Learn How To Play "Crossroads" Guitar Solo

In this lesson, we'll learn how to play the first Eric Clapton solo in Crossroads, as recorded with Cream. Crossroads is full of exciting mixes of Major and Minor Pentatonic and has loads of great licks to steal!

💬I love this solo! This is one of the first solos I learned that mixed up the major and minor pentatonic! It's part of what makes this sound so intriguing. What are some other solos that combines them both? Let me know in the discussion area. :)

You might want to write out the solo to easily break it down into licks, analyze each one and then work your favorite licks into your own improvisations. Yes - this is an advanced lesson for Grade 7+ guitar students - if you're not there yet, this might be only part of your dreamer songs for now. :)

Why You Should Transcribe the Solo

You'll want to look out for how the licks work and connect in their unique way. There are quite a few leaps, so get ready to move around your guitar neck.

Your goal should be to play along with the original recording at 50-70%. This will tell you if you're getting the right feel of things! If you want to sound exactly like the original solo, you'll need to have a go at transcribing it on your own.

This lesson only gives you a general idea of the basics and techniques that make up this solo, but there's a lot more going on! For a deeper dive into Clapton's blues guitar solo style, check out my course on Transcribing Blues Solo.

Practice Tips

Learn the solo in separate licks; it's great to break things down and use them improvising - yes, it's encouraged to steal licks to create your style at this stage of your guitar journey.

When you're learning from guitar legends like Clapton - let their greatness inspire you! If you hear something you like, take note of it and use it in other songs. Explore and do some harmonic analysis on your own. You want to know where the notes are from and from which scale to understand the structure of it.

A valuable skill is to write rhythms - which we cover in my Rhythm Reading book. This book is key to understanding, reading, and writing your own rhythm notations. This skill is an excellent way to level up your musicianship.

Want Tabs for Crossroad's guitar solo? I got you - check out JustinGuitar Tabs!