guitar playing sounds lazy, like the notes are almost falling over each other but they never do. You actually hang on every note that he plays, because you don’t quite know where it’s going to go next"

I can get close some of the time, but I have been very frustrated at times where what I play doesn't sound anything like the guy, even though the notes are there or there abouts.

I enjoy playing the live stuff, and more often than not just playing rhythm and melodies. I love Flight 666 these days as H has added bits to some of the songs, Rime in particular. Trying to learn those bits and follow along is very satisfying. Also, Brighter Than Thousand Suns on Abbey Road is great for the same reason.

I love seeing the live stuff and noticing than H is in drop D, and thinking mmm I think il learn it that way - Fear of the Dark, Number of the Beast, Brave New World etc. That adds a new dimension and sound to the song.

But then I have moments where I want to try and get close to Dave's sound on Maiden England - one of the best live guitar sounds ever. Playing along to Hallowed (not on Maiden England CD, but Donington version will do!), TNOTB with a good sound is great.

My point here I think is that I play along with Maiden as a very enjoyable hobby. If I have a particular song in my head from the iPod il try and figure it out - Talisman is my latest.

There is a few vids on youtube where the individual instruments have been extracted, so you can hear just the guitars in 2 mins, Powerslave, TNOTB etc. That helped me loads to not only learn the notes, but to also hear the style of the guys when they recorded. Great way to learn the songs.
 
Loads of great points.

I wasn't really aiming my barbed remarks at you, or any other of the guitarists on this forum; but, as you say, at YouTube.

Playing along really is the fun part, and much of Maiden's stuff is just a matter of learning, rather than being very difficult --and it's amazing how crap (or very unpolished) quite a lot of guitar music sounds when you break it down to just the one guitar part. It gives you heart. Lets you hear that it is possible to play like these guys.

H's live additions, of late, to older material are really good, as you say. Does H really drop his sixth string to D? I saw an interview recently with them talking about not doing that, what with their Floyd Rose locking etc.

Either way, you sound way ahead of me in your playing. One thing I would point out --& maybe I just haven't looked around YouTube that much --but I see a lot of people playing H's lead work, and nobody really playing Janick or Dave's. Am I just not looking? Either way, I've heard plenty of people nailing H leads --but haven't heard anyone really nail a "classic" Dave lead. So, I hear you in regard to H's genuis, but he's not, in my opinion, the hardest to play.
 
I see it the same way, In my opinion Davey's the most technically difficult. Janick has the speed, but he doesn't care about picking in time, so his fast solos sound the way they sound, but Davey has speed and precision. And in addition, compared to other technically skilled guys in metal world (I'm not giving names so we don't start a flamewar, but everyone knows  :P ), Davey's solos have heart, soul, are fun to listen.
 
CriedWhenBrucieLeft said:
I wasn't really aiming my barbed remarks at you, or any other of the guitarists on this forum; but, as you say, at YouTube.
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Yep, I know, im with you on this one

Does H really drop his sixth string to D? I saw an interview recently with them talking about not doing that, what with their Floyd Rose locking etc.
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Yeah absolutely. Check out some of the Brave New World vids from Dublin 2010 (some really good ones from up in the stand) on youtube. From the 2011 tour there's a few good ones of Fear of the Dark (you'll see his hand coming off the fret board on an open D), and check him out at the bridge before Dave's solo on TNOTB. Theres also vids of when the backline went down in Birmingham NIA 2011, and when the guitars come back on you can hear H on an open D.

- I think he has certain guitars set up for drop D, so they are always tuned that way.

One thing I would point out --& maybe I just haven't looked around YouTube that much --but I see a lot of people playing H's lead work, and nobody really playing Janick or Dave's. Am I just not looking? Either way, I've heard plenty of people nailing H leads --but haven't heard anyone really nail a "classic" Dave lead. So, I hear you in regard to H's genuis, but he's not, in my opinion, the hardest to play.
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Yeah, I hadn't noticed that but good point. I find Daves solos are so hard to figure out, and like H he is very very difficult to follow. With H I can figure out the notes, but when it comes to playing the damn thing I can never get the timing quite perfect! And I rarely, if ever see a Janick solo on youtube. I think he has some really incredible work on the albums which yes, he lets go a little wild live. I can't play any of Janck's stuff, but then again ive never focussed on it. Id love to be able to play two of his live solos - Bring Your Daughter - Donington 92 and TNOTB - Raising Hell.
 
Seeing as I play by ear, the only Maiden songs I've never played are the ones I don't really like.  :lol: I can play pretty much all the songs I do like to a decent standard.
 
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