Not Your Average Guitar Lessons!

Slash created this melodic solo with the E Minor Pentatonic, Natural and Harmonic Minor scales. There are two sections separated by a breakdown and Slash’s fast ascending Harmonic Minor run. 

The first section revolves around a descending E minor chord progression containing the five chord, B Major. When soloing over that B Major, Slash often outlined it by playing the Harmonic Minor note: D#. D# is the major 3rd of the B chord, and the 7th (leading tone) of the E Harmonic Minor scale. Sharping the D to a D# is what changes the E Minor scale into the E Harmonic minor scale!

These jam tracks are great for improvising with Natural Minor, and then switching to Harmonic Minor over the V. If you brain hurts here’s a link to the Harmony and Theory chapter on Harmonic Minor.

The second section of the solo is played over an E minor ascending progression with no “B” chord so Slash just rips with the E minor and minor Pentatonic scales, no Harmonic Minor here. 

Btw, for the first half of the solo I think Slash used his neck pickup, then for the second half he switched to the bridge pickup and clicked his Cry Baby wah on. 

Important note: Slash tuned his guitar a half step down to Eb. I decided to put the jam tracks and videos in standard tuning for ease.

Sweet Child O’ Mine Solo Tabs

Jam Tracks:

Sweet Child Jam Full Speed          

Sweet Child Jam Slower Speed

(To download above jams PC: right click, Mac: control click.)

Sweet Child Solo – Full Speed and Slower 

 

Sweet Child O’ Mine Solo – Breakdown Part 1

 

Sweet Child Solo – Breakdown Part 2