This song has kicked my @$$ so far, and I'm only 24 bars into the solo now, so I guess you could say I've really only started the song! I've been taking my time with it and actually studying it as well as refreshing my memory on 12 bar blues / blues scales.
It has exposed so many holes in my technique that really surprised me, for example I had trouble including open strings. It felt weird the first few times mostly because I had difficulty holding the open string notes for the right length. From what I've read that's a technique that Jamerson etc used a lot of too, it gives the groove a nice vibe.
My fretting hand movements have become a lot more precise as there are a lot of nifty runs every few bars that I've had to master. I've almost tied my fingers in knots a few times - even when I've played along with a metronome at a slower tempo.
And while the time signature never changes I've definitely improved my ability to hold a winding groove that runs throughout the solo (or as far as I've gotten anyhow!).
Right now I think this is just the best feckin' song ever. I'm determined to work my way through as many other Led Zeppelin songs I can find. And my appreciation for JPJ's skills has increased exponentially.
