Best Other Solos???

[JoetheShow]

Since we have a bumped thread for guitar specific solos I thought we may as well just have one for all solos. Name and exegize your favorite guitar, drum, bass, keyboard, etc solos from all types of music. I'm really looking for some good stuff and I'll post some later when I think of them.

[Dark Cadence]

Guster - Ruby Falls. Adam plays muted (harmon?) trumpet for a good minute 20 seconds.

Chuck Mangione - Feels So Good; plays the Flugel horn on a song that basically features just him, for a good 9 minutes. Really good Funk Jazz song, and an AMAZING beginning and buildup to the chorus/actual verse.

Christopher O'Riley - Black Star; any Radiohead fan knows this song, and this pianist does it great justice. He has two albums out where it's just him playing classical piano while covering Radiohead songs.

Ben Folds - Philosophy (Live); If you've ever heard any of Ben Folds' music, you'd know he's an incredibly talented pianist and songwriter. But when you see him live, it blows you away. His live version of "Philosophy" (from Ben Folds Live CD) where he includes Misirlou as an ending while using every part of the piano as an instrument, is awe inspiring.

Victor Wooten - Improv/Amazing Grace; taken from Bela Fleck and the Flecktones live at the Quick. Amazing song (better DVD/CD). Victor Wooten shows us why he is the best bassist living today with his ability to improvise an impressive bass solo.

Jaco Pastorius - Continuum - Again, the entire song is a solo. Relating every part of the improv back to the verse is outstanding, and he's able to keep it in the key, which is most impressive.

[The Eye in the Sky!]

Well, I really love bass solos since, you know, that's what I play. Some really standout solos (and just outstanding playing since bass is meant to hold the rhythm) include Rush's "Freewill" through basically the entire guitar solo section. It keeps the song moving but adds in some nice touches. Another of my favorites is simple but very fast by Steve Harris in Iron Maiden's "Run to the Hills." It just keeps speeding up until it reaches a point where he's playing as fast as humanly possible. The entire song "Hysteria" by Muse is one great bass riff that could stand alone as his own solo section. The distorted style he plays really makes it stand out.

No one should forget the insane tapping solo done in Dream Theater's "Metropolis Pt. 1." The speed and precision of it is just amazing and I've tried my best to learn it... to no avail yet. The three little fills on Rush's "YYZ" is the same way for me as well. They're so fast and pack such a punch.

Keyboard solos are also really fun as well. Anything by Jens Johannson is amazing. Stratovarius's "Black Diamond," Kamelot's "March of Mephisto," and the intro keyboard solo to Sonata Arctica's "The Cage" are masterpieces. "The Cage" in particular sounds like a keyboard sounding version of a Petrucci shredding section of a solo. Speaking of Dream Theater, my all-time favorite keyboard solo comes from "Metropolis Pt. 1" after the bass solo. I can't really describe it but DT fans will know which I'm referring to.

[CDink]

Keyboards:anything rick wakeman or keith ermerson is one is an amazing keyboard song. Merlin the Magician by rick wakeman has some sick synthesizer solos.

Bass: Victor wooten has probably the best around. Les Claypools pretty good aswell Also the fish by yes. Chris squire tears it up on that one(some good drums in it aswell)

Guitar: I hate to mention someone else from yes...but they truly are great musicians..."clap" steve howe truly is probably the greatest guitarist eve....anything from g3 is great..steve vai, jack johnson(not the gay one), satriani....good stuff

Drum: Hard to find one really, i guess some rush songs have really good drum solo's, and dream theatre, b/c mike portnoy and neil piert are gods.

[Dan]

Fragile by Yes has an amazing keyboard solo by Rick Wakeman. Steve Howe on the intro to Yours Is No Disgrace is amazing as well.

[mr.rpg king]

Well, I'm just gonna do some guitar solos that aren't my favorite but are very high up honorable mentions.

The slide solo at the end of Dani California by RHCP is probably in my top ten favorite solos. It's not difficult at all, but my god does it sound cool.

Another great solo is the guitar solo that takes place in the middle of "Feel Good Hit Of The Summer" by the Queens of the Stone Age right after the first chorus. It's not to terribly hard but it's so fast and unexpected that it hits with titantic force.

I suppose the last one I have is "Into the Void" by Black Sabbath, just because of how random the solo sounds compared to the initial song riff and structure. Seriously, he goes from playing notes on like the A Chord all the way to the opposite spectrum. I'm not 100% on what notes he's specifically playing but the change is vast.

[Austin.]

The beggining of "What If" by Creed there is a cool solo.

And in Metalingus by Alter Bridge there is a KILLER solo about ehhh midway, don't quote me on that, in?

[Dark Cadence]

The beggining of "What If" by Creed there is a cool solo.

And in Metalingus by Alter Bridge there is a KILLER solo about ehhh midway, don't quote me on that, in?

I have a few problems with your post. I'm not trying to rag, but I don't really see how those two portions of the songs are solos? In "What If", the "solo" is an introduction, that is barely 5 seconds long, and is then repeated into Section A (Verse) with the guitars. Then in the Alter Bridge song, the "solo" isn't a solo at all. It's called a bridge (very repetitive at that), which leads into the next verse/solo/chorus

Anyways, here's a few more badass solos. "Tank!" by Yoko Kanno and the Seatbelts has an amazing Alto Sax solo, which is basically featured half way through the song, and then at the end.

John Coltrane's "Giant Steps" is by far one of the most amazing sax solos I have heard. And Jeff Coffin's small solo in "Earth Jam" (by Bela Fleck and the Flecktones) when he plays tenor and alto sax at the same time is just amazing.

And who can forget Dizzy Gillespie's "Manteca", with the trumpet solo in the beginning...and the rest of the song when it's not a chorus.

[Austin.]

I have a few problems with your post. I'm not trying to rag, but I don't really see how those two portions of the songs are solos? In "What If", the "solo" is an introduction, that is barely 5 seconds long, and is then repeated into Section A (Verse) with the guitars. Then in the Alter Bridge song, the "solo" isn't a solo at all. It's called a bridge (very repetitive at that), which leads into the next verse/solo/chorus

.
Whoops, sorry, I am not a musician so I do not know what a bridge is and I was thinking that the begining of What if is awesome, but short. And Alter Bridge solo I was thinking was a solo because it is about 20 seconds and has alot of whammy bar and squeals.

Sorry bout that if I confused anyone.

[coheed]

I, too, was wondering what you meant in Metalingus . . . as far as I know, there's no solo in that song??

I've been thinking about this thread for a couple of days and trying to think about what I would say . . . and here's my best shot. It's not much:

Keyboards: Rick Wright in Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Parts VI-IX) by Pink Floyd has to be my favorite. Although, there is an awesome piano solo in Recall by Brave Saint Saturn and I really like pretty much anything Matt Bellamy plays . . .

Pedal Steel: If you go to a Rob Thomas concert, he'll close out the set with a funky tune called I Am An Illusion, and the last two or so minutes of that is Matt Beck wailing on a pedal steel using distortion and delay. One of the most memorable performances I've ever seen. Second place goes to . . . Matt Beck again, this time playing the pedal steel while guesting with matchbox twenty on the song Hand Me Down. Third place goes to Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Parts VI-IX) again, but this time to David Gilmour.

Sax: I'm starting to get into jazz, but right now my favorite sax solo in on Money by Pink Floyd. I also love the sax part in Meccamputechture by The Mars Volta.

Sitar: Sing Until the Song Sings You by GS Megaphone has an awesome sitar solo. Then the band had to go and break up. *facepalm*

Harpsichord: An awesome dark-sounding instrument . . . and it's got a solo in The Distance by Live, which is a spectacular song in its own right. Then a harpsichord starts jamming a solo and it gets twelve times cooler.

[Dan]

How could I forget! The Sax solo on Pink Floyd's Money is great.

[Mrmakee]

I don't know what instrument it is, but in System Of A Down's "N'UNS" theres a section with this awesome solo done by some cool sounding instrument. It stsats off with one playing then another one joins in and the sound they make is just awesome. It might be a guitar, but I don't think it is.

[CDink]

Fragile by Yes has an amazing keyboard solo by Rick Wakeman. Steve Howe on the intro to Yours Is No Disgrace is amazing as well.


the live version of yours is no disgrace on yessongs has an extended steve howe improv solo...it's amazing, the rest of the band quits playing he goes on for about 7 minutes...then they come back in and finish the song.