“No Big Deal” is a hit song from Disney’s animated series, Amphibia. It plays at the end of Episode 19 Season of the series, but who is counting? And if you’ve been following me for a while you’d know that I had the rad honor of getting to write and record the guitar solo Sasha plays on “No Big Deal” for the battle of the bands. Earlier this week I came across some videos and posts of people playing the song & guitar solo and comments asking for the tab & chord sheet. Sooooooo I figured I’d show you how to play the guitar solo and give ya’ “No Big Deal” guitar tab. So let’s download the patch, read the blog post (or watch the video lesson) and let’s go dooooood.
TL; DR
Sasha Rips on Guitar!
When composer Adam Gubman told me he needed guitars for a Disney track, I didn’t know what to expect. We had just finished recording guitars for a game and as I was packing my things up he says “Actually dude, if you have a quick second, I need a bit of guitars for a Disney song. We have enough time to record them?” Yes, of course. The answer is always O’couuurse dude.
The First Section – It’s All Pentatonics, Baby
The guitar solo to Amphibia No Big Deal opens with a huge unison bend on G in the third position and is followed by a shred-fest-style pentatonic blues lick, that ends with a little Hendrix trill between F and G on the fourth string. If the phrasing of the fast part of the guitar solo sounds confusing, break it down into chunks of 6 notes and you’ll notice it’s the same note fragment and just taken to the next string set.
Big open chords are next, going from Bb to C! If I remember correctly, this is done on a separate track so don’t feel obligated to play those chords while playing the solo.
The Fast Part!
Ok. I promise this part is not as hard as it sounds, but IT IS a fast lick. I recently tried to play the run with the recording and even I, the dude who recorded it for the show, was struggling a bit. Issa fast.
If you look at the notes involved you’ll see that you can break up the run into smaller chunks of 6 notes. They simply repeat themselves and move up the fretboard using the C Major scale.
Alternate Picking
I highly recommend using a strict alternate picking technique for the fast run. If you’re an economy picking guitarist and have it down pat, then by all means stick with it. I just feel like it’s easier to get a consistent rhythm using alternate picking. If you’re alternate picking isn’t up to tempo of the fast section, practice the section in small chunks slowly with a metronome.
While practicing, aim for a consistent rhythm, the same amount of space between each note and a consistent volume, every note should be at the same volume.
That’s it!
See, it’s not that hard is it? It’s just fast.
I’m just glad that people on the internet liked it so much that they wanted to play the solo. So rad. Don’t forget to download the tab so you can be able to print it out AND get the tab for the section when the whole band comes in after the guitar solo
