What kind of other songs should I learn before I try to learn Joe's stuff?Just to get used to playing at his pace and getting comfortable with using his techniques.I really want to learn Lords of Karma,and I have the rhythm guitar part worked out but should I go for the lead?Some of the harder songs I know are Enter Sandman(Metallica)Little Wing(Jimi's Version)Black Dog(Zep)

IMHO Surfing with the Alien (the song) should give you a good work out. It has most of Joe's idiosyncracies - tapping with the pick, whammy bar work, legato - but has large chunks of the song that are (fairly) simple...I think Lords of Karma is a bit tougher in the solo speedwise and the fast sections last longer so stamina might be an issue...

Let us know how you get on anyway B)

Lords of Karma has insane amounts of legato and is very fast, so i wouldn't really reccomend it for now...Surfing would be good, but if you want something a little bit easier, something like Friends or The Extremist might do you some good

What are good legato workouts I could do for Lords of Karma?Well really my legato could use work all around :P I'll let you guys know how it goes with SWTA!

For my own legato practice I broke down some of his showcasing legato lines into easily digestable patterns, for practicing.

For example, in the song Memories, there's some great 'classic' Satch legato patterns that are sort of simplified in form already, which is great to practice off of. The whole solo in that song is very proper and 'polished', unlike the very improv-ed Lords of Karma solo that has tons of little quirks and that sort of thing that can never really be properly played just from a tab. But ANYWAYS - looking at some songs like that... I forget which others. Perhaps Flying in a Blue Dream, Borg sex, Hill Groove, Gnaah? If someone has some good ones that I can't remember, psot 'em...anwyays, I came up with a bunch of patterns copying from it, like this

And of course, rinse and repeat, with different fingerings (ie. 1-3-4, 1-2-4), different places on the fret board...etc. But that's just one of them that could be wrought from his Legato phrasing bank (as far as we know it :) ).

The way to go about it is to not just copy the solo directly, it's to break it down and then build it back up again, so you can actually play the solo comfortably - without having to worry about having the 27th note of the lick not lasting exactly a dotted 16th note within the 12:8 grouping as it says in the tab, or something. Not that you have that problem, but I sure did!

first of all, LEFTIES RULE!! :) [A little bit of self hype]

why not start off with easier stuff like his ballads?

Wow cool legato workout thanks for the tips!
Yeah I know lefties rule except for Ibanez doesn't seem to cater to us much!

Oh yeah I already have been working on Surfing for 3 days so I figured no point stopping now lol

Hey - hope Surfing is going well...I remember learning that being one of my major milestones, I never got it "perfect" as in 100% note for note, but probably something like 98-99% lol.

My approach to my playing is that I really don't see the value in expending practice time and effort to get something 100% perfect as a replica of an original - this can, and should, take hours for any difficult piece.

I'm far more interested in learning what I can from a piece and then applying that to my own improvising and playing. If and when I'd play Surfing now for example I'd check that I had all the melodies down, and the structure of the solo, but then improvise my own patterns in the various fast sections etc. If you listen to any live version of Surfing by Joe I'm sure he could pull it off exactly like the record...but he doesn't!

My aim is the same and I personally get far more satisfaction from this approach...so to sum up learning songs note for note is a means to an end, but shouldn't ever be your ultimate goal. Once you feel like you've got what you want from a song, and especially if you're starting to dislike it, move on! B)

I agree with you 100%. Thanks for all the help!