Rock around the clock - A solo study
Greetings one and all. In this article I wanted to have a look at a particular guitar solo. Namely the little gem performed by Danny Cedrone for Bill Haley and the comets on the classic, “Rock around the clock”. I had just finished knocking this one up in my studio to use as a backing track for my solo shows. When it came time to record the solo, it took about 6 takes. Normally I’ll nail these on the first or second, but this one was proving problematic due to the chromatic run on the end.
Danny Cedrone’s solo is one that should be worked into your regular exercises because while it is only 12 bars long, it has a bit of everything in it, including a big chromatic run at the end.First up, lose your overdrive or distortion and all effects you may otherwise be using. Danny used only a Gibson ES-300 through an 18 watt amp. So no cheating. Even I can pull out a screaming solo for this when I bring my NASA effects rack on line, and this is what caused my problem with recording it. It wasn’t till I plugged my guitar straight into the amp that the sound and feel came together. You actually have to play your instrument with some technique in this situation. OH GOD, NOOOOOO!!!!!
I could just be a nut job, but when I had the guitar stripped of all places to hide, I found that I stopped strangling the neck like a typical rock player and my left hand thumb came back down behind the neck where it’s supposed to be and my fingers arched nicely over the fretboard in what would be seen as a very technically correct manner. I had returned to basics. This is the desired effect of practicing this solo. I can’t stress this enough. While some of you may be wishing that I’d pull apart a Satriani, Vai, Malmsteen, Morse, Lynch solo for you to study, Danny Cedrone’s work on “Rock around the clock”, will set you up with the technique to play any solo you can think of. And don’t forget, if it wasn’t for this song/solo, you probably wouldn’t have any of those guys now anyway. Danny may well have been the first Eddie Van Halen. Not bad for 1952! Anyway, here’s the tab for the solo.
Your target speed is 180bpm. Fast, huh?Oh yeah, I nearly forgot. There are no pull offs and only one small hammer on at the end of bar 7. Basically it’s all flat picked baby. Get that little wrist movin’, and keep practicing that chromatic run. It’s great exercise.
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