How to Play Free Bird Guitar Solo- 7 Pentatonic Exercises

I’m assuming that if you play guitar, you probably have heard the solo from Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Free Bird once or twice.  The solo is actually quite simplistic if you break it down a little.  It is based almost completely on a G minor pentatonic scale. I’m going to break down the solo a little bit here, and give you a couple of pentatonic exercises to practice that come directly from the solo. If you want some more pentatonic exercises, check out my other lesson on the subject. 

Free Bird- Lynyrd Skynyrd

Shown below is a basis G minor Pentatonic scale, which is used almost exclusively in the solo, to get you warmed up:

e|--------------------------------15-18--|
B|--------------------------15-18--------|
G|--------------------15-17--------------|
D|--------------15-17--------------------|
A|--------15-17--------------------------|
E|--15-18--------------------------------|

Exercise 1

We’ll start with the first lick of the solo. Its not really an exercise but it’s a good lick for beginners to get under their fingers.

Exercise 2

Now we’re getting into some really good pentatonic exercises. This one is a nice rapid-fire lick with a lot of bending.

Exercise 3

A good pentatonic exercise to practice your pull-offs.

Exercise 4

Another rapid-fire lick.

Exercise 5

This one is not purely pentatonic (the A is not). Its a good exercise for pinky and ring finger strength, and also for pull-offs.

Exercise 6

Yet another machine-gun type lick.

Exercise 7

This one seems a little Hendrix-esque to me. He used stuff like this lick in a lot of his solos.

You can get the whole solo tab here. 

That’s it for now. If you have any questions or comments, please email me at mdguitarteacher@gmail.com

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