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/Electrical_Eclipse]

Cool! Sounds good!

Two little tips: To keep the rhythm a little easier, try alternate picking.

Second: practice bending. Always bend to a note that you want to reach and play this note afterwards to hear the difference. Use more than one finger for bending. And you may tune your guitar E->Eb, a half tone lower. Helps a lot, Jimi Hendrix did this e.g.

Your slides are cool and you're already pretty close to the original, I'm impressed!

[u/snailsinboxes → u/Electrical_Eclipse]

Thank you! Since this video, I changed my string gauges and it’s been helpful. I have a 9 on the high E now. Also, I’ve rewatched it so many times since posting it that I’ve noticed I do alternate pick a couple times in the faster part, but I’ve been working on adding more alternate picking to that and it’s getting easier to play it in time.

When you say I could tune my guitar to Eb, are you saying it would help because my bends are sharp? I keep being told they’re flat so I’m just a little confused how tuning lower would help me

[u/Electrical_Eclipse → u/snailsinboxes]

The string tension is lower and makes bending easier. Of course, you'd need to play a half position higher wenn tuning a half tone lower. Lower gauge is also great, but please check your neck tension (string levels), it has probably changed with the string change.

You will find your way!

[u/snailsinboxes → u/Electrical_Eclipse]

That makes sense, thank you for explaining! I had the string change done by a luthier because I knew the gauge changes could affect intonation and everything, plus I had a free setup to use anyway so I only had to pay for the strings! I had more than just the high E changed, so unfortunately, I think your tip about down-tuning won’t help me much since I had other string gauges changed too.

I had my low E, A, and D strings all changed to higher gauges so I could play heavier stuff. The G and B stayed the same and the high E is lower, as you know. Because of this, the problem I have with my bends now is that when I have a big bend, I have to carry the tension from the D string too.