[buriedbeds]

Oh, and the best way to get to be a good (not just fast) soloist is to be a music fan, and listen to music all the time. I made my biggest leaps and bounds by being a teenage loser and sitting in front of the computer in middle school with music playing and playing along/on top of it for literally hours at a time. Led Zeppelin is excellent for this purpose, as it's blues-based, stays in 1 key and, well, it's zeppelin.

It's the one upside of being a teenage loser...while other people were being popular and having fun, I was getting good at guitar, reading books and the like. Stuff that pays off in the end because you end up being well-versed in a lot of topics and pick up a skill that a lot of people envy, but at the time you just do it to get by. It is AMAZING how being good at an instrument (particularly guitar) will get you interest from people (girls in particular, but also the "popular kids") who would NEVER, EVER talk to you otherwise. It kind of rules, actually.

-bb.