What constitutes a truly memorable guitar melody? Is it the note selection, the melodic rhythm, or the guitar tone itself? It’s probably a combination of all those ingredients and more, but one thing that is certain is that the greatest melodies can be sung by anyone, no vocal skills required.
While any top 10 list is subjective, I think everyone can agree with at least a couple of the selections I’ve offered up on my own personal compilation of what I believe are the greatest guitar melodies ever.
My criteria to narrow things down was that the melody had to be recurring. So, while guitar parts like the intro to "All Along the Watchtower" or the "Comfortably Numb" solo are amazing, they only happen once in their respective songs, so they don't make my list. Enjoy!
Tyler Larson is the founder of the guitar-centric brand Music is Win. His insightful, uncomplicated guitar lessons and gear demonstrations along with entertaining, satirical content about life as a musician receive tens of millions of video views per month across social media. Tyler is also the creator of the extremely popular online guitar learning platform, Guitar Super System. A graduate of Berklee College of Music, Tyler has been teaching guitar for over a decade and operates a production studio in Nashville, TN.
