The 10 Most DIFFICULT Guitar Solos 

GUITARCHAMPION! What is the hardest solo that you have ever tried to learn? Let me know in the comments :)

Nice list. Thanks for the tab for Arcturus Prime! I am currently working on some Witherfall solos which are pretty challenging for me.

Great list!

Great vid! was hoping to see Good mourning/ black Friday in here 😉

Now let me see you play a Shawn Lane song (e.g. Not Again)… or have a go at what Josh Meader or Matteo Manusco are playing nowadays

Awesome vid. I’m a big Vai fan. I love learning his songs- I understand that they probably aren’t the “hardest” songs to play- However- they are beautifully composed- and as far as a challenge goes- to learn, that takes time, but to play them “perfect” is pretty much out of the question- for me- to nail every little bend and nuance- that’s where the magic is, and that’s what I like to do, spend months trying to master a single song. It’s fun to me. And I love it. :)

I think you make a great point with the first solo. These days, as my skill on guitar progresses, I am more impressed by overall performance and being able to sit down and perform an entire piece(s), especially under pressure, as opposed to just raw technical skill

And then Winter Madness enter the chat

I’m so glad you’re trying to learn The Ancestry! I’ve been busting my arse with that intro for months and still can’t get my head around how anyone can play that up to speed 😩

9:00 Amazing to see Roberto Barros on this list! His lines are really complex, new and absolutely on another level.

Surprised to see that there's no Bumblefoot here, his stuff is so outside and difficult to play that it's silly. Turn Around is a super tough track of his that I've tried to learn, what a doozy.

Great list. Glad you included DragonForce, lately they've been one of my favorite bands. They have a lot of other incredibly cool and challenging solos like revolution deathsquad, cry for eternity, defenders or inside the winter storm

The guitar solo from Shawn lane in the music "hey t Bone - mvp: centrifugal funk" Everytime i hear it my ears melt

Craaazy solos👍

Love the “Another Day” JPM in the background! Who made it?

In my opinion "akroasis" by obscura is waay harder than any of the songs mentioned, one of the craziest and most technical solos i've ever heard

Nice list. What about some of Michael Romeo's or Kiko Loureiro's solos? They are difficult but also sound amazing which is the the hardest thing to nail.

Would you consider miles of machines to be up there in difficulty for you?

I have been trying to learn Guthrie's solo in Fives for over a year now. With most solos I attempt, I can at least imagine I will one day achieve it with enough practice (for example, most Petrucci solos). In Fives, specifically the part beginning around 4:44 of Justin's video here, I just cannot see myself playing that fast. Not because of the sheer speed, but because these sequences are not just simple 16th note patterns. These are shreddy licks in different times, and with SWING to them, and with crazy fingerings. Just impossible

Fantastic list, my friend🤘 Totally agree. I have to say the hardest among them is "The Ancestry", I won't even touch that as well as "Five's", Arcturus Prime or the Obscura sweeps and Tendonitis, I know you need to spend all your waking hours practicing, and I can't do that anymore since there's a lot of "hindrance" to the joy's of guitar playing which is my job😆… but in my teens were my only focus is guitar, I'm very much familiar with MAB's No Boundaries, the part you played is the hardest but 2/3 of the song is doable with hard practice 6 hours a day for 3 months., PG's intro can be done in 4 months of focused practice, It's very hard for sheer brute picking, but Paul's patterns are fun and repetitive.😅 same with the Glass arps sweep but only at lower BPM. I still have a wishlist of someday nailing all this crazy beautiful "hardest guitar solo's" I have heard, I started learning a few bars some 12 to 15 years ago and still just 3% or barely nailed up to now. All I need to do is quit and ditch the hindrance 9 to 5 job and lock in the room again for months and years.🤭 *Jason Becker - Perpetual Burn* *Yngwie Malmsteen - Now Your Ships are Burned* *Wintersun - Winter Madness* *Symphony X - Fear the Unknown* *Nevermore - The River Dragon has Come* *Mr Big - Addicted to that Rush (intro)* *Guthrie Govan - Waves* *Dream Theater - This Dying Soul (ending solo)* *Steve Vai - Eugene's Trick Bag* Cheers!🔥

Speed kills, Batio. Grazie maestro, era ora che qualcuno gli rendesse giustizia!

Not gonna lie, as a Brazilian fan of Necrophagist and Obscura I was shocked when you said that Christian told you about edu falaschi, even if his name is big here in Brazil his solo career isn't talked about that often, and knowing that Christian knew about that is mind blowing

“Sofa” - British for “until now” 😂.

Mine was "Smoke on the Water" 🤘😆 Hey Justin, wie genau erkennst du bei diesen Beispielen, ob ein Solo improvisiert ist? Kann es nicht sein, dass sie komponiert wurden?

I can't really say what is the hardest solo I learned. I worked on a lot of solos that I still can't play at the original tempo or that I do not replicate note for note. For instance, I spent much time playing Soothsayer (Buckethead) or Viking Kong (Paul Gilbert), but I don't really replicate the shreddiest moments... I just get loose and try to end up on my feet. I tried to learn erotomania (DT) and can play it note for note... But not at the original tempo... When I come close to it, it's like my technique is falling apart... So here are things I can actually play that are still hard for me : Sails of Charon, Mr Crowley, Lucretia, Smoke and mirrors (intro), Trolls in the Dark, Oops I dit it again CoB version... For the record : I tried to play the glass prison... And I gave up really quickly

Holy Gwyn! Those solos require a good amount of jolly cooperation between the hands! Not just dex - need some magic too!

The attitude song by Steve Vai is extremely hard to replicate.

Glad you mention MAB. I always see guitar vids about greatest guitar players, but he's never mentioned, despite being godly.

Great solos. You shoul check Impellitteri - 17th Century Chicken Pickin. Impelliteri is one of the best alternate picking guys of the times with his strato. Sound incredible.

I would add any solo from Michael Romeo!

New Sub. Dark Souls fan? Loving the content

Hardest part of No Boundaries to me is the Paganini inspired arpeggio part. That is all alternate picked, and one-note-per-string alternate picking is my shred kryptonite.

Nice list, but what about the Wintersun - Winter Madness solo?

Some insane solos that didn't make it to the list (yeah, I heard what Justin said at the beginning, but still): -Obscura - Velocity (composed, not truly recorded up to speed) -Jason Richardson - Warrior (insane string skipping) -Alkaloid - C-Value Enigma

What about "Retrospective monologue" released in Hannes Grossmann EP Echoes of eternity?

In the live video for glass prison, it does seem like he alternate picks in one direction, but it's hard to see.

Interesting. In my opinion: Buckethead - Jordan Kalmah - the Blind Leader

arcturus prime intro lesson plzz!!

It's really nice to see 2 brazilian guitarists

No warren demartini solos?

personally for me, the aviator is the hardest one ive come across so far. jason is insane.

2 years since Michael Romeo dropped the "Hybrids" solo on RU-vid and NO COVER yet

You have to check the solo of Digital Heart from Anima Tempo

This man said his own name wrong! Ok Youstin "laughs in American" lol I'm kidding great video man

how is dream theater - lost not forgotten 1st solo?

@justin.hombach The Glass Prison solo was definitely alternate picked in the studio version, Petrucci confirmed it. Btw there are other covers of it on YT: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-XSd_V8IfBGs.html

Far beyond the sun end solo was my hardest attempt all in my life

Ich bin am Gitarrenpart von "Home" (Dream Theater) gescheitert. Wollte eigentlich das ganze Album über die Semesterferien, ich glaub es war 2002, lernen. Aber da gings nicht mehr weiter. Ob das Heute anders wäre mit dem Wissen über Pickslanting, Burst Practicing etc? Hmm 🧐

For me, my Mount Everest has always been the intro to Seven by Symphony X. It seems borderline impossible sometimes

Tried to learn any Shawn Lane licks?

Have you ever heard the solo in Obscura's Velocity? That's probably the most difficult solo I've ever tried to emulate

this seems more like a list of difficult guitar solos rather than the 10 most difficult.

I've never heard of Roberto Barros, and somehow I can't believe it. I clicked through a few of his playthroughs and am mindblown how he is not more well known? He seems to play with extreme efficiency at blistering high speeds at ease while still enjoying himself. Seems crazy!

Was hoping to see a buckethead solo. Interesting none the less

Try Fortress by Alter Bridge It is insanity when Myles Kennedy and Mark Tremonti are trading solos in dropC# and open C#5

No "Winter Madness" solo by Wintersun?

Your point with Paul is considered, however, Buckethead recorded the Jordan guitar solo first take in a studio in front of hella people. And that’s better than Paul’s solo.

Also if you think we'll be back solo is one of hardest Kiko's solos you should check Live and Learn from Angra, that solo is FUCKING NUTS

These are all simple when compared to the solo for nothing else matters!

Hey Justin, thanks for mentioning me. Great video as always! All the best!

Have you tested to play Lil Waynes solo? It should definitely be on this list.

Jason Becker Mable's Fatal Fable.... and honestly anything Goncalo Pereira. I challenge you to listen to the opening song of his album Upgrade and try to make heads or tails of what he's doing in the guitar solo (music.ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-UvjQARL_sAU.html roughly 2:30 to the outro of the song)... give you a hit - anywhere from 4 to 5 NPS. I can't even tab his stuff out because its so far beyond from what ANY guitarist has done with intervals that I can't tell where the hell he's grabbing his notes from without me seeing him actually playing it. It would be like trying to transcribe Tosin's repeating note stuff without seeing what he's doing.

Fracktured by king crimson??

I totally agree. Very very hard solos to play. But, When 8 out of 10 have no feeling almost at all, its not good. The technical shite is not so important if u got no feel. Late, Great Dimebag. 🤘🤘🤘

Audio problem

Before watching, I come in peace aka random killing by Buckethead is by far the most difficult solo on Earth. Not one person except for Buckethead can play it. Besides that, pictures at an exhibition transcribed by Yamashita is way harder than anything ever played. Not a solo but come on. Incredible. Then we have overall great solos like CAB by TMac, Proto Cosmos or Samurai Faith by Greg, Moscow by Feodor. Might be playable with tabs. You also have McLaughlin by himself in India. The famous video. Not sure who’s playing that at the end of the day. And honestly I’ve played some seriously insane solos before. On my channel. Not sure who’s playing them. For example Hydroplaning or Cosmic Symphony. But I’m curious to see who you pick. I’m assuming you’re gonna be playing these solos so they can’t be THAT hard. No offense. I doubt you’re about to bust out a Shawn Lane solo.

Good list. My logic is that if something was composed / improvised by a guitarist, it's certainly doable. My biggest problem is learning violin and piano stuff on the guitar.

The most difficult guitar solos are not the ones hardest to reproduce but those that are hard to produce in the first place. That's why the new guitar solos are totally unmemorable.

Govan played Fives from his album Erotic Cakes

what was number 9 i got megadeth but cant understand title

Praise the sun!

Yeah Roberto Barros is a legend

Why not Damian Salazar or Anton Oparin?

Have you seen alip ba ta from Indonesia played bohemian rhapsody? Check him please

What is 8?

People who put their own solos into a "best guiatrs solo ever" list is cringe

Didnt petrucci say he picked thr glass prison arps, but he sweeps them live?

anything by mateo mancuso

Solos sin sentido...el mejor es child in Time de Blackmore....lleno de técnica, armonía y sobre todo MELODÍA....🔥🤟🤟

I forgot that I was on x0.75 speed on RU-vid and was wondering why he was talking funny

Go fund him a new phone!!

No Petrucci? No Buckethead? No Bulblefoot?

Yeah they're extremely hard and technically perfuse but they're not enduring musically to my ears.... BUT where is Alan Holdsworth...??

I think you forgot Shawn Lane (ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-eQN9_uoMjOQ.html)

Great list, but too much talk for me

Good video but... Where are Paganini, Lizst, Mozart, and Bach? No classical players... these are the original shredders... these guys are all technically proficient, but all these ideas come from classical music. Try to do these with finger picking and not a pick... then you're talking... these... I play these in my sleep having played 23 years now I play both classical, blues, and neoclassical... I also play flamenco. I will tell you this... the hardest gigs are not the ones with a band... they are the solo gigs with you and the guitar... no backing and no Distortion to hide from... the more people I see using a pick makes it less impressive.... but rarely do people play classical and fingerpick. Thus, it shows how hard it is. And I love shredding... but no fingerstyle players? Try alternate picking with your fingers. 10x harder...

first!

Wearing a glove?

I don't understand this style. It just seems soulless. It's like a computer is playing a guitar.

Tried to copy any Jeff Beck lately, brother ?? .. 😐😐

Oh no !!.. Another "Faster is better " dude.. So youse can all lock yourselves away, and learn to run scales at warp speed ??.. So f*cking WHAT !!.. Learn to play some MUSIC.. There's a REASON why Bach and Beethoven are still listened to ,and revered to this day.. (HINT.. It wasn't speed !! )..You need to have dinner with Tom Hess ??...The Guiness Book Of Records, fastest player ever.. Last I saw, he was flipping Burgers.. 😐😐.. Cliffs Of Dover cleans the floor with all these.. AND it's musically INTERESTING !!!.. (cough cough)

How are you selling a speed picking course? I can pick faster than you. And I don’t sell BS content because I have a real job. Attempt to cover my Spain solo at 300 BPM.

What is 6?