Bohemian Rhapsody Guitar Lesson – Queen


Well I guess if I want to tackle all of the greatest songs ever written I certainly can't skip Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody". 🙂

In this Bohemian Rhapsody guitar lesson I will teach you how to play all of Brian May's iconic guitar parts to this classic song note-for-note.

In the first video I will show you Brian May's guitar solo and in the second video lesson I will show you all the big arena rock riffs and solos that come after the 4:00 mark of the song.

Brian May composed one of the most melodic and memorable solos in classic rock history for Bohemian Rhapsody. The song is so epic in itself that I am sure he was thinking that nothing but the best would do, and he certainly delivered.

Technically, this Bohemian Rhapsody guitar lesson does present a few challenges to us guitarists.

First off, there are some tricky pre-bends in there that are essential to the correct phrasing of the solo.

In addition to that there are a couple fast runs to deal with. Now if you follow along with the video lesson you will see that the fast runs are simply the same patterns repeated so they shouldn't take to long to grasp.

But those pre-bends will definitely need some special attention in order to do them right.

Brian May is one of the few guitarist to come along that has an instantly recognizable sound and style. His solo for Bohemian Rhapsody is considered by many to be his greatest work.

Therefore, it is essential for virtually every guitarist to take a little time studying this masterpiece. There are many things to learn no matter what style of guitar playing you prefer.

In the second video we will tackle the big rock section which includes some cool riffs, awesome fills and a killer guitar solo. Bohemian Rhapsody truly does contain everything a music lover could want and then some, so hopefully this lesson will do it enough justice so that you can play it quickly as well.

Now Scaramusch!! Actually, I have no idea what that means...

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Bohemian Rhapsody Guitar Lesson - Chords/Rhythms

Bohemian Rhapsody Guitar Lesson - Solo

11 Comments

  1. Luigino Brusco on May 8, 2014 at 5:03 pm

    What I know is that Scaramouche was a character from a Rafael Sabatini’s book. Sabatini was an italian writer (his father was italian but his mather was english) who lived in England, in Portugal and Switzerland. He describes Scaramouche (an idealistic revolutionary, politician and awesome fencing-master) with these words: “he was born with a gift of laughter and a sense of that the world was mad.”
    Funny! Isn’t it?

    • Carl Brown on May 9, 2014 at 11:20 am

      Haha. thanks!! Never knew that.. Thought it was just jibberish… 😛

  2. Luigino Brusco on May 10, 2014 at 1:37 pm

    I suggest you to watch the movie (guess what the title is?) with Stuart Granger. It’s and old one, dated 1952, but very delightful!!! Bye!

  3. Anonymous on May 11, 2014 at 12:15 am

    Wow, Thanks for that bit of trivia. I also thought scaramouche was just a made up word to rhyme. But honestly, how long have you been waiting to drop that bit of trivia on someone? LOL hahaha

  4. Gary Hodgins on May 11, 2014 at 12:45 am

    Thanks for the trivia lesson Lugino, I thought it was just a made up word too. I’ll bet you were waiting eons to share that bit of knowledge!! LOL
    Carl !! You Rock dude!! This is one solo I def. needed to learn. Thank you. Now if I could only put some time into the premium lessons… haha Tried to make a video last night, and my laptop said NO. And this morning, my laptop said it’s time to buy a new laptop. haha So it might be some time before I do the premium plus subscription. But when I do, you gotta see the video from last night. The video part was like triple speed, funny as hell, but the audio was spot on.
    Gary H.

  5. Marco on October 31, 2014 at 9:51 pm

    Hi carl ,i love to play guitar and having someone that teaches me is awesome specially cause you teach a lot of songs i leke without me having to ever ask you for that , but the reason im writing is a song i would love to learn so i was wondering if you could make a lesson , is “La Flaca” (the Santana version) it a spanish song created by jarabe de palo an spanish band so pls pls pls PLS make the lesson i would be so happy if you do that . thats it and keep on doing what you are doing is really hard to find an online teacher for free so good you are great.

  6. Tommy Rad on December 12, 2016 at 5:26 pm

    Hey Carl: It’s tommy rad. Bohemian Rhapsody, nailed-it! So’ fun, fun, fun. Yes it is. You definitely can’t miss with Queen, as you said! Been wanting to do this one for a long time. Since the seventies, man. I’ve always been a huge ‘May’ fan. He’s so different, ya?
    BTW, Just got a “New “American Professional Strat”-Olympic White and Maple Fingerboard, from Sweetwater, today! It’s my 3rd start. They’re surrounding my one Paul. This is my FIRST maple fingerboard, ever. Rosewood for 30 years. But, I tried this one and I like it so far . The maple is satin finished and smoothly polished down to the wood. This is the only way I can see playing on a maple fretboard. Unlike the other old way with the clear lacquer finish over the fingerboard. Pickups by Tim Shaw who designed the three V-mod single-coil pickups for a vintage voice. I have three big Seymour Duncan Quarter Pounders on my tobacco strat., it’s my power sounder so I think I’m gonna leave this new one with the Vintage Sounding modified Alnicos, and also it’s awesome with a “Crybaby.” Anyway, thanks again for the killer Brian May/Queen lesson today.
    Always a pleasure, my friend, and yes, it is good to be back.
    Tommy Radcliffe

  7. Michael McNair on October 15, 2018 at 9:16 am

    I’ve been working on this for a few weeks using some guitar tabs. They got me close but I was missing a lot of the fills and runs. Your lesson helped me out a lot. I signed up for your premium membership today. Trust me I’ll be getting my monies worth from it.

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