Sick Riffs: Conor Kelly teaches you the soaring guitar solo of Waker's Many Days Ahead

Sick Riffs #144: For today's guitar workout, Conor Kelly of Nashville-based rockers Waker joins us to show you how to play the solo from Many Days Ahead, taken from the band's 2021 debut, Fresh Out.

This one is a great all-rounder for guitar practice – it's in standard tuning, and boasts an equal scattering of soaring, feel-driven bends and impressive hammer-on/pull-off runs.

Gear-wise, Kelly plays a 2019 Stadler Custom V electric guitar through a 1971 Fender Silverface Deluxe Reverb amp and a TC Electronic PolyTune tuner pedal.

“Waker was extremely impacted by COVID-19, but not in ways that you might think,” Kelly says. “All touring was obviously canceled, but rather than fold our hands and wonder what to do next, we started writing relentlessly and really put a strong focus into our next chapter. 

“Our song Many Days Ahead totally embodies that spirit. The song is essentially a love letter from us, to both live music and our fans. We miss it all, and we know a lot of bands feel that absence in their lives in a big way. But with things turning back around, we are reminded that no matter how dark times can be, brighter days are always around the corner. There are always many days ahead!”

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Sick Riffs is a Guitar World video series designed to help guitarists affected by the coronavirus. Self-isolating players around the world have each filmed a lesson where they teach you one of their own guitar riffs, up close and personal. If you dig the lesson, we encourage you to buy music and merch from the artist or stream their music.

Sam Roche

Sam was Staff Writer at GuitarWorld.com from 2019 to 2023, and also created content for Total Guitar, Guitarist and Guitar Player. He has well over 15 years of guitar playing under his belt, as well as a degree in Music Technology (Mixing and Mastering). He's a metalhead through and through, but has a thorough appreciation for all genres of music. In his spare time, Sam creates point-of-view guitar lesson videos on YouTube under the name Sightline Guitar.