Slash’s ‘Breakdown’ Guitar Solo Lesson

Welcome, today we tackle the ‘Breakdown’ guitar solo by Slash from Guns
& Roses.

Slash is a really interesting player, great feel and phrasing and he has some
pretty decent chops too when he decides to tear it up.

This solo is based primarily around the Dm Blues Scale with nods to D dorian mode
as well as the major 3rd (F#) of the key center D. Slash starts the solo with a typical
blues lick using the 10th position of a Dm blues scale and utilizes bending, and
thematic soloing where he is moving higher and higher every 2 bars of the solo.

Eventually Slash ends up making it up to fret 15 and utilizes a country style
bend, eventually getting into some of the D Dorian scale and then deftly moving
from there down the 10th positiong of the Dm blues scale where the solo started.

Slash rips out some fast licks based on the Dm blues scale and brings all to a close with
some double stops on the G and B strings before ending with a nice vibrato on
the tonic D.

I have included most of the scales Slash used in this solo and you would be
well served to learn and get familiar with these while tackling this solo.

Enjoy!

Breakdown Solo Transcription
Breakdown Scales