The TOP 20 HARDEST ROCK SONGS to Play on Guitar (according to WatchMojo)

I think it’s time you put together a top 10 hardest songs to play. Ones that you yourself find difficult or had a very hard time mastering!

As a MASSIVE Rush fan I'm actually really glad La Villa Strangiato is on the list because it is my personal favorite Rush song and more people should know about it because it kicks ass.

La Villa Strangiato was Rush's stated attempt to compose the most complicated thing they could and still play it live. This during a time when their music was at it's most complicated too. They probably could have come up with even harder stuff; but were committed to being able to play anything they recorded live.

I'm fairly certain that Eddie always maintained that Eruption wasn't hard and encouraged people to learn it as an intro to tapping.

Sultans of Swing is difficult to note for note but it's easy to wing it. The way Mark lays out his lines and varies his approach every time he runs through each section of the song really lends to just going dealers choice the whole song through.

La Villa definitely deserves the spot. Lifeson does this really weird flamenco influenced guitar solo that lasts for like 2 minutes, on top of all the weird time signatures. Geddy even confirms in an interview that it's the hardest song in their discography to perform in its entirety.

It hurts my soul how much Mr. Govan is underappreciated. He is without question the best guitar player on the entire planet. He can do literally any genre as good as anyone else.

I was surprised but glad La Villa Strangiato made the list. I think its way harder than YYZ, the first solo itself is just out of this world. One of my favorite Rush songs

In my mind Bleed definitely belongs on the list not just because of its impact, but also it bloody (pun intended) difficult to play. While in 4/4 the rhythm of the guitar bounces and the accents don't align making it very difficult to find the 1. Unlike other Meshuggah songs Bleed has a high tempo, which makes keeping time even harder. Also considering the song is 7 minutes long, the riff not aligning with the 4/4 makes very difficult to remember where you are in the song, that means you have to focus the whole time on two things 1) not falling into 4/4 and 2) where exactly you are in the song. Again considering the song is 7 minutes is very fast, does not have much breaks for the guitar it is physically straining for you picking hand while also keeping you on the edge mentally the whole time. I might be relatively easy to the initial riff one time, playing the whole song correctly is truly tough and next to impossible if you don't have a superb Drummer

FraKctured by King Crimson is definitely the hardest song to play. The combination of New Standard Tuning, unusual fingerings, whole tone scales and brutal speed is just death.

I can tell you that, for me, La Villa Strangiato is tougher to play than YYZ. Plus Alex’s solo (the first one, in 7) is one of the most amazing pieces of musical expression ever written.

I am so happy that you gave Vinnie Moore a shout-out. He’s been one of my favorites for decades! I’ve worn out copies of Time Odyssey on several different formats through the years.

I believe Mojo defines rock loosely as guitar-based music with a drum & bass rhythm section. That works for me.

Hold up, he's never heard of La Villa Strangiato? It's a fantastic song, and legend has it it took them a month to record it all in one take. It along with other songs on Hemispheres made them not want to make quite as difficult songs anymore since they were really difficult to play live and in general. Learning La Villa Strangiato and other Rush songs really made me a much better bassist.

You need to check out "La Villa Strangiato" by Rush, particularly the "Exit Stage Left" version. It's absolutely bonkers. Definitely much more technically demanding than YYZ, as much as I love that song.

Glad to see more people give Vinnie Moore the respect he deserves, very underrated player.

Trust me my guy.. Give La Villa Strangiato a listen. But listen to the studio version, not the music video version. Both are good, but I prefer the studio one. Good stuff as always Tyler!

Glad I'm not the only one with singular video deafitus, but honestly these are some of my favorite videos you do

Always love your reactions to mojo lists! And thank you for putting Super System together. I don’t even bother trying to teach guitar anymore- I just point new players to your app!

Absolutely love these videos. It's always great to hear from someone who know what they're talking about. I love that your critiques are never done in a mean way as well.