SWEET CHILD O’ MINE Words and Music by W. Axl Rose, Slash, zzy Stradlin’, Duff McKagan, and Steven Adler Figure 1 - Guitar Solo ‘Slash came to the forefront in the late 1980s with the iconoclastic rock and punk group Guns N’ Roses. In contrast with the over-produced pop metal and glam rock stars of the era, the Gunners were a tough, no-nonsense act— adopting and flaunting a decidedly “street” image and stripped-down sound. Ideally suited for the situation, Slash pioneered and popularized a ‘new retro” guilar style with strong Implications for the nineties, His approach, with its Toots in sixties blues-based hard rock and seventies metal, fit the GNR material perfectly and was a large factor in the success of the band. “Sweet Child O' Mine.” from the 1987 Guns N' Rasas debut album Appetite for Destruction, is a milestone song for the band, and a career- defining momont for Slash ao a guitarist. The track—one of their lunigest—wers @ colossal hit record, an MTV standard, and a perennial in-concert favorite, containing the quintessential Slash solo. ‘Scales used: harmonic minor (E-F#-G-A-B-C-Df); E natural minor or Aeolian made (F-F}-G-A-B-C-D); E minor pentatonic (E-G-A-B-D). Significant added tones: Dt (measure 17); F# (measure 20-21) and Bb (measure 23), as a result of string bends; F# (measure 29). Solo signatures: Two-part sectional structure with a song-oriented balance of minor mode molody and biuoe loko; oblique atring bends (measures 24-25); sequences (measures 28-29); ostinato riffs (imeasutes 39-3 |); Sash tunes all sic stings down one nat step {Eb tuning). Performance notes: This landmark Slash soln is arranged in twa sections with contrasting moods. The first is modal, and exploits chord progressions and diatonic melodies based on E minor. The second has a more driving hard rock fee! with a. simpler power-chord vamp of E-G-A-C-D-G, and is characterized by aggressive blues licks and string bends. The long, ascending harmonic minor scale run in measures 16 and 17 connects the two sections, and reflects the eighties “shred guitar” approach. Slash uses a wah-wah pedal during the second solo section. This is rocked in time with the phrasing of specific licks for a talking wah effect. ‘Sound: Gibson Les Paul Standard; 100-watt Marshall stack; wah- wah pedal Refore playing along with Fig. 1, tune down one halt top with track 31. 67Fig.1 O-8@-o Moderate Rock 4 = 122 (G2 wR 2 Snes ee iy Fi 3 oP Dy) om oE=a o cs c B pe we) 5) E harmonic minor As / }) 3: Ry. Fi 9.2 is ag Se e ¢ v7 ee as ay. mig2 Copyright© 1967 Gune N' Rocae Mucie (ASCAP) Intemational Copyright Secured Al Righs Reserved Used by PermissionAeolian mode B AS . o MES Em a E harmonic minor os B, See wenn « ey. ig 2. sme et wa eS © 8 de 3.) err Pde tala | [Eharmonic minor (fr wns 200 Cae h E Aeolian mode(2 Ry. a aS ow as cs Ds / hy) ) } »Yy meee) =) Pee apa s 28 £3 (3:9 Ry. ig. 3 cme 8 Be hy. 70n