"Practice What You Preach" (Testament) Solo Lesson/Analysis
Probably the solo that put big-brain guitar master Alex Skolnick on the map, Practice What You Preach often flies under the radar in terms of iconic, challenging solos. I'd never really spent much time learning this before transcribing it yesterday and man was I shocked at how ridiculously hard this beast is!
The difficulty of this solo largely comes from how improvized most of the licks are, which makes them incredibly tricky to replicate exactly how Alex played them on the record (especially the insane Al Di Meola-style alternate picking runs at the start). This is for sure one of those solos where the sensible approach is to adapt the improvized licks to fit your own intuition.
I highly recommend watching this super interesting video where Alex talks through his thought process behind each of the solo's sections (though be aware the way he demonstrates the faster licks is very different to how he played them originally).
Good luck and don't forget to share your progress with everyone in the Discord server!
Comments (7)
I have the "official" tab book for this album. They totally F up that beginning lick. They have it up at the 12th fret and it is virtually impossible to play up there! Thanks for doing this one! I've always loved Testament. Alex is probably just below Marty if you rank the best players from 90s metal scene.
Dude you're sick
Thanks for this one. Alex is my favorite. And I love this solo. Your channel is the best, too! Your solo analysis stuff is always great!
Wow man! Wasn't expecting this one! One of my favourite metal solos ever! I read somewhere that Alex kind of applied the stuff he'd learned from Joe Satriani in this solo, using various modes and scales that are brought out even more by the clever interplay with the rhythm guitar! This one, Electric Crown, Return To Serenity, More Than Meets The Eye and also Souls Of Black are terrific stuff! Easily on par with anything by the Big 4!
YESSSSSSSS! Made me fall in love with metal and Alex's playing
Great job. My first time hearing this solo - love it.
Cheers Scott!