What is a guitar solo?

A solo is a solo. It's a melody that the guitarist plays during the intro, interlude, and outro. It's not unaccompanied, and it's not necessarily improvised.

The intro, interlude, and outro are supposed to be used as transitions for the sake of musical integrity. But so many guitarists use this time of solo to showcase their musical style and demonstrate their playing skills that the lead guitar in many bands carries as much weight as the singer. It's even to the point that many fans prefer the guitar solo part of a song, like us guitar fans.

Eric Clapton, for example, tends to mesmerize the crowd and break into more applause during his guitar solos. By the way, his solos are often improvised live. It's a very high level of musicianship to play a well-publicized solo live, without rehearsal.

Some bands have guitarists who play a different part of the solo every time, also improvising. It's really cool to have a deep level of experience and skill as a foundation, and then just let your musicality run wild on stage.