Stratovarius Community

id have to say its between speed of light, twillight symphony, kiss of judas and holy light
what do you guys think?

ps; i make no disticntion between the keys and guitar seeing as how jens and timo have the insane ability to switch and coordinate their solos perfectley

I don't know about the most difficult, i'm no guitarist but I think the most difficult song to play is Stratofortress.

Holy Light may be the hardest song. The hardest solo I really don't know. Most of them are equally difficult. I really like all Timo's solos. I just wish he took more.

one of the hardest guitar soli should be Phoenix, Speed Of Light, Holy Light...
Stratofortress and Stratosphere are quite easy if you're able to do sweep and appreggios...
but i think the soli of the new albums are quite faster with lesser emotion... and i hate the wahwah on the most soli of the new albums

EndlessSilence wrote:one of the hardest guitar soli should be Phoenix, Speed Of Light, Holy Light...
Stratofortress and Stratosphere are quite easy if you're able to do sweep and appreggios...
but i think the soli of the new albums are quite faster with lesser emotion... and i hate the wahwah on the most soli of the new albums

Tolkki doesn't really do any sweep picking.

True, I can only think of one instance he sweep picks, on 'Babylon'. Everything else is alternate picking, which I think is a great part of his style.

speed of light its easy!! only alternate picking but damn fast

i can play this solos : stratosphere, infinity, father time, distant skies and speed of light

i havent tried the rest

mmm dont know wich one is the hardest but they all sound c00l

the song "know the difference" used to complicate my friend who plays guitar very good, he played as fast as the guitar of symphony X, but he said know the diference was hard beacuse of changing too much the fingers in non-common way

What I like about Timo's playing is that it is kindov spiratic. He doesn't stick to formulated rhythmic groups all the time, so it is actually hard to precisely play most of his solos. The feel is just awesome.

The Abyss of Your Eyes - Listen to it, it is fucking fast, and the rythm is not uniform, no one can write down it.
The solo of Speed of Light is fascinating
And the Scorpions tribute Blackout - some tricks and fast picking, and I like the tremolo picking at the end very much

Timo doesn't use a lot of techniques to create his solos, and i think thta's cool, 'cause as they say "use your techniques to show your music, not your music to show your techniques"

Timo himself once said that one of the most difficult songs to play is Speed of Light.

Stealth wrote:Timo himself once said that one of the most difficult songs to play is Speed of Light.

Indeed... This song is very well named

in the video during an inteview he said something along the lines of "speed of light is what it is, i think it is the hardes song i've ever written, for the guitar, keys, drum, everything..."

i sort of have the first part of the solo down (half his speed on my best days but mehh) the second part is insane and the last one-string solo is just unreal...

Holy Light wrote:

EndlessSilence wrote:one of the hardest guitar soli should be Phoenix, Speed Of Light, Holy Light...
Stratofortress and Stratosphere are quite easy if you're able to do sweep and appreggios...
but i think the soli of the new albums are quite faster with lesser emotion... and i hate the wahwah on the most soli of the new albums

Tolkki doesn't really do any sweep picking.

hehe, i ment this in other way... if you're able to do sweeping then your fingers might be on the right way

Stealth wrote:Timo himself once said that one of the most difficult songs to play is Speed of Light.

Sure, but dont forget that after Episode (Timo said this in an interview after the release of the album in 1995) there were released Visions, Destiny, Infinite, Elements part 1 and Elements part 2...

We should reask to Timo that now.

Stealth wrote:Timo himself once said that one of the most difficult songs to play is Speed of Light.

yeah i saw that on infinite visons but i can play the song and i dont h¡think is that hard so i guess i said that because is hard to cordinate everything.. keys bass and drumms are to fast too

the hardest in my opnion (i play keyboard) is holy light and stratosphere,
I like black dimmond solos

Hellsing wrote:the hardest in my opnion (i play keyboard) is holy light and stratosphere,
I like black dimmond solos

Stratosphere (in the guitar at least) is quite simple, fast yes, but speed of ligth is wAY faster.

on keyboards the problem is the repeated "E b"...lucky guitarists...

khamael wrote:on keyboards the problem is the repeated "E b"...lucky guitarists...

You could just change the pitch of the keyboard, bring it down a semitone. Im quite sure that's what Jens does.

I *think* khamael is refferring to the note that is played really fast in the intro On the guitar, it's the higher Eb loose string. On a keyboard.. it's damn harder, I think

the keyes also play the
0 0 0 12 0 0 0 8 0 0 0 7 0 0 0 5 part?

stratoplayer wrote:the keyes also play the
0 0 0 12 0 0 0 8 0 0 0 7 0 0 0 5 part?

I think so, yes

damn, i did not know that, ok stratosphere could be one of the hardest key songs (then again so could any song with a lot of same notes stringed together stratofortress anyone)

Twilight Legionnaire wrote:I *think* khamael is refferring to the note that is played really fast in the intro On the guitar, it's the higher Eb loose string. On a keyboard.. it's damn harder, I think

EXACTLY!

Btw, it's been 6 years that i'm tuned a semitone low (like Jens)...less black keysBuahahahah

Twilight Legionnaire wrote:

stratoplayer wrote:the keyes also play the
0 0 0 12 0 0 0 8 0 0 0 7 0 0 0 5 part?

I think so, yes

doh, yes.

stratoplayer wrote:the keyes also play the
0 0 0 12 0 0 0 8 0 0 0 7 0 0 0 5 part?

yep but tolkki uses the guitar in Eb so so the keyboard has to play things a little bit harder ( for me, im not a keyboard player )

For guitar, the flat out hardest solo is probably the kiss of judas... there's some very sick tapping in there that I havent been able to figure out correctly by listening to the song- let alone be able to play. Stratofortress is also very difficult, but its not terribly difficult technically, its just hard to keep your fingers in constant motion at 184 BPM for 4 minutes straight... I can only play up til halfway through the sweep picking part before my fretting hand aches so much i just have to stop playing, or maybe there's an easier way to fret that part that I've been unaware of... well, anyway how i figured out to play it, it's damn tiring on my left hand.

For hard rhythm guitar parts, I'd probably say witch hunt... it's like the guitar/keyboard solo from speed of light, but played an octave lower on a much more complicated scale (the 2 or 3 riffs right after the second chorus).

well....actually i dont think that spped of light is a very hard song to play.....its very fast but with simple 4x4 progression of notes high and low.....i you manage to play as than its a lot easyer than it looks like.....on stratofortress is another case.....the fast part that remembers polka is like a 3x4 compass onthe guitar rythim so its simple composition but its a weird way to move so fast the fingers on the picking....i think thats why is a hard song....of course thats also the 2 strings arppegious that goes on al other instrumental songs like holy light and stratosphere thats hard because althought is simple is to fast to do it constantly.....the kiss of judas is a damn fucking hard solo to make.....it has a very fast sweep after an extremely fast picking regression wich he does 2 times when if he had do it 1 time would sound really fast....so its to time faster....in the sweep theres also a had tapping in the end followed by a strange sentence of tapping.....techinically is one of the hardest solos ive ever heard....its a shame that tolkki doesent do the sweep part alive....only the picking and tapping parts