Technically, Brian May is an astrophysicist that did a side job as a guitarist in a band. That side job sidetracked him from completing his PhD until later. That same side job earned him more money than he would have earned as an astrophysicist.

Apparently Brian was manning the studio while the others arranged Bohemian Rhapsody. Freddie had written down the singing and piano parts beforehand. And the solo came to him while he was listening to them play. So, in this case he was certainly not playing some random scale patterns. He was playing a melody in his head. All of those guys were geniuses.

I am neither a guitar player nor a big Queen fan. But Brian May is one of those special guitarists that you recognize even if you've never heard the song. As soon as I hear one of his solos, i know it's Brian May. Totally unique sound and tone.

My guitar teacher told me when I was young, "Brian May plays solos like he has to pay for each note he plays", the concept always stuck with me and helped my phrasing a lot. Instinctively I think we all lean towards speed when we want to solo initially but quickly learn the best solos ever are the ones you can sing along/hum to.

He not only has his Guitar but he also has an incredible singing voice.

He’s an astronomer that changed the way we think about the electric guitar because he was brilliantly inventive. Frank Zappa once said in the 70s that there were few players doing anything new, except for Brian May.

Fall, 1975, Dad and I are in the driveway, changing the oil in his car. Bohemian Rhapsody comes on the radio in the garage. Dad keeps looking towards the music and shaking his head. Finally he asks, "What is that?" I answer "Queen". Dad pauses and says, "Sounds like a whole bunch of 'em." I nearly died laughing. One of my fondest memories.

Brian May plays with his soul. He is a true guitarist. He doesn't think about how he plays he just does it. It's a way many really great pianists play the don't follow the notes they follow their soul.

Brian May and David Gilmour are definitely guitarists who work outside the traditional boxes. I had a jazz improv teacher who advised me to listen to solos from different instruments as well as vocal solos which really opened up my playing as well as my improv. These two gentleman were very influential on my technique and helped me to free my thinking. Great video!

It can be boiled down to: Brian (and the other great ones) are not "guitarists", they are Musicians. And as you said, "once you figure it out...." then you are on your way.

When Brian talks about when he built his guitar with his Dad back in the late 60s, he always says that he wanted it to "sing". His guitar is his "voice". All the revisions and changes he made (from finding the Burns pickups, to the tremolo design, to running a treble booster into an AC30) were about that, and nothing else. He's actually an OK singer in his own right (nowhere on the level of Freddie though), but his voice is really his guitar... that's where he feels most comfortable. And he's also always the first to admit he's not a great technical guitar player. For him, that doesn't matter.

«He [Freddie] said he wanted a solo in there, and I said I would like to effectively sing a verse on the guitar. I would like to take it somewhere else. I would inject a different melody. There was already a lot of colour in there, but I would like to have a free hand. And I could hear something in my head at that point - long before I went in there and played it. ___________________Basically sang it, I regard the guitar in that situation as a voice. I could hear this melody and I had no idea where it came from. That melody isn’t anywhere else in the song, but it’s on a familiar chord sequence, so it dovetails in quite nicely. And of course the job of the guitar solo is to bring that extra voice in, but then it’s a link into what everybody now calls ‘the operatic section’. You know you’re into something very different______________ It came out very easily. I didn’t do many takes. It was one of those occasions where you do a few takes and then you go back and listen to the first one and the first one is almost exactly what you want. You just need to trim it a little bit and polish it up», - Brian May recalls the making of “Bohemian Rhapsody”

Years ago, I was awestruck when I found out May sang the intro to Who wants to live Forever.. I had no idea he was such a FANTASTIC singer.

Brian May's a great guitarist who understand what a song needs. On tracks like Bohemian Rhapsody and Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy, he creates these very articulate solos that serve as an essential part of the song whereas on other tracks like Tie Your Mother Down and Now I'm Here, he sticks to standard rock solos because they best suit the song and on other tracks like Get Down, Make Love and Another One Bites The Dust, Brian May effectively does an anti-solo, completely abandoning traditional guitar playing and instead using his guitar to make sound effects.

Brian May is an extremely intelligent man. Not many Rock Guitarists have PhD's in Astrophysics and a chair at Oxford, I think.

A good friend told me once, do not make a solo only on your guitar but make a solo and sing along with it. The timing become much better by that. An other thing he always mentioned was to listen to Saxophone solo's. The sax is a replacement for a singing person. So much to learn. Great lesson from you.

Most of what Brian played was actually very vocal. Us long term Queen fans have always instinctively known that his solos are actually 'words' added to the song, just not sung by a voice, but sung by Brian's fingers! I have debated with people for years about why Brian is different, while most casual listeners just think that because he never 'wanks' the guitar, that makes him less capable than their favourite boring metal guitarist! Brian's tone is as important as his expressive capabilities, and that is never accidental either! Great video! 👌

Every guitarist had their own styles Brian is one of those virtuosos 🔥😁

Brian May is my favorite guitar player. I have been inspired by his guitar playing. Its not very often that someone can make the hair on arms stand up. The Rah remix of Under Pressure is a grest example of that. Those were the days of our lives solo is another one. The first time i heard that one I actually cried a little bit during the solo. The whole song is great as is the rest of the band but but that solo was just fantastic. I've always said there was never a band like Queen and there will NEVER be one like Queen. Freddie was the stage master. I always refer people to their Live Aid performance. The 20 or so minutes that blew everyone watching away. Other bands there even said Queen ruled that concert. I agree. Just watch the crowd on Radio Gaga. EVERYONE was in step with them. There were alot of great performances but Queen ruled the day. R.I.P. Freddie. Everyone misses you.

Yes, the quickest way to write a solo, is to hum it, them find the notes. Vocalize it. Space is important. Nothing scares guitar players more than space.

Davis Wallimann, I hear you. Brian May is a great soloist that happens to play guitar!. Phrasing, phrasing, and phrasing! David Gilmour, George Harrison, BB King and Santana are other examples of the melodic style that is guided by the voice.

Not really unusual. My background is in jazz and that's exactly how I was taught to formulate a solo -- either singing or scatting. My guitar naturally follows my breaths because my guitar is following my voice. Most jazz players internalize that voice after awhile but some still vocalize. Just take a listen to George Benson to see how he's doing it. That's actually pretty typical. Do this and your ear will be trained to your vocal pitch and if you're a decent singer (i.e., able to hear the pitch and harmonies -- not necessarily a dynamic lead vocalist) your fingers will begin to naturally go to what you're singing. It's actually kind of eerie.

At 14 years old , when I first started to play a much older an accomplished musician told me something that I've never forgotten ...he said " no matter what it is that you're trying to play , if you can hum it , then you can play it ."

Learning guitar in the 70's there was no internet, never heard of tabs and would have found them ridiculous, like painting by numbers. All we had was the album and our ears and a lot of great players learned the same way.

"Growing up in the ninties..." And you're a huge fan of Queen - I love it! I remember when their first album was brand new in the record stores...

Maybe you should mention that Brian May is in fact an excellent singer, one of the best in rock business. He just happened to be in a band with the greatest singer in rock music, so he mostly played instruments.

Interesting you said Brian played like the guitar is singing, because one of the most awesome moments I had while listening to Queen is when I first heard the studio version of "Love of my Life" and when the choir sings "I still love youuuuuuuuuu" that "uuuuuu" blends with the incoming guitar almost seamlessly. For me that was a statement of how different Brian handles his position as a guitar player. It is like he wants his guitar to sing, not to play.

Your story about Brian May reminded me of Pat Metheny. Pat grew up listening to jazz, which doesn’t normally feature guitar players but rather horn players in the solo spot. So Pat tried to make his guitar sound like a horn. In part this was done with his tone, but also in his phrasing. He leaves a space for taking a breath where appropriate. And he’s probably the gnarliest jazz guitarist living today.

I can listen to any player and pantomime their sound, but I can't do Brian May. He's just walking on higher ground. -Steve Vai.

Brian May has always said that his soloing is a time to let his guitar sing. Everything is melodic as he wants it to be his voice. When you have one of the most beautiful voices in rock music singing in your band, you have to compete at that level so making your guitar sing at that same level is only natural.

Brilliant critique on the genius of Brian 'Guitar Singer' May!! 👍👏🤘🏽

Brian May is the first guitarist I’ve looked up to since I was 6. Truly an extraordinary guitarist!

I saw an interview with him and he said that he puts the guitar down when he’s writing because having it in his hands makes him default to the usual guitar shapes/ruts. I have found that is a much better way to write solos. Do it in your head then learn it on the guitar. Great video, cheers from the uk.

Heavy analysis. Having seen Queen live in concert. I would be hypnotized as Brian played lead and the sounds that would emerg from his home made guitar 🎸 and the effects pedals he pioneered. Truly a fascinating time in history. I survived the 60s and 70s, probably the most creative years in rock history. Every weekend we would attend concerts not realizing we were watching the most talented and creative musicians in our times

Many of us were in awe of Queen from the start. Radio music. Amazing harmonies and song design.

Imagine if you had Freddie as your lead singing in the early 70's, there was no internet/research, there was only ideas, an energy, great artists feed off each other and compliment the musical vibe they create. Perhaps we should stop looking back and create a new era of original ways to present our musical ideas......Brilliant video old chum.

I've been playing since I was 15. I've had moments where I made quantum leaps on the instrument, usually followed by extended periods of stagnant frustration. May was someone I was astonished by early on. His playing was SO different, I mean, he didn't really rip off anyone unlike all the metal and rock guys that were morphed clones of each others, he was just not doing anything normal. I read his book "Queen and I" and after reading it, I understood why. He's a really smart guy, he COULD have done what others were doing and it was never his intention to 'form' his own sound...it just came out that way. He grew up on piano and small stringed instruments, playing and singing and had a strong orchestra influence. For him, it was all about melody and as long as you get that, you get everything with him. Guitar players are sometimes TOO impressed with themselves and have a tendency to WANT to show off, making everything about themselves instead of what music is SUPPOSED to be...for the LISTENER. The builder doesn't build the house for himself, his skills are put to the test in service for others to admire to appreciate. May seem to get that from the start.

Spot on man. You know BR is not a particularly hard solo to play, to play it like Brian does, to sound like Brian is damn near impossible. He's that unique.

Being schooled is paramount. Gotta know the ABC's of your instrument. But what you can't teach is Feel, Passion and Melody. Brian is all that.

So, Brian May is a "guitar singer". He sings through his guitar. Or, he makes his guitar sing. I'm totally grateful for this bit of info! Thank you for sharing this! 😊

May's playing is more like how a classical composer would approach music. His long fingers also enhance his vibrato beyond what most guitarists can do (his "sauce" along with his Red Special). I had long hoped he would write and record symphonic albums utilizing his orchestration skills. Alas, that was only for special parts and few God Save the Queen or Procession songs. He's not very good at "jamming" with strangers but hey, who can do everything? He's a great writer and singer in addition to his guitar skills.

Very well said !!! Jaco Pastorious said "MELODY". "That is the key".

Brian May is someone I just discovered recently (not ever being a Queen listener). I'm blown away at how wonderful of a player he is.

Definitly... Brian is a singer in disguise... but he also has that incredible tone, amazing and unique tone.

Brian does not consider him self one of the great guitarists, millions would disagree, he is not the fastest player but crikey his solos are Godly, "White Queen" live at the Rainbow or Apollo are great examples. The Red special is the 5th member of Queen

You want to know how my God, Dr Sir Brian May CBE, is playing his Red Special so well?? because he plays from inside, from his gut and his heart, and that's why you can feel every note he is playing or singing. he is super talented. that's why he is the #1 guitar player in the world.

That's why Brian is my favorite, he is unique, and some of his solos are definitely something the most beautiful I've ever heard ( solo from "You don't fool me" is great example, simply amazing).

I always have loved players that you can sing the leads, the melodic playing is the best. Brian is my guitar hero..another great melodic player who is very underrated is Jeff Carlisi from 38 special.

He plays and understands guitar so incredibly well he designed and built a guitar in his teens, the Red Special with specific pickup configuration. If he wasn't any good, he wouldn't be the 8th top selling band of all time.

Nice observations and a great video. As a guy who loves his playing and was learning to play guitar at the exact time Queen were breaking out, I have another take on why his guitar is the way it is. To me May just play's like a 60's, 70's guitarist and that means that he was very focused on the 60's/70's prime directive i.e. coming up with his own mind blowing signature sound rather than blowing your mind with licks and technique. Not that blowing your mind with technique would be incompatible with that prime directive, it was simply that it had to serve the prime directive rather than infringe on it. Originality first. Technique second. Queen's multi tracking and orchestrating genius are stunning but they were not without precedent at that time. Les Paul and Mary Ford had been doing that since the 50s. The rock opera and concept album thing was also well established. Queen were fantastic but maybe not as out of the blue as it may seem to people who were not there at the time. They were just doing what bands did back then and they were doing it very well so they caught on. IMO that prime directive based approach was dying out in main stream pop through the 80's and 90's and was pretty much gone by the 2000s. In the 60's and 70's that prime directive was something the industry looked for and rewarded. Gradually through the 80's and 90's that mentality got turned on its head, more and more the oldies started to dominate the market and instead of rewarding artists who were trying to create the next signature sound the industry started to insist on only promoting artists whose sound kind bore some identifiable relations ship to the general genres that had already been carved out and punished anyone who did not fit into a definable bin with willful indifference. It is not the fault of the musicians there are more great and original musicians than ever out there. That they are not the ones that are celebrated and rewarded s the fault of the industry and its top down X factor, American Idol, talent show mentality. IMO the industry has become toxic.

Hey David. Thank you. I think you shaved 5-10 years off my later-in-life musical learning with this video. If I had started with chords like they al wanted me to start with chords it would have taken me many moons to hear what you so eloquently described here. Let the music breathe is my simplified take-away.

In an interview with Brian May I read years ago he said he generally composed his solos with pencil and paper. When he improvised solos on the guitar his fingers tended to "fall back to old familiar patterns". This seems consistent with your analysis.

The Red Special has always been the 5th Member of QUeen and She (the Old Lady) has sung duets with Freddie from the start.

This is great to explain this......what you have discovered about Brian......very cool......you have found his secret......this makes him one of the greatest

Excellent work thanks for that insight It’s so nice hearing a melodic solo rather than a collection of notes

One of my favorite bands is Band-Maid and their lead guitarist and principal songwriter is a classically trained piano player that picked up the guitar in high school or college. When she writes the songs, she starts on the piano to lay the groundwork and then moves to the guitar. So her guitar parts end up sounding very different from other hard rock guitarists. When I learned how she writes her songs and her background, I realized she’s basically playing piano on guitar. And she’s very good at giving each piece of the band a chance to shine in a way that serves the song. Their song composition is just insane in a way you don’t really understand until you listen over and over. It’s simply outstanding songwriting.

Brian has the voice of an angel and it shows in many songs like Too much love will you.

Brian may said himself when recording the solo for bohemian rhapsody that he wanted to effectively sing a verse with his guitar and heard it in his head before he even went into the studio to record it

Interesting to hear of how you approach Brian Mays solos. Great insight. Damn Brian is amazing and what an amazing band to boot.

100% agree. Two things I remember reading/hearing in interviews is that Brian considers the guitar like a voice or an extension of a voice and that he usually tries to have a melody in his solos that is complementary to the song but can also stand up by itself.

Speaking with Total Guitar, the Queen legend (May) said of the recording session: “Yeah I basically sang it. “I regard the guitar in that situation as a voice. I could hear this melody and I had no idea where it came from. “That melody isn’t anywhere else in the song, but it’s on a familiar chord sequence, so it dovetails in quite nicely.”

He is a superb guitarist - for a number of tracks Freddie played what he wanted on the piano and Brian made a tab from it. Happened all the time with Queen. It’s what happens when the members all have degrees, masters, a PhD… Of course, Brian uses his own home made guitar but also plays with a coin not a pick.

REALLY insightful and very well explained. Excellent.

Brian really is a Astrophysician, who got sidetracked in his younger years to play in a band for a while......really....🙂 thank god for us all......

As a singer who also plays guitar, I salute you! I think (most) of the best guitar solos follow a melodic line like a vocalist. Not always, but very often...

Excellent discussion on one of the most iconic guitarists in our era! I have traveled down this same guitar path, asking the same questions you bring out! We guitar players I'm sure have all blasted this music in our cars and sang to Brian's guitar notes, even more than the vocal lines. You provided some great explanations as to how these solos work and understanding this mysterious and unique style. Info like this was much harder to find in the 90's and prior!! lol It's amazing how a simple movie piece [ie Wayne's World] would bring such a resurgence in the songs and interest in the group as a whole.

Hi David, I recently came across your channel. I think you fill a niche that your colleagues left open. Well done! So far you haven't bored the crap out of me. I really do appreciate your frankness. You come across as a genuine person. I appreciate that a lot.

Brian May is partly brains and partly talent. He plays with a combination of heart and intellect.

You are exactly right. Phrased a bit differently, Brian writes to fit the song, and in the case of Queen, that is never to showcase guitar technique. This is what makes Brian in my opinion one of the most underrated guitar players of his generation. Contrast, for instance, with Eddie Van Halen, who structured songs to create hits but also to showcase his abilities on the guitar. Great video and thanks for posting!

Einstein said you wouldn't enjoy listening to music if you listen to it mathematically. He also said imagination is more important than knowledge. In that sense, Brian May is a guitarist you would love to listen to.

Studying my favorite guitarist phrasing has really help me advance my playing. Great video

Yeah, I play the same old lick boxes but it is still kind of meditative for me. I love the mechanical precision of the fingers as they do their thing without thinking. It's still fun for me.

He also makes his beautiful red special sing. I mean really sing. The solo on Love Of My Life is beautiful. And check Bijou out on Innuendo. The emotion he projects is chilling quite frankly & his guitar is just weeping on that. A vey unique talent is Dr Bri - just like the band!!

what you don't play is as important as what you play. leave space and play the silences (let the band play in response to what you played). phrasing is paramount you can't have a conversation if you are talking all the time.

This is fascinating, not so much that he’s approaching it from a purely melodic standpoint not relying on his fingers but that he’s really singing this stuff to the point where he leaves breaths.

What a brilliant observation of May's playing.

Back in the day, if you were coming in to play with a big band (jazz/swing), you were expected to be able to sing your part before you were considered qualified to sit down and play your part. Best jazz/blues guitar player I know, if you’re close enough to him when he solos, you realize that he’s actually singing exactly what he’s playing as he is playing it.

this singing idea really resembles what flamenco guitarists do. Lots of the "falsetas" that people like tomatito, or paco de lucia play, are based on traditional singing. You can really feel the breathing of the songs

As someone who was listening to and playing Queen in the 1970s and 1980s, I'm here to tell you're full of it. Brian May is a masterful guitarist who is simply very expressive in his playing.

Love your videos David, you're like a guitar detective with your stories 😄

Brian May built his own guitar out of some recycled wood from a fireplace mantle. He didn't understand how some things were done on electric guitars, so he came up with some solutions on his own. The result was the red special, and a couple of patents.

He's not a guitarist, he's a classical composer and arranger that just happens to play guitar

these videos are so helpful as a teenager that is also learning, it almost like im listening to an experienced version of myself from the future

that was an awesome lesson. I had never thought about this. great job

There is a video of Brian May answering his most Googled questions. Within the video he answers a question about why he uses a coin for a pic and in his explanation he says " I have always considered guitar to be a voice." so David your discovery is validated by the man himself!!

I grew up in the seventies and Bohemian Rhapsody was the reason to buy a guitar. I totally agree he´s a singer and i wish technical players should do this as well and try to bring the guitar back to the popaudience . Tom Scholz of Boston did this as well,solo´s which you can sing along

Thanks for highlighting what Brian himself has said frequently in documentaries and interviews for decades. This is why technical guitar players such as Steve Vai idolize Brian.

Absolutely right,David !

I read somewhere that Freddie had a clear conception of how the solo in this song should go. I imagine he sang it to Brian to communicate what he wanted.

Thank you!!! you solve the riddle for me. Every time I couldn't understand the magic. Now I know!! As other people stated there are some guitarists that are remarkable. For me It is David Gilmour, Brian May, Santana and Steve Hackett. Each one in its own magical way, Like Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, Chopin, and Tchaikovsky (pink Floyd of the classics). Magician of music!! its never about speed, complexity and rule. It is always Magic!!! For example, May can just play a simple scale, but it does it in the right moment, Bach Air was the inspiration for whiter shade of pale (sorry procol Harum) but nobody knows any other song, the magic of Bach made it (and it is simple go down tone (with a constant E on melody)... I am crazy about magic!! Long live the Magician!!!!

That's insightfull, my friend!

That’s a interesting perspective. Great video, thanks!

Brian's solo's are like paino runs!

Yep, they’re genuine composers and they understand PHRASING.

Interesting observation. I have always sung along with all of Brian’s solos!

Brian May famously said that he used to work out what he wanted the solo to sound like beforehand then learn how to play that melody on the guitar. He said it was a deliberate ploy to stop himself falling into a formulaic pentatonic noodle.

I heard that Brian May does not use the usual scales - he sees the chords as scales for his solos. It's a different way o think to play solo - but he's not the only one who does this. Brian's play is very melodic. Bytheway: Brian is a really great and wonderful player. :-)

It’s no coincidence that Slash was a big fan of Queen. That’s what set him apart from other guitarists of his era as well. Melody and phrasing. Yes, he can rip through pentatonic licks, but the stuff people remember is the incredible melodies that you can sing along with. They’re composers who’s solos take the song somewhere special.

imagine being so good at guitar you can play what you're singing in your head live

Fantastic video! I am a hack bass player, and this will most definitely help me. When I play along with backing tracks to improvise, I'm too technical in my ideas. From now on, I will try to find a melody or counterpoint in the music and sing it, then make my fingers find the notes. An old friend was a Queen freak, and her influence allowed me to enjoy the band even more. Saw them with her in 1977 during the News of the World tour and then some years ago with Paul Rogers. Iconic band and music.