Nelson Faria's solo on Stella By Starlight

**James W** · 02-13-2024, 11:10 AM

So I finally pulled my finger out and learnt to play this solo. I'd say it's a bit more difficult than Mike Stern's because Faria tends to favour arpeggios, compared to Stern's more scalic vocab. Accordingly, Stern's can be played with alternate picking while I took an economy picking approach with Faria, which I am fairly sure he uses himself. Similar to Stern's solo there are two tricky passages that are similar, the first one starts at 13 seconds in, the second at 1:02, based on chains of arpeggios in groups of three.

My right-hand is still far from being smooth and the performance is not perfect...

**enalnitram** · 02-13-2024, 11:16 AM

Really nice job. That feeling that your performance is not perfect never goes away....

There are some good pages in the sal salvador single string studies, for right hand / left hand fitness. When I work out of it every day, I notice my control getting stronger.

**James W** · 02-13-2024, 11:27 AM

Originally Posted by enalnitram

Really nice job. That feeling that your performance is not perfect never goes away....

There are some good pages in the sal salvador single string studies, for right hand / left hand fitness. When I work out of it every day, I notice my control getting stronger.

Thanks!

And thanks for the recommendation. TBH I have and continue to work on my right hand technique but despite some fundamental rethinks regarding the motion I make, it's a case of an old inefficient sort of uncomfortable habit reluctant to go away. But I'll continue to work on it. I recently realised that there are some motions I can make that are smooth and fast, so I've been practising trying to apply that with a pick to an actual guitar string - no small feat, but I feel it's the correct route to take...