Viraj's Weblog

For the past few months I've been learning to play Led Zeppelin's Stairway to Heaven on my guitar. I have newfound respect for Jimmy Page, that guy is just amazing. Right now I'm playing it at about half the tempo. I have just finished figuring out all of the notes of the guitar solo, which has got to be the most awesome solo ever.

A friend got me started and taught me the first part of the song. Even that I mess up a lot but I at least know the notes. Then came the solo. I could never have figured it out at normal tempo. I used Audacity to time shift the solo -40% and set it on a loop. Then I spent hours looping tiny bits and trying to get the notes down. Audacity is just amazing for this. I think I spent all day on it today, but I think I got all the notes down. Playing them is the hard part .

This song has got to be the best song for guitar practice ever as it makes use of so many techniques. I'll post some samples once I can do it consistently. Otherwise you'd just hear all my mistakes. I'm using Garage Band for recording. It's pretty simplistic, but seems to get the job done (and I am in no way at a professional level). A friend let me borrow a Digitech RP20 effects processor and I'm having a lot of fun with it. The effects make me sound a lot better than I actually am .