Rock guitar icons

The question we’re all asking: Is there a simple recipe to turn us into certified guitar gods overnight?

The answer is almost certainly – Yes there is! (Fact-check: ❌ No, there’s not)

Alright, so there’s no quick fix to becoming a rock icon, but there are some ingredients that go into making one – and that’s what we’re looking at today.

We’ll discuss what makes iconic guitarists sound the way they do and look at a few techniques to get us closer to replicating their individual styles.

• Before you get mad at us for not including your favorite guitarist, keep in mind that this is not a list of the best guitar players ever.
• Our aim is to highlight certain aspects of a few iconic rock guitar players and help you get a better understanding of what they do.

Hundreds of pages could be dedicated to analyzing each guitar player and their style in great depth, but the purpose here is to explore a few key elements.

Who we’ll cover in this article:

• Slash
• Brian May
• Keith Richards
• Jimi Hendrix
• Synyster Gates

#1 Slash

Slash is perhaps one of the most recognizable guitar players of all time. His contribution to the world of rock music is undeniable.

• His initial stint with Guns N’ Roses was fairly short-lived.
• He recorded three full-length albums with them (not counting “The Spaghetti Incident”).
• Even so, Slash managed to cement himself as an icon of the genre.

Let’s take a look at what makes Slash sound like Slash.

• While he’s not known for being a “shreddy” player, he does play some fast licks and runs.
• Like most rock players, the minor pentatonic is the scale of choice, but Slash adds some extra notes for color.

Slash’s go-to scale shapes

Slash has some go-to shapes and patterns that he likes to use, but most of them gravitate around the humble pentatonic scale.

Pentatonic

Every guitarist feels at home here. The standard minor pentatonic scale in its first position – root notes are highlighted in gray.

This is what we’ll use as our foundation for the other scale patterns.

Blues/Dorian hybrid

Slash likes to add a unique flavor to his playing by adding notes from other scales into his pentatonic shapes.

• Like many blues and rock players, he often adds the flat five (b5) – highlighted in blue.
• Slash also likes to borrow notes from the Dorian mode – highlighted in green.
• Adding these notes creates three-note-per-string patterns which allow for faster, more fluid runs.
• Slash uses a lot of hammer-ons and pull-offs to play those speedier licks.

The ending to Civil War is a good example of Slash’s faster style and incorporates this hybrid blues/dorian shape.

Harmonic minor

Another great solo to analyze is the ending to November Rain, the scale used for this exotic-sounding outro solo is the harmonic minor – another of Slash's favorites.

• You’ll notice there are some similar note groupings to the previous shape.
• The interesting note in this scale is the major/naturalseven (7) – highlighted in purple.
• The presence of the major 7th within the context of this minor scale, gives an interesting sound.
  

String bending

Almost all of us bend strings, but there are so many variations and nuances within this technique that many iconic players have their own unique “bending fingerprint”.

• Slash has a very recognizable bending style, and there are some elements we can focus on to try and get closer to his sound.
• He often likes to start solos with a huge bend.
• We hear this is Sweet Child O Mine, November Rain, and Don’t Cry.

Sweet Child O’ Mine

November Rain

Don’t Cry

Instead of opening the solo with a flurry of notes, Slash uses a big bend to give a more human, emotional sound.

• A typical Slash bend can involve bending the string, bringing it down, and bending it again.
• We hear this double-bend style in the early stages of the November Rain solo.
• Sometimes he doesn’t hit the string until it’s already been bent, then he brings the note back down – this is known as a pre-bend.
• These different techniques create a more fluid, vocal-like sound and can add an extra layer of emotion to a solo.

#2 Brian May

Brian May is another guitarist whose sound is instantly recognizable, and although one of the most important aspects of May’s sound is his tone, we’ll only focus on his techniques today.

• Being the only guitar player in Queen, he must fill the role of both lead and rhythm player.
• He tends to use layering of individual notes to create rich chord sounds even when distorted.
• This allows him to create big harmonies while playing melodic phrases.

Most people don’t necessarily focus on the guitar when they think about Queen’s We Will Rock You but the ending is very typical of Brian May’s style.

We Will Rock You

Filling the space

Besides the multi-tracked guitar harmonies, May finds ways to make one guitar fill the sonic space.

• Right before the solo kicks in, he plays a C power chord on the A string, then an open A chord.
• Then he slides up to the 14th fret of the D string and plays this interesting lick.
• He creates depth by covering the lower register with the open A string, while simultaneously playing a solo-like melody in the higher register.

We’ve added the tab below so you can try it out for yourself:

May’s solos often alternate between licks and chords to keep a full sound.

Memorable melodies

Even though he has to cover both bases of rhythm and lead, he still puts everything he has into creating iconic solos.

• People know his solos so well that they can sing them – that’s the mark of a great player.
• He leaves space and chooses each note carefully,
• Each line is akin to a vocal melody.
• This is part of what makes them so memorable

Let’s listen to the Bohemian Rhapsody solo as a perfect example:

The solo from Killer Queen also showcases his care in writing a great solo:

• Each phrase is distinct and his lines always sound intentional – He never just hits notes for the sake of it.
• This can be a rare trait among lead guitar players and is something worth thinking about when writing your own solos.

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#3 Keith Richards

The Rolling Stones are legends of classic rock, and Richards was a driving force in creating their iconic sound.

His style is heavily influenced by early blues and country but is still undoubtedly rock n roll.

Tuning

The first thing to note about much of his playing is that he tunes his guitar to open G tuning.

• Open chord tuning means that all the open strings are tuned to a specific chord.
• Commonly with Richards, it’s an open G Major.

Here’s what the notes on the strings are in an open G tuning:

• 6:D*
• 5:G
• 4:D
• 3:G
• 2:B
• 1:D

*Richards is known for omitting the 6th string altogether – making the lowest note on the guitar a G.

Much like how drop-D tuning allows you to play power chords using one finger, open G tuning lets you play an entire major chord with just one finger.

Chord shapes for open tuning

Major

This is how easy it is to play full-sounding major chords in this tuning – just bar the whole fret with your index finger and move it up or down to change the chord.

6sus4

You’ll often hear Richards play a 6Sus4 chord in his rhythm playing.

• Although this is an unfamiliar chord to most guitarists, it’s much more straightforward in this open tuning – fingered just like a m7 bar chord.
• The 7th fret on the 4th string is the 6th scale degree.
• The 6th fret on the 2nd string is where we find that suspended note.

If you want to experiment and retune your guitar to open G, you can get a feel for Richards’ style with this simple progression.

As you can see, the 6th string isn’t played. Richards doesn’t really use it, so many of his guitars only ever have five strings.

Listening examples

Start Me Up is a great example of this type of chord progression and style of playing:

The verse riff in Jumpin’ Jack Flash uses these chords, too:

Gimme Shelter is another classic Stones song in open G tuning and contains these types of chords: