Soloing Secrets - Brian May

Hey everyone! Here's the next episode of Soloing Secrets with Brian May. I've had a lot of requests to feature more of Queen's legendary music, and aside from a Chordplay episode featuring some of Brian's rhythm guitar and chord-based ideas, along with a few harmonized moments during the 'Harmonizing The Guitar' episode of Brewster's Millions Of Rants, this is the first time we've looked at his soloing style on the LNL channel - so get ready, this is going to be another deep dive surrounding a complete guitar legend.

The ideas in this lesson include a number of sample phrases/ideas pulled from various Queen albums, including elusive licks from songs such as 'Tie Your Mother Down' and 'March Of The Black Queen,' along with some of his crafty scale sequencing phrases from songs such as 'Bicycle Race,' 'Jesus,' and 'Bohemian Rhapsody.' This episode concludes with an in-depth look at Brian's inventive use of delay effects and a few applications of strategically harmonizing parts with the delay repeats. This is an interesting idea using a basic/common effect (delay) that Brian fully explored in concert while touring and performing around the world with Queen for decades.

Needless to say, if you're a Brian May/Queen or classic rock fan, you'll find plenty to sink your teeth/fingers into hiding in this lesson, but for those that are new to Brian's fretboard magic and the glorious music of Queen - this episode will certainly shake things up in your routine and supply you with plenty of new ideas, concepts, licks, and inventive areas of music to explore.

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[ledflaplin]

Brian May is just incredible. He had that flashy, fast playing style before it was really en vogue. I see a lot of the 80’s guys like Vai, Satriani had to have looked up to May.

[NoLegalPlunder]

He’s amazing. His soloing seems almost like singing. And his tone is some of the best tone ever. I just learned the other day that he plays the harp on their song Love of My Life. He didn’t know how to play it until they needed him to do it for the album.

[tallpaul]

What a great lesson. The thing I always liked about Brian is you can hear the intelligence in his playing.
Obviously he's an extremely smart man. But what a pioneer. Love the harmonizing. Thx Dave great video as usual!!!!

[Iceman-xxkh]

Great video buddy. Brian is a brilliant musician. Hope this reaches people that haven't really looked at his work. ❤

[babylemonade]

Steve Vai said he can imitate any guitarist but Brian May. A nice surprise, thanks Dave cool video

[SealedKiller]

Brian brought Arpeggios, Scales, Harmonizing into my playing.
He made me actually understand the fretboard fully.
He also made me understand theory because I really wanted to understand how certain notes made up those harmonies.

[aylbdrmadison]

Six note scales are awesome, and rarely used outside of Celtic music and a few other genres.
Also, Freddie does the same echo harmony trick with his vocals in the middle of _The Prophet Song._

[iannash]

Another great lesson David - thank you. Brian's solos were/are never less than perfection - incredible compositions, harmonies and tones - and they'll always define the sound of Queen. A true great.

[michaelw]

the ability that you show, going from guitar god to guitar god is amazing. you NAIL their licks. outstanding videos

[chrishandley]

Brian is the reason I started playing. Excellent lesson thank you!

[colbyanderson]

I always thought Brian May's "Star Licks" tutorial video would be a good source for one of your "three licks" episodes.

[stesharr]

Another insightful and Interesting lesson from dave, thank you.
Saw Brian with Queen a few weeks ago, if you've never seen Brian doing his stuff live then you really must, he really is a fantastic player and a lot heavier than you'd think he'd be.
Definitely up there in my top ten rock guitarist 🎸.

[DaveyWoodford]

Are you always using the Behringer V Amp on these videos? Out into a cab?
Sounds EPIC always sir .
Love the content, you are a tremendous player, teacher

[elektrekduck]

Loved how this started with me playing along to these licks and ending up with me playing Nuno. When you really break these down like you do, you are able to hear the connections really well. Great lesson!

[herrvierkoetter]

Hi David, thank you so much for your deep dives into so many guitarists, I play guitar since 50y. You add context to many of my guitar heroes and explain the why and how. Brian May brought me back to the beauty of Major and his guit and amps produced such an incredible warm, voice-like sound.

[raybaumgardner]

The opening piece takes me back to the Starlicks VHS tape! Wore that one out rewinding and pausing it 😆

[mikeg]

Great lesson/licks for Brian’s style. Would love to see something like this on Tom Sholz of Boston. It seems like they share some playing style and brilliance.

[primitiveknot]

Great stuff. I remember listening to the Brighton Rock solo on Killers Live over and over back in the day. Inspirational.

[holtrain]

Great lesson, really dig that delay sequence!

[joeb]

Thanks for another great lesson Dave, I really appreciate your work. Learning a lot 🤘