Solo #8: Isn’t It Midnight and the Art of Going High

This week I learned the solo from “Isn’t It Midnight” by Fleetwood Mac.

My parents favorite band growing up was Fleetwood Mac. My mom wanted me to learn one of their solos, so I spent some time going through their extensive catalog. Personally I’m more of a fan of the Peter Green era of Fleetwood Mac albums, while my parents gravitate toward the Rumours era.

I checked out their ’80s albums and found a good candidate.

I had never heard the album Tango In The Night before. I was listening through the songs on it and heard Isn’t It Midnight. It reminded me of Danger Zone from the movie Top Gun. The solo was interesting enough to warrant a closer look.

The tone of guitar is all 80s. A bit of chorus, a bit of delay, a lot of reverb, and heavy amounts of distortion.

It starts with a quick octave jump on the tonic, F.

Then it repeats the initial phrase one octave higher.

That is great technique to practice. Play a lick in one position, then play it again the next go around in a higher or lower octave.

The next phrase starts way up the neck, which is another interesting aspect of this solo.

Usually a solo makes its way up position by position, but this solo just goes for it.

After a few fun bends up to tonic, it transitions to a cool arpeggiated lick.

At first as I was learning it I thought the measure skipped a beat with how the notes landed.

Upon closer inspection, I realized the solo switches to the second arpeggiated chord on the 4th beat. It makes the phrase sound much more complicated than it really is.

Displacing a chord change by one beat like that is a good technique to practice too. It can really pull a listener forward through the phrase.

While not a particularly difficult solo, it has a couple of technique nuggets that give it a lot of character.

What I Learned

1. Repeat a lick in another octave. Play a lick, then play it again up an octave. When you learn a lick, learn it in as many positions as possible. That makes you a more versatile musician.
2. Don’t be afraid to go high. Many players don’t like to venture much past the 12th fret. Make sure to practice utilizing the upper reaches of the fretboard. You might surprise yourself.
3. Use chord arpeggios during a solo. Adding a chord arpeggio or two during a solo can be a great way to hit your chord tones. It also creates a nice contrast to scale based licks.

Eight solos down. Only 44 to go.

What solo should I learn next? Let me know in the comments below.

See you next week!