Here’s a learning resource for some of you that will help with learning the guitar solo. This is the actual guitar solo from the original recording from Zeppelin IV slowed to half speed and pitch corrected so it plays at concert pitch. You can play it from this player right here.
Additionally I have included the same file as a soundcloud link. Note these are both educational resources for teaching and learning as part of this website’s tutorial program and I claim “fair use” in this regard (see below).
Here you can check out all the subtleties of Jimmy’s vibrato and that tricky little double stop slide at 0:13 above. You can watch any 5 random solo tutorials on the web and they’ll all play that differently (some skipping the double stop entirely and just playing the slide). There are a couple other areas that seem to confound and challenge players you’ll see (and we’ll explore in detail at some point in the future). You can hear Page’s position shifts fairly clearly here and those shifts and the nuances and challenges of any specific fingerings in those positions contribute to Jimmy’s unique feel.
There’s learning Stairway, then there’s mastering Stairway, then there’s forgetting what you learned and relearning Stairway… . It’s a life long process1.
To accomplish the half speed file I brought the whole thing into my DAW (Reaper) and first made a slight pitch adjustment to the whole track so it played at concert pitch. I then slowed it by 50% and told the DAW to preserve the pitch. If you really want to get funky you can do this at whatever speed you want – so if your ear just wants it slowed down a little you can go 80% or 75%; such is the marvel of modern DAWs.
Featured Title Image: Guitar Solo by Stavos, by CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
1 TheStairMeister, August 2016 in conversation.
Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use.