Nightwish - Wish I Had An Angel - Guitar Solo Tab

Once

2004 4:06

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About Wish I Had An Angel

Drop D tuning is doing real work in "Wish I Had An Angel," and that is the first thing to get comfortable with before you touch the riff. The low open D string drives the main guitar figure with a heavy, palm-muted pulse that sits right at 120 BPM, so keeping your right hand tight and consistent is the core challenge here. Nightwish layer thick orchestral arrangements over the guitars on the 2004 album Once, which means the guitar part needs to lock in firmly rather than compete, so precision matters more than flash. The verse riff is built around D minor and leans on power chords and single-note runs that feel approachable at first but demand clean muting to avoid unwanted string noise at this tempo. The transition into the chorus shifts the picking intensity and is where most players start to lose accuracy. Use the Practice Toolbar to loop that transition slowed down until the pick attack feels automatic. Symphonic Metal arrangements like this one reward guitarists who nail the groove rather than overplay.

• The main riff uses Drop D tuning, letting you play root-fifth power chords on the bottom two strings with a single finger.
• Palm muting consistency at 120 BPM is the key technical hurdle, as any tension in your picking hand will muddy the low D pulse.
• Keeping string noise under control across the D minor riff is a practical focus, especially when moving quickly between power chords and single notes.