Foreplay/Long Time Guitar Lesson – Boston


In this series of videos we will take a look at one of Boston's early classics "Foreplay/Long Time".

I miss the eras of rock music where a band could record a song like this and release it as a single even if it began with an extended instrumental section. I also became a huge hit!

Even though those days of being freely creative and still achieving commercial success are long gone in the rock world, we can still look back on the glory days.

This Foreplay/Long Time guitar lesson will teach you note-for-note how to not only play that progressive rock intro (Foreplay) but also the main song (Long Time) and all of it's solos.

We have a lot to cover here so let's get started! The first guitar parts come in around the 30 second mark with a bunch of fast moving power chords that follow the bass line. These chords can take some time to memorize so be sure to practice them in the smaller sections that I teach them in during the video lesson.

Also in the first video lesson will be the opening solo. Just like most Boston guitar solos, it is highly melodic with a little bit of flash thrown in there as well. An instantly recognizable and extremely fun to play solo!

In the second video lesson we will tackle all of the chords and rhythms found in "Long Time". And since it occurs during the first run through of these guitar parts, we will also take a look at the second guitar solo in this video lesson.

For much of the verse of "Long Time" there is just organ and no guitar. For this part I have included an easy guitar transcription of that organ part. That will enable you to continue to keep the music rolling even if you are playing in a group without anyone on the keys. 🙂

For the most part the chords used throughout are simple power chords and barre chords. None of the rhythms are very challenging either. The only guitar riff that does have a specific rhythm (the acoustic part) has detailed instructions on how to play it in the video lesson.

The solo in the second video lesson has some very cool features including large bends, trills and fast pull-off sequences. It is short and sweet and hopefully won't take you very long to master.

In the third and final lesson I will break down the main guitar solo and any variations used towards the end of the song. This guitar solo contains some rapid pentatonic licks, blues based licks, vibrato bar madness, pre-bends and so forth. Just take your time and go through it phrase-by-phrase like I teach it in the lesson and you should be able to get a good grasp of it in no time.

I would put this entire Foreplay/Long Time guitar lesson at about an intermediate level. Hopefully you will find something in it that inspires and challenges you. 🙂

Carl...

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Foreplay/Long Time Guitar Lesson Pt.1 - Intro

Foreplay/Long Time Guitar Lesson - Part 2

Foreplay/Long Time Guitar Lesson - Main Solo

1 Comments

  1. pandrews on December 30, 2014 at 11:25 am

    Another great lesson. Thanks. A suggestion/request, Carl. Would you say occasionally name the key the song is in and also what mode solos are being played in? I like keeping my 3 note per string major scale diagrams close at hand when learning the songs to get a fuller understanding of the progressions and solos. Thanks again.

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