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This Brian May solo is an absolute masterpiece of technical playing, combined with a fantastic ear for melody and solo structure. The general key of the song is Eb major / C minor and Brian May tends to combine the 5 pentatonic scales with the 5 full diatonic scales (major and minor scales). If you have never combined these scales before, I would recommend taking a look at this lesson to understand this concept in greater detail: https://www.yourguitaracademy.com/courses/jimmy-page/lessons/adding-the-full-scale. In this lesson we will break down each lick and the shapes that are being used.
The first lick is a really cool major pentatonic lick, using the first scale shape. Ollie walks you through the notes clearly in the video, but let's just recapp the pentatonic shape you are using.
We then move to a linking, very melodic lick. This is a great little lick that can move you from the first shape all the up to the 4th in one swift movement. The lick is based very much on the 3rd shape of the diatonic scale, as shown below. We've also highlighted the notes you are using.
We then have a section of the solo that is all based around the 4th shape of the pentatonic & diatonic scale. Brian May really makes use of this scale shape here, by using it for some very quick little runs. We're are mainly using the diatonic (full scale), which is shown below, but it's also worth showing the pentatonic shape that is there as well.
We then return to the D shape, or shape 3 of the scale to do another melodic lick. Once again, Brian May really focuses on creating a melodic sound, rather than a more classic bluesy lick or rock lick. This is where the diatonic scale really works well... When using it for melody!
This part of the solo is moving away from the basic key and really targeting certain chords underneath rather than just the overall scale. This is a very constructed part of the solo, which has been very well pre-thought out by Brian May and Queen as it reflects parts that the rest of the band are playing. For us, we just simply need to learn the notes to be able to complete the solo!
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