Kansas - Carry On Wayward Son Pt.3 - Instrumental Section & Solo - Guitar Lesson

About Carry On Wayward Son Pt.3 - Instrumental Section & Solo

The instrumental section and solo in "Carry On Wayward Son" represent some of the most demanding guitar work in the Progressive Rock canon. Kerry Livgren and Rich Williams layer twin-guitar lines that shift between driving riff passages and melodic lead runs, all sitting in A minor at a steady 120 BPM in E Standard tuning. That tempo feels comfortable until you hit the solo, where the phrasing demands clean articulation at speed and precise pick attack to cut through the dense arrangement. The instrumental break also calls for smooth position shifts up the neck, so knowing your A minor scale shapes across all five positions is essential before you try to connect it all in one pass. Use the Practice Toolbar to loop the trickiest phrase slowed down, especially where the lead and rhythm guitars interlock. Kansas built this section to show off ensemble tightness as much as individual technique, so listen closely to how the guitar parts lock with the keyboards before you focus purely on the solo runs.

• The solo sits in A minor in E Standard tuning, so no retuning is needed, but strong knowledge of minor pentatonic and natural minor scale positions across the neck is essential.
• Twin-guitar interplay between Kerry Livgren and Rich Williams means learning both the rhythm and lead parts separately will give you a much clearer picture of how the section is built.
• At 120 BPM the picking demands are moderate, but clean articulation on every note matters more than raw speed here, making it a good test of your pick control and left-hand accuracy.