“Ouija board”: Frank Zappa’s secret ingredient for a great guitar solo
He may not be a virtuoso, but he came pretty close as a visionary and musical beast. Frank Zappa is one of the most simultaneously lauded and divisive characters of all time. He’s got 129 albums to his name (released while living and posthumously), so there should be no doubt that Zappa put in the work to earn him his praise. During his 30-year-long career, including his solo work and work with the Mothers of Invention, he displayed a keen understanding of composition.
With a background in classical composition and orchestration as a foundation to build on, Zappa threw satire and influences of jazz, pop, funk, doo-wop, and rock into his music. He revelled in creative freedom and blatantly refused labels as he went through and developed each new project. Zappa’s musical explorations couldn’t have been more varied or eclectic. He’s almost uncategorisable for the way he existed as this stylistically nonconformist artist.
He took on an avant-garde approach, letting his lyrics be unserious, reflected as such in his song titles, such as, ‘Don’t Eat the Yellow Snow’ to ‘Fembot in a Wet T-Shirt’. Lyrical content aside, it is just about guaranteed that within the instrumental sphere, there are some exceptional compositions to be discovered. In particular, Zappa excels at developing and putting into motion killer guitar solos. After admitting in an interview with The Tapes Archive in 1991 that his actual guitar technique was lacking, saying, “I can only play what I imagine”, he shows that intuition is what helped him execute his vision.
Zappa related his ability to craft guitar solos as being “kind of Ouija board-like”, indicating that it’s all based on instinct and can’t exactly be targeted or achieved during a session. Sometimes, the pull of inspiration comes and lines up with the moment and the skill, and other times, it doesn’t: “You know you have to have an optimum environment to play a really good solo”.
He specifically points to ‘Black Napkins’, a song off his 1976 album Zoot Allures. It’s an entirely instrumental piece whose sole focus is the guitar solo, and rightfully so. As Zappa explained, the track was “a planned piece of music”. Although he notes that “the solo itself is an improvisation”, he continues and impressively remarks, “It’s one of the first tunes that I wrote for the guitar, the guitar solo instrumental”. As a self-taught musician and composer, this is a shocking bit of information purely because of how good the song is.
‘Black Napkins’ is transcendent of typical or basic understandings of guitar, even for a musically inclined person. In this instance, it feels like there’s some innate connection between Zappa and the instrument. Almost like it’s just an extension of him or vice versa. When listening, you can practically feel his soul meeting the guitar’s before they engage in their roughly four-minute-long dance.
All to say that, Frank Zappa is legendary. And though it might be inconceivable to some, there’s something about his ability to work with the guitar that speaks a greater power. Some things can only be communicated and understood in chords, and thank goodness. He is more than eloquent in that language.
