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Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here - Intro Solo - Guitar Lesson

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Key G major
Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here - Intro Solo guitar lesson video
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Pink Floyd Progressive Rock G major
Capo Advisor 0 G major · Original key

About Wish You Were Here - Intro Solo

Few guitar moments are as quietly demanding as the intro to Pink Floyd's "Wish You Were Here." What sounds like a casual, fingerpicked acoustic solo is actually a carefully voiced passage in G major that requires clean fretting, controlled dynamics, and a light but deliberate touch. The opening phrases lean on open strings ringing against fretted notes, so any finger placement that accidentally mutes a string will immediately break the texture. Getting those open-string rings to sustain evenly is the real challenge here, not the individual note choices. The tempo is unhurried, which paradoxically gives you nowhere to hide: every note speaks clearly and any hesitation shows. If the transition between phrases is tripping you up, use the Practice Toolbar to loop that section slowed down until your fretting hand moves without thinking. Pay attention to pick or fingernail angle too, since the tone needs to stay warm and round rather than bright and plucky.

  • The intro blends fingerpicked open-string phrases in G major, so precise fretting is essential to let adjacent open strings ring freely.
  • A common stumbling point is the position shift mid-phrase, which benefits from slow, isolated repetition with the Practice Toolbar before playing up to speed.
  • The tone on the original recording comes from an acoustic guitar with a capo, so check whether the tab you are using accounts for any capo position.

How to Play Wish You Were Here - Intro Solo

Key: G major · Tempo: 60 BPM

Loop each section and focus on clean, even timing rather than speed, with the metronome at 60 BPM.

Fender Stratocaster
Guitar

Fender Stratocaster

Gilmour's 1969 Black Strat is his primary instrument, offering glassy neck pickup tones perfect for his singing bends and the warm, rounded character that defines Pink Floyd's melodic solos without harsh brightness.

Fender Telecaster
Guitar

Fender Telecaster

This workhorse guitar provided Gilmour with a brighter, more cutting tone for rhythm work and alternative textures, offering the snap and clarity needed for Pink Floyd's diverse sonic palette across studio and live performances.

Gibson Les Paul Standard
Guitar

Gibson Les Paul Standard

Gilmour's 1955 Les Paul Goldtop, fitted with original P-90 pickups, delivers the thick, gritty midrange essential for iconic solos like Comfortably Numb's outro, providing tonal weight and sustain that Strats cannot match.

Gibson Les Paul Custom
Guitar

Gibson Les Paul Custom

Though less documented than the Goldtop, this model would offer similar thick, sustained tones with enhanced versatility through multiple pickup switching, supporting Gilmour's need for varied textures within complex Pink Floyd arrangements.

Fender Twin Reverb
Amp

Fender Twin Reverb

Gilmour used Twin Reverbs for their exceptional clean headroom and built-in reverb, creating spacious, shimmering textures that complement his delay-heavy effects chain and define Pink Floyd's atmospheric, three-dimensional soundscapes.

Dunlop Cry Baby Wah
Pedal

Dunlop Cry Baby Wah

The Cry Baby opens Gilmour's effects chain, allowing expressive vocal-like phrasing on solos, integral to Pink Floyd's emotional delivery and creating dynamic dynamic tonal sweeps that enhance the band's psychedelic and progressive character.

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