From here onwards the slide guitar (played by Gary Rossington) is over. The lead guitar role is now taken over by Allen Collins, and is played with a pick. It's a very long, fast solo and runs until the end of the song. Be warned, it's definitely not beginner-friendly. However, if you are interested in playing lead guitar and you know the song you should check it out. It's considered one of the best solos in classic rock history, for good reason.

If you are a beginner and want to start developing the right skills, check out the links at the bottom of this text.

There are lots of great rock solo licks used in this song. And most people who love the song just pick out their favourite parts and learn them, rather than trying to play the whole thing from top to tail. For either approach, we highly recommend using the bookmark feature. This will help you quickly jump to licks you are interested in learning each time you load up the ActionTab.

Although the solo is very long, he often repeats a single lick over and over. For example - this lick is just the same 4-note lick repeated 32 times! There are many such licks, and they effectively reduce the length of the solo (because you're just repeating the same thing a lot). It's a good idea to identify such licks (bookmark them) and give them some practice. Repetitive licks (like that one) are very common, sound great, and are quite easy to practice due to their repetitive nature. As usual, just get them nailed at a slower speed, then work on building speed.

The vast majority of the solo uses the G pentatonic minor scale, starting at fret 15. This is good news because it means all the lead licks for the first half of this entire ActionTab are played in that 1 position, using licks around just one scale. The backing chords (G - Bb5 - C) constantly repeat throughout this whole section of the song, and support melodies using this scale well.

Even after that entire section, he drops down to fret 3 and uses the same scale pattern. It's the G pentatonic minor scale again, just played 1 octave lower.

After that, return back up to fret 15 again (same G scale again) and play some super-repeating licks.

Half the battle is won once you realise that this whole section of the song is played using the same scale:

G pentatonic minor: G Bb D E F

There are a few variations around the scale, but not many. He's using the E pentatonic minor scale shape, shifted up by 3 frets (that makes it G pentatonic minor). We explain all of that in the Core Skills / Jamzone sections, so make sure you read / do those scale practices if you need to before taking on this solo. We recommend the following articles / ActionTabs:

E pentatonic minor scale - Article / exercise showing the basic scale in E minor (G pentatonic minor is the exact same scale shifted up 3 frets).

Rock Game 1 - Teaches how to start using the pentatonic scale in fun ways to help you learn it better, and very importantly, use it to create melodies.

G pentatonic minor scale - Played using hammer ons. Notice it's exactly the same as the E pentatonic, just shifted up by 3 frets (i.e. it starts on a G note instead of the E).

3 pentatonic scales - Good palm muting exercise using the basic E pentatonic minor scale shape in 3 different positions. In this case, giving us the E, G and A pentatonic minor scales.