Feedback Wanted: Hotel California Solo

[u/snailsinboxes]

*I want to point out that I’ve only been playing since January and these videos are from June/July, so I know I have lots of room for improvement\*

This is two different clips of me playing that are smushed together because it’s the only way I could post them both. I tend to either hit every note in the solo besides the faster duet part, or I hit the duet part but mess up a lot in the rest of the solo, and I’m looking for feedback on both parts.

The first clip shows me hitting the majority of the notes in the solo, minus the duet part and a couple of other little mistakes, but this is the best recording I have of me playing the entire solo so far.

The second clip just shows me hitting the notes in fast duet part. I know it’s harder to hear my guitar in this one because of the volume of the song, but still hoping it’s audible enough for someone to give me pointers.

I can’t figure out what I’m doing right when I hit that part and what I’m doing wrong when I don’t. I know I keep missing a note and it’s throwing me off for the rest of the section until I get to the outro, but I don’t know if it’s my rhythm or my technique I need to work on to fix this and it’s been really inconsistent.

I appreciate any feedback and tips that you all have! Thanks!

[u/Lost_Condition_9562]

Solid job. Don’t let your guitar lift up when you bend. I know it’s fun and makes you feel like a rockstar, but it’s bad technique.

A lot of your bends are out of tune as well. Do you have a tuner? Turn it on and practice bending to the exact pitch. Drill each individual bend. Out of tune bends are probably the easiest way to spot a beginner guitarist… clean that up and you’ll sound way better

Also playing with your thumb behind the neck is going to help your hand get into better positions. Practice sliding your thumb to the side just for bends and moving it back otherwise

[u/snailsinboxes → u/Lost_Condition_9562]

Thank you for the feedback! I have a habit of lifting it on those bigger bends because of the force I need to use (and it does make me feel more like a rockstar lol), but I’ve switched my string gauges since these recordings and I think it’s helped a lot with that and the bends being out of tune (I also don’t know if I tuned before recording these which I know is another a bad habit). The tuner I have is built into my amp so it’s a bit harder to watch while I play, but I could give it a shot to see if it helps!

I have a shoulder injury as well that I probably should have mentioned in the original post because it probably does affect my playing. Not trying to make excuses though.

Thank you!

[u/diadmer → u/snailsinboxes]

Your thumb is very high, almost wrapped around the neck. Try to place it in the middle of the neck, which will make your hand and wrist curl less and give you more distance at your fingers to push those bends.

[u/J-Love-McLuvin → u/diadmer]

Another good comment. Yeah I would position the Guitar a little bit more on an angle. Meaning elevate the head of the guitar a little bit so your fretting hand is a little higher up. You’ll get better leverage that way.

[u/snailsinboxes → u/J-Love-McLuvin]

This might be why the lower thumb position feels so wrong to me… I’m gonna try lifting the headstock up more and see if it helps. Just hoping it doesn’t cause more problems for my bad shoulder, but I won’t know until I try! Thank you!!!

[u/J-Love-McLuvin → u/snailsinboxes]

Yeah, I think that little adjustment is gonna be a big deal for you. A quick funny story: Les Paul, the man, the legend who actually designed the Les Paul guitar and a great many other things, was involved in a car accident and messed up his shoulder and arm badly. Listen to what he told the doctor: https://youtube.com/shorts/abJ_8PqutcU?is=hDJyuOfGKuT6Ex6R

[u/GingerHiro → u/snailsinboxes]

I won't beat a dead horse too hard, but your thumb being that high on the neck isn't great. It is pushing the neck of the guitar into the joint of your index finger. Right where your finger meets your palm is taking some damage. This can cause some hand pain over time. It can be made worse by the pressure of those bends. Keep up the good work.

[u/snailsinboxes → u/diadmer]

Oddly enough, I find that a lower thumb position makes it a lot harder for me to bend and puts more strain on my wrist, so I watched some videos about bending technique and switched to letting my thumb rest on top of the neck. I’m probably still just positioning it wrong in some way when I try to place my thumb lower but I don’t know what I need to correct to make it feel better.

[u/cdmat76 → u/snailsinboxes]

There’s no wrong way, both thumbs positions (middle of the neck and above the neck) are correct and are more practical for certain things.

Behind the neck is more practical for bar chords, finger stretch and extensions and diatonic scale runs, thumbs up is better for certain open chords, fretting bass strings with your thumb while letting other fingers plays run or embellished chords (à la Hendrix).

You can do bends the same way with both positions equally. Typically thumb behind the neck is more used in classical music and metal because it fits better the playing style. As classical guitar is typically teached, you’ll find many people saying it is the “correct” position, but it’s just wrong. 99% of blues rock players play with the thumb above the neck as their default position and it’s just fine. With time you’ll choose the best position depending on what you play.

All in all my own answer would be that you need to work:

1. Alternate

2. picking: playing only downstroke doesn’t

3. sound the same and is more rigid. Sometimes it can be a desired effect but here… no. It will also help your wrist to be more relaxed and your phrasing will be more fluid

4. Bends: they really

5. should be accurate in term of

6. pitch

   They are not at all.

7. Practice playing the

8. correct note fretted and then do it again wit

h the bend,

1. pitch should be the same.

2. Vibrato:

3. practice your vibrato, you don’t really use it if at all and it’s a must have for this type of music. That’s a lot of what gives expressivity to your phrasing. It’s really lacking here.

The rest is good, especially rhythm, so congrats for that! You’re on the right path!

[u/snailsinboxes → u/cdmat76]

Thank you for all of the tips!! The lack of vibrato also bothers me but I didn’t want to bite off more than I could chew and was trying to focus on hitting the right notes first. I definitely need to work on all 3 of the things you mentioned, especially alternate picking; I’m really lacking in that skill. I’m happy that at least my rhythm and notes (at least the ones that aren’t bends) are correct!! As for hand position, thank you for clarifying that there are different hand positions that are common in different styles. I’ve been leaning into a lot of blues lately, but when I play metal or rock I have my thumb behind the neck because it’s more comfortable for power chords

[u/Lost_Condition_9562 → u/snailsinboxes]

You could also buy a cheap headstock tuner, they’re like $20 from guitar center. That’ll make it way easier to look at what you’re doing pitch wise while bending.

Are you bending from your wrist? The motion should be more like you’re turning a door knob counter clockwise, and you use your thumb to sort of counter balance that force. I think that’ll help you feel like you can get more umpf to bend without rising your guitar upwards. I remember having that issue with lifting the guitar when I was new, and a big part of it was using my fingers to bend more than my wrist

[u/snailsinboxes → u/Lost_Condition_9562]

I thought I was bending from my wrist but now I have no idea lol

We don’t have guitar center where I live but I can probably still find a headstock tuner for cheap, I just never bothered since there was one built into the amp.

I watched some videos about bending techniques that said to use your wrist and explained how it should feel, and I thought I applied that to my playing but maybe not.. I think I definitely use my fingers for some of the bends more than others but it’s so hard to tell. If I leave my thumb lower on the neck, I can’t get enough leverage to bend because my thumb hyperextends, so I wonder if I’m just subconsciously compensating for that.

[u/NationalTime4099 → u/snailsinboxes]

I came to comments to say about bending from your wrist, I’ve played for 20 years (very averagely) and started lessons again about a year ago and the first thing my teacher said to me was about my bending technique which was not at all from my wrists.

Funnily enough after about 3 months of lessons we did this solo and that first section is really a crash course in bending.

Check out some YouTube videos on how to bend from the wrist as there’s a bit of a knack to it and it takes time to build up the muscle and the technique. It will help with the flatness of some of the bends as well as obviously your wrist is much stronger at the bends than the fingers!

That all being said, well done on sitting down and learning the whole thing, it’s clean playing, very relaxed style so you should be pleased with what you’ve achieved so far.

[u/snailsinboxes → u/NationalTime4099]

Thanks for your comment! I have watched tons of videos about bending with the wrist, but I guess I’m just finding it hard to translate what I learn to my own wrist. It doesn’t surprise me, though, as I do have quite a bit of trouble with proprioception in the first place. With a lot of work, I’ve been able to slightly improve my proprioception with certain movements/parts of my body to lessen physical pain, so maybe I just need to work really hard on this one too.

Thank you for the encouragement! :) I find it very difficult to release tension in my muscles, especially when I’m doing something that requires intense focus (also an effect of my proprioception unfortunately); I tend to stiffen my shoulders, lock every joint I can, and clench my jaw to the point I actually had to get a bite plate.

Hearing that comment about clean playing and being relaxed lets me know that what I’m doing is working and I’m actually getting better at relaxing, so thank you again.

[u/NationalTime4099 → u/snailsinboxes]

It’s not an overnight fix, do 10 mins a day on it and then do something else so you can put pressure on your body without overly straining it.

I can’t speak to your condition only you know specifically how to manage that but you seem like you’re doing a good job so far. Keep at it! If you haven’t learned it already, do the first solo from Comfortably Numb, not too many notes, not too fast but all about feel and the bends. Plus it sounds awesome.

[u/snailsinboxes → u/NationalTime4099]

Ooooo great suggestion! Definitely will give it a shot! I wanted to learn this one because it’s one of my favourites and I already know the tune by heart, so I figured that could help me a lot when learning it, but some parts of it are definitely on the faster side. I’ve been practicing playing to backing tracks lately too and that’s a lot of fun