Fretboard tapping has earned a bad name in certain sectors of the guitar community. Some players dismiss it as a technique suitable only for perpetrating the worst possible kind of overblown, unmusical histrionics, preferably played through a wall of amps that “go to 11.”

Although it hit the YouTubes about a year ago, we thought you'd enjoy hearing this isolated guitar track from Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Free Bird."

To the delight of longtime fans, Dancer and the Moon, the new album by Blackmore's Night, comes with a healthy serving of Ritchie Blackmore's trademark guitar playing. Among the album's highlights is an instrumental track called "Carry On...Jon," which Blackmore wrote as a tribute to his former Deep Purple bandmate Jon Lord, who died in 2012 at age 71.

A few years ago, the editors of Guitar World magazine compiled what we feel is the ultimate guide to the 100 Greatest Guitar Solos of All Time. The list, which has been quoted by countless artists, websites and publications around the world, starts with Richie Sambora's work on Bon Jovi's “Wanted Dead or Alive” (Number 100) and builds to a truly epic finish with Jimmy Page's solo on "Stairway to Heaven" (Number 1).