Why We Can’t Quit Guitar Solos
Re: the NYT article: Why We Can’t Quit Guitar Solos This is the opposite of the article that pronounces something dead like "photography is dead" or "representational painting is dead". There is something to a really good guitar solo but from a musical standpoint they can't go on for too long. With solos, coherent musical ideas are difficult to sustain over even 16 bars. What I like is the 8 bar solo--the solo in the middle-eight or some other section that serves as connective tissue to the "denouement". The simple song form naturally sets up expectations and so you're ready for the solo when it happens, especially if you've heard it before. [This is probably something a neural net would see if it analyzed a data set of pop songs over a 20-year period, say, late-60s through the 80s when solos were used in instrumental verses, or the equivalent in film, the chase scene that happens 20 minutes from the end]. Improvised 8-bar solos are hard...
