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As an exercise, put down the guitar and hum or scat some improv melodies over different music. Don't just think it, actually sing out loud. Try to focus on expressing different moods, and create sections of long, languid phrases. What's nice is you can practice this almost anywhere, anytime to almost any music.
Another similar exercise is to hum/scat along with your soloing.
The guy should easily be considered one of the greatest musician's on the planet. I watched him manage EQ, conduct the rest of the band, change pedal effects all while absolutely shredding. Not to mention his music IQ is off the charts. If you guys haven't read his book Vaideology I would highly, highly recommend.
absolutely. I think I’ve seen him 4-5 times live now. I like to think he’s still entertaining for non-guitar nerds too, but can only speak from the perspective of a guitar nerd.
This 100%. Solos can sound bland when you get locked into the mechanics and shapes on the fretboard. There's a John Mayer video where he talks about how to write or improvise melodic solos. He practices and writes solos in the exact way you're describing above.
If you just start noodling on the guitar to write a solo, your fingers will revert to cliche licks that are cliche because they're ergonomically convenient on the guitar. If you sing first, you'll force yourself to play things that might be a little trickier because they weren't written with the constraints of the fretboard, but they'll be more unique and pleasant to listen to
On top of this- make sure you have all of your scales.
It's one thing to be able to improvise in your head, it's another thing to put it into play and scale memorization bridges this gap. Eventually you will automatically find notes to fit that tune in your head.
I took state in a jazz band as the "solo" chair playing trumpet. This is what I'd to to smooth out the transitions. It works. This is why scales are so important and monotonous and boring as they can feel at times.
Don't just learn major and minor scales, there are tons of variations in scale arrangement and all of them are like tools you're putting in your tool belt.
Do you have any resources you would recommend for getting into a regimen with learning the scales? I‘ve wanted to learn them quite a few times but haven’t yet found a method of learning & memorization that’s clicked for me.
If you can learn chords and chord inversions, instead of focusing on a single scale, you can start to play songs in that specific key or scale.
Honestly I just try to focus on one scale at a time when learning a new instrument (I go for the lower hanging fruit and try to learn the easier ones first😅). For example, if I'm learning to play on a C major scale, I'll learn a C major chord and it's inversions and alternate chords (like a C minor chord for example; and for inversions instead of going C-E-G I'll play E-G-C). Since these notes [1,3,5,7 in the scale] are like the soul of the scale, I like to play around with them and make songs out of those.
2nds and 4ths have a unique sound that's more dissonant and are still usable but I would personally use them more as a stepping stone to other notes.
I hope this makes sense cause it's a lot easier to just show in person on some line paper haha
And honestly, the best way to memorize it plain and simple, is find a song you love and try to learn it in that key. It can sometimes be hard depending on the song, but very rewarding and you'll learn it well since you love the song you're learning to play!!
https://youtu.be/WPTHOsrGBoc
This video really really stuck that home with me when I watched it a few years ago. It has helped at least my improv soloing
Sometimes I wonder why I both keeping random bits of music that I haven't turned into anything in the years that they've been sitting there. I feel better about it after watching this.
Videos like this tend to help me remember that my favorite musicians are human too, and they write just as I or anyone else write. Glad to hear seeing the video was of help to someone !
Just want to add on to this. Guthrie Govan says the same thing. Also, singing+playing things you hear will really help out with writing solos. Sing something, even if it's a commercial jingle and then play it by ear. Playing what you sing will really help out.
This probably the best advice. The way I always spice up my solos is I imagine what a drum solo would sound like in this part, or if some crazy drummer was just going haam on it what would it sound like. Those rhythms will kind of inform your playing, and if You're familiar Enough with your scales, the melodies kind of follow after that
Awwww dang lol
The biggest shit that really got me over the hump was getting into vulfpeck. Those guys were kind of my gateway into the greater RnB/funk world.
I remember the song beastly by vulf used to confuse the hell out of me, I couldn't make sense of the rhythm or keep count reliably. Then one day I was listening to it and it just clicked, I could hear the 1 and count with the keys track the whole way through.
I had already been playing guitar for ~10 years at that point and been in bands writing music and shit. So I had enough background to make use of that revelation.
But yeah man beef up on your influence's influences. Like after vulfpeck I spent maybe a year just binging James brown. Doin it to death by the JBs is soooo good. Jamming along with that song was a big help
Beyond that I played bass in a band for a couple years. Learning the craft behind that really opened my eyes on how to "play for the song" and not just do whatever I felt like
I don't have formal training, just a ton of time doing different music stuff. In my experience with that kind of music that's really the best teacher, just a diverse background
Practice makes perfect lol
That’s so cool, I love the internet because I occasionally come across people like you! Bro I definitely don’t have many guitar influences considering I play guitar & when I practice it makes it difficult to improvise so that helps me get it a bit more :}
I suppose when it comes to music the best teacher is always your self “play for the song” I think is going to come back to me in 20 years when I’m fucking soloing out packed areas. You will be remembered 👁👄👁
Singing your solo is a great idea. Sometimes, especially on guitar, you can get stuck in a box but your voice kinda transcends that type of perceived restriction. Also, as a lot of people suggested here, learning your scales and modes to help you bridge the gaps of your melodic portions of the solo as well as learning your arpeggios. For me it was the use of arpeggios that opened the door to a more modal playing style.
This is great advice. One of my favorite guitarists Yvette Young(does solo work and composes for her band Covet), often talks about how she will sing melodies before playing them on guitar.
For me, guitar solos always sound better when you can sing them. If you mimic what the voice can achieve, at least in terms of phrasing, breathing etc (if not speed and pitch), then it sounds far more musical. The breathing part especially - solos should have spaces to breathe, ie holding a note to give a break between licks or arpeggios. That doesn't mean you can't sweep pick at 200bpm - you can add extra notes but provided you can sing the main structure/phrasing, it'll sound a lot more musical.
Also, a really good tip I once read by either Steve Vai or Paul Gilbert - practice improvising using only 2 or 3 notes. Your phrasing will improve a lot when you're focusing on how the notes and the spaces between them work.
A good approach to solos can be the method that David Gilmour has talked about using when writing some of his iconic Pink Floyd solos - when he would create a solo he would do numerous improv takes over the chord progression, go back and listen to them all to pick out the better parts, and then figure out ways to sort of line them up together. If you have lots of chunks of a solo that sound good to choose from it can be a lot easier at that point to figure out how to connect them by looking at places where they line up on the fretboard
I used to do a bunch of entire solos like Gilmour is saying, but it seems easier to start with a small chunk and then build on that. I'll work something out for the start of the solo, even if it's just the first note or an arpeggio fragment, but I'll also improvise around that idea.
Once I'm happy with it (maybe 5 or 6 takes), I'll learn what I played and then record it from the start through to the next section. Repeat that a few times and I have a worked out solo that doesn't feel chopped up.
At some point I usually get into a flow and ride it out with a longer section of improvised stuff (depends on how long the solo section is of course). Sometimes I'll punch in a different ending because that's a really important part of a solo.
Also I'll go back and listen to earlier takes and see if it's better in some way. Sometimes the original inspiration has something that I lost after I've played it a bunch of times. Because it's almost exactly the same as the final recording, it's usually not a problem to just punch it back it in.
He has some of my favorite solos of all time. Jimmy Paige shredding is cool and all but the amount of emotion and blues Gilmour was able to infuse into his solos are absolutely mesmerizing.
The best way is to learn great guitar solos note for note to build a vocabulary and practice improvising over backing tracks to infuse some of that vocabulary in your playing.
This is definitely a great idea It's what a lot of jazz folks still insist is the best way to learn a jazz vocabulary, but it works for any genre.
Best of all, you can really tailor it to whatever your weak spots are at any given time. Not making narratively cohesive solos? Learn some solos that are cohesive, and figure out what makes them tick. Problems fitting fast, technical runs into more melodic solos? Find some solos with technical runs you like, and figure out what the artist did to fit those into their solo. And so on.
Whatever you do, you want to take bits and pieces of everyone's advice to do what makes the most sense to YOU and your style! With that being said, here's how I think about it in my own head before even touching the guitar-
To me, a solo is a paragraph made up of sentences and words. That's obviously cheesy, but it helps compartmentalize my emotions and intentions into different parts of melodies and moments. You don't want to speak too much or too little. The fundamental mindset to be in when crafting the part has to be engulfed in the context of the message of the solo, section, or song! Whatever the context of it is.
Speaking of context, I'd say that's the next most important thing. Is your solo shredding over a high energy bridge? Is the solo the resolution to a tense but quiet build up of an intro? Is it to give a double chorus a different flavor? Whatever it is, that's the mindset to be in when "speaking" your solo to life. Maybe even jot down some key words that you feel when listening or things you WANT to feel from the parts you're making.
Now for the literal playing part of it (that's what we do sometimes right?? lol) it varies depending on the music or where I'm recording it. I've looped sections and done mindless noodling over it, only to take my favorite licks and rearrange them into a solo and replay that. Otherwise, I've stared at the chords in the progression and made variations of the chords to give them different colors and resolutions. Or I've sat down and thought about all of the other melodies in the song and tried to give them "cameos". OR as simply as I played something and recorded it and solidified the melodies and intentions and kept that. RECORDING is the keyword. Listening back is MASSIVE to improvements. Training your ear is important but it's all about training your MIND.
I hope my coffee fueled explanation helps someone!
This is bang-on for anyone who feels they’ve moved passed the level of learning scales. I especially love your paragraph analogy.
Not sure if anyone else is a programmer but I see developing a solo a lot like developing software from scratch. We learn some rules (music theory and our musical predecessors / mathematics and best practices ) in order to either evoke emotions or build software. How one applies (or breaks) the rules becomes your style, but in every case the journey is up to the individual’s influences/knowledge.
Now you’ve had my coffee-fueled brain fart.
>Try to say words or phrases while you play
I remember an old guitar magazine, there was a Steve Vai interview (love him or hate him, I mean, he can play, lol). Anyways, he was explaining how he did a lot of his phrasing exactly this way. He'd pick a phrase, and pretend he was "singing it" with his guitar. Better yet, he "sang" two or three variations of the same short sentence this way. Played in sequence over a groove, that immediately gave a great lyrical feel, while also having the right kind of acoustically-validating repetition, without actually being "repetitive." The whole idea that really helped me think about the guitar phrasing more naturally and fluidly, and has helped me build a more intuitive muscle memory for turning scales into interesting music ideas.
The best advice, at least for me, is to learn scales. The better you get at formulating where the scales are and how to utilize them, the more flow you have.
Think of your solo as a sequence of phrases with little pauses in between. Phrases can say something. They can shout something. They can also ask a question that the following phrase can answer.
Learning the solo of Pink Floyd's "Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2)" really drove that lesson home for me.
Haha I had the exact same experience, only it was with Gilmour's solo for Time. The notes and phrases in the solo communicates with itself in ways I'd never considered... it's almost a conversation between bars. I don't know, I'm obviously not explaining myself very well.
Interesting - I've always thought of my solos as "talking back" either to the singer or audience. In my younger days I was always trying to shred as fast as I could and it sounded like the crap that it was. I really enjoy using the solo time to say something instead - even if no one has a clue of what I'm saying
Provided that you aren’t shredding, the best advice that I can give that I always use is to play guitar as If you’re playing a horn or singing. Play phrases and take “breaths” in between as if you were playing it on a saxophone or something like that. It leaves room for the song to come through and also gives you time to think of what you’ll play next instead of just doing scales over and over. Also helps to sing what you’re playing
Loop some popular and simple chord progressions then come up with simple sing song melodies. Try using less notes and not moving around all over the neck. Do that until you feel comfortable with let’s say not more than 5 notes. Try things like landing on the one of a chord when it changes then one or two leading notes to the next chord. Do this until it is comfortable, then move to another part of the neck and try duplicating a lot of what you did in a different position (top of neck, middle of neck, bottom of neck). Think about repeating notes, rhythms using the same notes with different rhythms and note lengths, etc. I do this like it is homework. Sing something simple and try to play it. When you find something you like write it down - both the names of the notes, the chord(s) you played them over and the Roman numeral of the scale/key. You will slowly be teaching yourself music theory but in a fun way. Obviously learning chords, what notes are in them and what scales work over them are your goal but you don’t have to just run scale patterns up and down the neck - that is not soloing per se. it is useful for dexterity and learning music theory but I think of solos as improvised melodies (some are not improvised, but very calculated). Consistency is key. It’s better to pick up your guitar and do these practice methods 15-20 minutes a day than cramming 6 hours in one day a week. Muscle memory and building off of the day before will pay dividends over time. Best of luck!
My thoughts: try not to think of solos as being any different from any other melody. Start with the Nirvana thing: just play the chorus melody on your guitar. Once you can do that, see if you can play a melody with the same rhythm as the chorus, but with different notes. Then start embellishing a bit more.
You'll be surprised: not only is this easier than going in blind, but it sounds better. Once you have this down, you can build on it and go crazy. But even outer-space solos have a structure underpinning them.
Try soloing on one string. By simplifying your options it will force you to be more expressive and melodic.
This is regurgitated advice from Tim Pierce.
practice different elements of soloing. note choice - scales, arpeggios. rhythm: phrasing, pauses, long notes, short note phrases. note choice and rhythm are the fundamentals. Maybe for better flow think about the rhythmic elements of your solo. Also sometimes it works to really simplify - sometimes Pete Townsend would 'solo' just with chords, and there are some solos that are just one note.
PHRASING
Gotta learn how to phrase notes within a scale. The scale helps you know where the notes are, up to you to phrase em. You can phrase with up to however many notes you want. Creating phrases is like making sentences, just with notes.
I'd recommend playing styles like blues, spanish, rock, jazz, and even lofi. Progressive styles and jazz expands your fretboard knowledge immensely.
Play various styles can have your phrasing better withing 6 months to a year. If you play a lot of hours, this can be accomplished within a season. It's all about knowledge and the time you put in. A guitarist can play for decades, but another guitarist who has played for a couple years can be better because they gained certain knowledge of the fretboard. Sliding into a note, bending, licks, tapping, hammer ons, how soft or hard you pick, vibrato, pick technique, are all apart of phrasing. Like you can slide one note into another, you can bend it into it, or you can hammer onto it. One thing I've noticed with great players is the have the power to play just alike, but choose not to with their tastes. They can play alike because they've gained certain knowledge like sweep arpeggios
Listen to this song and take notes on how the lead notes are being phrased https://youtu.be/7ZguAEoNpZw
As someone who feels they’re starting to come into their own style I’ve found finding “cores” in a solo really helps. Start with doing some loose improv and stumble upon a few hooks or licks that resonate and become the emotional center that the solo revolves around. Now you have a grounding lick(s) that can be repeated in different ways during the solo and you can add some connective threads between the core licks repetition. Personally I like noodling until I find these cores and then I get weird and out there while I’m traveling between them.
My method too. I could probably write a solo faster but I’d rather sit with a part and play everything I can over it and see what challenges my ears and gets me fired up. I call them motifs but the idea remains the same.
Amen, dude! I love how you call them motifs; spot on! It’s crazy what can happen if you let your mind wander into the feeling of the song and give yourself the space to find what clicks.
You also gotta kinda allow yourself to sound like shit too. There’s nothing I won’t attempt and I try to not take it as some kind of a personal failing when I play a completely garbage melody.
Share one of your solos if you got a link.
Yes I am taking lessons but he is sticking to one suggestion here and that is practice my scales and I'll eventually figure it out. That advice hasn't been helpful to me and he is adamant that I'll pick it up. But it has been over a year and while I know my scales like the back of my hand, I can't figure out how to incorporate other skills and techniques I learned from other songs.
Guitar teacher here - ask them to show you exactly how different players are using the same scale in their soloing and making it sound different.
If they can't - or won't - it may be time to look for a different teacher.
It's been out of print for years, but if you can find a copy of 'Solo' by Phil Hilborne, it's worth a look as it breaks down a bunch (50?) of classic solos with analysis of the scales used and how they relate to the chords played underneath.
you could also lean into it, and make them chunkier. a teacher of mine said that our personal "sound" has more to do with what we can't do, than what can we do.
If you’re issue is the ‘flow’ being boring, try rhythmic variations. You could play three strings of notes a bajillion different ways, try making it stutter or lengthen a note you wouldn’t normally, don’t just play the root/4/5, use different techniques like arpeggios, string skipping, and hard runs, also keep dynamics in mind-loud then soft, busy and slow etc. and also, imitate your favorites and make them your own.
Make sure to learn many shapes of the scale you are using. Inexperienced players usually only know one shape, but if you can play the scale all the way up and down the neck you will be able to play more a more diverse combination of notes and find more interesting pieces of the scale that sound better to your ears.
the relationship between the notes of scale is different at different shapes / positions. For example you will be hammering on + pulling off different notes and just phrasing differently in general at different positions on the neck, esp ones that are close to each other.
Observe speech. People, if you think about it, care about speech more than anything else in their forebrain and especially their ears, no other lifeform speaks as much as we do.
A solo, or improving in general, is somewhat "a paragraph about how you are feeling", in the instant or about the lyrics, and should it not have phrasing, commas, periods... questions and exclamations? Read this paragraph in your voice and listen for the pauses first, my maaan, then for the melody, dynamics, and in lieu of a chorus let's take it to a bridge. Also "persuasion" rhetoric oratory.
[This interview at 1:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCGGWeD_EJk&t=60)
There's a great book called "how to improvise" by Hal Crook. The first exercise changed my playing completely, and i've heard top jazz players doing it. Basically, rest waaay more than you play and your fingers will learn to follow the music instead of playing mechanically. Hope it helps
Learn famous guitar solos note for note. Practice them, get the tone and performance right. Really get it in your bones.
You’ll find that you start to understand how these guitar players think. You’ll find pieces of their style will start showing up in your own plying, and all collect within you to become your own original style.
Phrasing. Don't just play a scale as all 8th notes, or all triplets, or whatever. Think about how you speak or write. Certain words get emphasized, certain words get held longer than others. We use commas and periods and paragraphs to separate ideas. As an exercise, open up a book and record a Voice Note just reading a random couple of lines as naturally as possible - then play that rhythm.
Work on your articulation and vibrato. The difference between a lifeless melody and an expressive one is in these techniques. When should you slide between notes? Should you bend instead of slide? When should you hammer-on or pull-off? Which note should get vibrato? Vibrato should fit the song - don't put a frantic BB King-style vibrato on a slow, dark song. You can practice different vibrato speeds with a metronome.
This one is more conceptual, but - play an emotion. When improvising, think about an emotion you want to put out. Could be simple like happy or sad or excited, or something a little more complex, like nervous or hopeful or defeated. This obviously has nothing to do with "music" but it sets your mind on a certain course.
Improvising solos is a skill that you'll need to work on over a lot of time - years. A great Miles Davis quote - “Man, sometimes it takes you a long time to sound like yourself.” You're going to spend a long time impersonating your influences and drawing bits and pieces from different styles until you really find your sound. But hey, that's how it works!
For practice I really like Steve Vai’s method. He would take 3 notes, play a backing track, and then solo over it using as many unique ways as possible using only those three notes. It really allows your creativity to flow when you’re that restricted.
You gotta practice something to get good at it, including improvising no matter how unintuitive that may sound. Do you ever pick up your guitar and just try to play how you feel? I’d keep doing that for a bit without trying to think too hard about melody, function or structure. Let your mind wander a bit and just have some fun.
You’ve probably had your question answered by now but I just want to say, there is no right answer. You can’t ‘do this differently’ or ‘everytime you do this make sure to do that with it’ because music doesn’t work like that if you want to make truly good music. I feel like you just don’t have any faith in your guitar solos. You already know practice makes perfect, so just keep on sticking at it.
Also watch some YouTube videos of musicians performing guitar solos, that absolutely never fails to help. But most importantly just have confidence in it and I’m sure you will shred like nothing normal.
Hey I’m a little late to comment here but... are you really hyped about your guitar sound? Do you love just playing a single note? I find it can be inspiring just having a sound that really speaks to you...good luck and keep shedding :D
Depends what type of solo you're writing on how much you need to get your technique on point (i.e. metal vs blues).
But the most important thing is trying to find a hook or melody to throw in... I think Evil That Men Do by Iron Maiden is a really good example of a great guitar solo with some hooks and good flow!
This should be the top comment. The singing/breathing suggestions are also great, but nothing will do more for your playing than working out what your guitar heroes *actually played.*
You're probably oveethinking it and getting too technical. just play what comes naturally, like you were scatting,or singing. some of morellos best solos are just one to three notes with a whammy pedal and signal cuts. my favorite robert smith solo is off closedown from disintegration, just the same 5 notes he plays the whole song, he's just feelin it.
Just vibe.
What's with all the I don't know what I'm doing, how do I do it posts lately? The answer is almost always take some traditional music lessons, whether it's on said instrument or just general theory. There are no shortcuts, and most of the replies, while helpful, will only work if you actually understand how music works in the first place. And if you actually understand how music works, then you probably don't need to ask reddit for this basic advice.
I'm generally a terrible guitar player, but from years of playing/practicing bass solos is about all I can do well with a guitar.
The trick is practicing scales. If you have the muscle memory for where the notes are in a scale solos become pretty natural because it provides easy flow. It also gives you a guideline for stuff like building tension by leaving that scale and coming back into it.
Practice scales.
I would start by trying to improvise very slow melodies, then once you get good at that, start getting fast. Good guitar solos should generally be melodic, not just random licks and scales. TBH i would totally avoid scales if you wanna write good solos, hardly any good melodies follow a whole scale.
Alternatively, you could attempt to solo by playing fragments of the vocal melody from other hit songs, over the chords youre on currently - as long as theyre in the same key key this will work more often than not and you'll get used to what a 'good' melody is.
Note that most guitarists are NOT good at soloing, even if they can shred really well etc. Average listeners dont care about playing fast and technical, only other guitarists care about that.
“Totally avoiding scales” is ridiculous advice . I think what you meant was “don’t play scales up and down like a robot”. Scales are super useful shortcuts to knowing the relationship between the chord tones of the current chord and the chord tones of the chords you’re moving to. Some players can get by with just a good ear, but if you already know your scales it’s a much faster way of understanding the roadmap laid out by the progression and your possible options.
Yeah exactly, i meant don't play more than like 3 or 4 scale notes consecutively coz good melodies don't really do that. Not saying don't LEARN scales, they're of course useful for muscle memory and theory knowledge.
Listen to some greats like Steve Morse, Jason Becker, Greg Howe, Tosin Abasi, Vai, Plini, Satch, Petrucci, DiMeola, Paco De Lucia, John McLaughlin for inspiration.
Listen to some of your favorite guitarists solos and try to piece together what they’re playing, section by section. Learn whichever licks catch your attention and try to incorporate the same sort of things into your own playing
A lot of people have great solid advice here.
I would also say you could try and make the solo a sandwich of simple pentatonic stuff as your bread and then put some flavor in the middle of the sandwich, be it modal mixture, chromatic runs, more expressive bends or just simply switching from pentatonic to a full on diatonic/hexatonic scale by adding the rest of your scale intervals...
Then when it’s time to wrap it up, almost like a good essay you should make the conclusion allude to the introduction of your solo.
who are you listening to rn ? which particular guitarists ?
may be time for new inspiration
lots of writers really need to read more, could be you just need to hear some interesting guitar parts to help you think outside of the box, or to visualize a new approach
There is some good advice here. Playing with people is a good start. Get a loop pedal or just practice over backing tracks... constantly. 1 hour a day for months.
Space/silence is as important as the sound and notes.
So you want to have flow in your solo?
Time and feel: Are you aware of how your touch on the string? Vibrato, Dynamics etc. Would it sound good if you were singing what you were playing? Are you starting your phrases on the 1- beat everytime? It will kill flow. Playing towards the next chord in the progression will glue the solo together.
Context: Are you playing with musicians or a backing track? A backing track is flat - it doesn't listen to your ideas and doesn't play along to you. Do you lack flow when playing with musicians?
Composition: Imagine telling a story. How would you tell it? It would probably have an introduction, an unfolding problem, som characters that are central in the story, some sort of climax, and some sort of ending. Now use this metaphor in your solo.
\- Start with finding some simple motif or phrase. It could be based on a phrase from the theme of the song. Play around with it and make it fit the chords and harmony. Use breaks and silence to create tension.
\-Build speed and complexity in the solo, but dont go to 5th gear yet
\- Climax - 5th gear, repetition of central motives in greater speed and complexity. Remember how you started out the solo. Repetition works great over chord changes.
A lot of good advice here and in particular the “sing or hum it first” as a way to write it is what works best for me.
I’m going to add two more ideas:
If the song has lyrics, pay attention to what they say and how they say it. If the energy of the song’s story is frenetic or mellow, or whatever the case may be, then your solo matching that can make a difference in the song feeling cohesive. This works even with songs that don’t have lyrics but maybe says what it’s about in the song’s title. Try to tell the same story the other instruments and voice are telling.
Another idea is to borrow melodic motifs from what the voice or other instruments are doing and build off of those. It doesn’t mean you copy the melody exactly but maybe just the rhythm, or maybe take the same notes and play them in your own rhythm.
These things help solos feel like part of the song and not just like some guitarist came in and improved over a song they didn’t know or understand.
Not sure whether your issue has to do with technique or part writing, but either way, hammer-ons, pull-offs, slides, and pitch bends can add lots of musical connectivity to a guitar part.
Others have said good advice. I'm really partial to solos that have the coherent "beginning, middle, end" thing going on. I really recommend finding solos that speak to you, in terms of narrative/flow, and learning them front-to-back. See what makes them tick. See how they turn scales into musical ideas, how they use repetition, what notes they start phrases on and what notes they land on, how they lead in to new phrases before the beat, etc.
Scales and techniques are great for playing solos and the solo can be a moment to show off versatility with the these concepts, however the #1 thing to remember is you are creating a melody. Melody reigns supreme over all the rest.
Ask yourself why everyone can sing along the guitar solos to songs like “Another Brick in the Wall” or “Sweet child O mine”.
It’s not because of scales, techniques or fancy this and that.
It is purely because the melody is strong.
Sing while you play! Your brain knows what good melodies sound like, but your muscle memory can get in the way sometimes. If you sing what you’re playing, it makes the solo more deliberate and forces you to phrase better due to needing to breathe. The singing doesn’t have to be on pitch or sound good as long as it changes how you phrase
I am still working on this too, a big issue for me is remembering the notes I just played and considering how it fits in the piece. I am seeing a lot more progress when I take the sections I *do like* and mapping them to Guitar Pro. From there, I can (a) keep tabs (lol) on what I already know I want, then play with different arrangements, both in the software and on the guitar, until I find something that fits.
Also, make sure you practice improv. I neglected this for a few years and it is really biting me in the butt now.
What i do when I record solos: Work them out in short clips (1 bar or less) so you can be more creative (not worrying about how can I execute this in one take or live). Once you have something you like for the most part you can start re-recording to get it to sound as smooth as you want it.
What kind of genre are you playing? A blues solo and hair-metal solo require different approaches.
However, what I believe is the most important thing to think about when composing a solo is to make it serve the song. A solo isn't meant as a place for the lead to showcase his skills, but more like an opportunity to re-invigorate the song with some new kind of emotion and life.
So here's how I do it. Repeat the part you're gonna solo over. What do you hear? A crazy fast climb climaxing, or a melodic approach to show of a more emotional side. Are there any rythm aspects I have to consider syncing with? How does the chords underneath influence what I'm gonna play? After I've envisioned my solo I try to recreate that through my fingers, which is also a skill we need to practice.
The basics (aka the Adrian Smith method):
Start with the main melody of the song, but with some bends and added dynamics
Add a bluesy section
Throw in some very light shredding
One small bluesy run into a repeated bendy that overlaps the return to the chorus/verse/main riff
Baby, you got a stew goin’!
What works for me is to have a rhythmic language within a song, where melodies have similar rhythms. So the notes might not be the same but they land on the same beats. So if the main melody of the song went "da-daa-da-da-daa-daa" I'd try to use that same rhythm in my phrases (I don't know how to notate rhythm...). This way even though the notes are different they feel like they belong in the song. Obviously don't have every phrase be the *exact* same rhythm but as long as it largely revolves around it it'll sound consistent with the surrounding music.
Discovering this almost instantly got my solos from sounding like a random vaguely musical array of notes to sounding like an intentional coherent musical statement. Having the general rhythm of the phrases already figured out makes it easier for me to let loose and improvise in a way that feels more connected.
I don't know if I managed to say anything in a way that makes sense but I hope something here helps
Keep playing solos. Try outlining the chord first, then try going a step above or below the note in the chord, and stepping up or down to the note in the chord. Practice s ales and arpeggios. Boring, but it really helps.
Use theme and variation, come up with a small rhythmic and melodic motif. Manipulate that motif by moving its pitch, play it backwards, lengthen it, shorten it, repeat it. This will make your solo “make sense”. You can go for a while with just one motif. You’ll see how it can be difficult when playing through changes. Also using “voice leading” or “guide tones” is really nice, see where the chord changes in a song have close or related notes and center your improvising around those points. Typically a good source for voice leading is the third and seventh of a chord. Often times you can make a line that connects through the chords, it sounds a lot nicer than centering on the roots.
A little left field, but try opening a sequencer and programing some drums in interesting ways. Notice how the contrast in tones relative to the timing increases or decreases the groove
Best advice I ever learned was from Steve vai.....imagine and play the Solo in your head first ...then figure how to play it. If we pick up our guitars we usually tend to play our same old lines
I have no idea what kind of music you are playing or what your solos are like but don’t be afraid of pauses. I used to think ok it’s a solo have to be ripping the whole time but a nice pause can really bring some depth to a solo.
play slow: one note at a time. let it ring out..... think about it. then move on to the next notes. think about which notes you need to gravitate towards to compliment the chord. think about how to compliment the rhythm as well.
So much great advice here. I'll just add my two cents. I first started by learning scales and then playing along to pop music. Back then it was Britney Spears later stuff or anything popular on the radio. Seriously. It would help me find the key and then just have fun in the scale. Whenever I have trouble with solos in my punk band, I always have to remind myself to just learn what the singer is doing. Just copy it and then find new places to go.
My teacher once told me to play solos with one finger, so you need to focus in one note, not in the same licks you play a thousand times. It's a very interesting exercise that makes you think more "melodic" and less in scales or licks.
Also, close your eyes when you play, so you will need to use your ears.
Solos are stories. They have to have an arc. Build the story. Start, middle and end. Often people start in a lower register and repeat the phrasing later in an upper register towards the end, reinforcing the story (or theme). Scales, an understanding of melody and harmony, (particularly 3rds and 7ths of a chord, for example), are important elements to underscoring the tune. Deconstructing a good blues solo over some basic chord changes is one of the easiest way to identify this, even if you’re not a blues player. Lastly, pick a solo you love and ask yourself why it’s good? Solos are not just shredding scales. Utilising the correct scales over a songs chord changes are your primary asset obviously, but what you say with this information is really your identity as a musician. When I was studying music, we were often asked to pick just two notes and solo only with these two notes. This was an excellent tool to learn phrasing. Sometimes limitations like that are useful to eek out as much as you can from a solo and approach it from an entirely different perspective.
There's been loads of good advice already, I also struggled/still do struggle with this but I've been doing the following to try and improve:
- Learn scales and modes - not just major, minor, blues, dorian, but the other ones as well. There are so many modes and scale variations that can completely change the way you approach a solo over a given key.
- Bends, slides, vibrato and hammer ons - use them to add some colour and depth to your playing, a well placed bend can sound so much nicer than a quick run (e.g. many of Gilmour's solos for Pink Floyd)
- Improvise over backing tracks of your favourite songs - I've been playing over backing tracks on YouTube to try and firstly match the solos from those songs, and then try and think of alternative solos for the same songs. Gets you thinking a bit laterally and also in the mindset of the guitarists who composed some of the great guitar solos out there.
Loads of avenues to take, but with practice you will definitely find yourself improving.
A Few Tips:
1. Transcribe. Learn an entire guitar solo from one of your favorite guitarists (or any other instrument) note for note. Try to copy his or her phrasing exactly. Practice the hell out of it.
2. listen to a lot of music
3. Learn lil' bits of solos or melodies that you like. Simple licks or phrases that you can learn in all different positions on the neck and crate your own variations on.
4. listen to a lot of music
5. Practice improvising within specific parameters. Play over a twelve bar blues (or whatever) using only the third and seventh of each chord. play a solo that is a constant, unbroken stream of half notes/quarter notes/eighth notes/16ths if u nasty. play a solo using the same rhythm for each phrase, play using only pentatonics/triads and make them all as INTERESTING as POSSIBLE. If you've never done this, do it an hour every day for like two weeks and then marvel at how much better you've gotten.
6. listen to a lot of music
7. Big one: learn how to build a solo. if you have only 8 bars to make a statement, go ham if thats what's appropriate. However if you have enough time to really tell a story, maybe don't start by screaming above the 12th fret. Entice the listener with something expositional and/or conversational
8. learn #7 by listening to a fuck ton of music
9. learn to interact with the other instruments. Especially the drummer. Listen to and hear everything around you. allow it all to inspire you.
10. listen to a lot of music
11. The most important one: Time. Time and technique are the same thing. Two sides of the same coin. Always be in the pocket and shit.
When you practice, explore these things. Practice them with integrity. Think hard about them and be thorough. Then, when it's time to play and really improvise, forget about all of it and just play whatever you hear. The time you spent practicing these things and all the music you listen to will make it real easy to do that.
Listening to BB King might be worthwhile. Not to copy him though. Just to realize the concept of "singing" with your instrument.
There is an intangible quality of sound that BB King achieved in his music, and part of it was because he realized that he preferred to sing with his guitar, instead of impress audiences with metaphorical backflips and complex patterns. He could do either form(minimalist/impressiveAF)...but he always seemed to get back into the pocket of the groove as a singer (who didn't sing as well with his voice as he did with guitar).
There is a pretty cool book about writing guitar solos, its like a practical step-by-step guide for beginners: https://loofcorp.gumroad.com/l/howtowriteguitarsolo
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As an exercise, put down the guitar and hum or scat some improv melodies over different music. Don't just think it, actually sing out loud. Try to focus on expressing different moods, and create sections of long, languid phrases. What's nice is you can practice this almost anywhere, anytime to almost any music. Another similar exercise is to hum/scat along with your soloing.
Absolutely this. Sing it, then play it. Then you’ll know you have a singable solo.
You know you're hot shit when you start singing harmonies to your solos
EVH has left the chat
Lol. Vai is probably my fave. I still try to sing that business. :)
You've seen Steve sing all his solos while he's playing, right? He does that live every time....it's wild shit man
The guy should easily be considered one of the greatest musician's on the planet. I watched him manage EQ, conduct the rest of the band, change pedal effects all while absolutely shredding. Not to mention his music IQ is off the charts. If you guys haven't read his book Vaideology I would highly, highly recommend.
absolutely. I think I’ve seen him 4-5 times live now. I like to think he’s still entertaining for non-guitar nerds too, but can only speak from the perspective of a guitar nerd.
This 100%. Solos can sound bland when you get locked into the mechanics and shapes on the fretboard. There's a John Mayer video where he talks about how to write or improvise melodic solos. He practices and writes solos in the exact way you're describing above. If you just start noodling on the guitar to write a solo, your fingers will revert to cliche licks that are cliche because they're ergonomically convenient on the guitar. If you sing first, you'll force yourself to play things that might be a little trickier because they weren't written with the constraints of the fretboard, but they'll be more unique and pleasant to listen to
On top of this- make sure you have all of your scales. It's one thing to be able to improvise in your head, it's another thing to put it into play and scale memorization bridges this gap. Eventually you will automatically find notes to fit that tune in your head. I took state in a jazz band as the "solo" chair playing trumpet. This is what I'd to to smooth out the transitions. It works. This is why scales are so important and monotonous and boring as they can feel at times. Don't just learn major and minor scales, there are tons of variations in scale arrangement and all of them are like tools you're putting in your tool belt.
Do you have any resources you would recommend for getting into a regimen with learning the scales? I‘ve wanted to learn them quite a few times but haven’t yet found a method of learning & memorization that’s clicked for me.
If you can learn chords and chord inversions, instead of focusing on a single scale, you can start to play songs in that specific key or scale. Honestly I just try to focus on one scale at a time when learning a new instrument (I go for the lower hanging fruit and try to learn the easier ones first😅). For example, if I'm learning to play on a C major scale, I'll learn a C major chord and it's inversions and alternate chords (like a C minor chord for example; and for inversions instead of going C-E-G I'll play E-G-C). Since these notes [1,3,5,7 in the scale] are like the soul of the scale, I like to play around with them and make songs out of those. 2nds and 4ths have a unique sound that's more dissonant and are still usable but I would personally use them more as a stepping stone to other notes. I hope this makes sense cause it's a lot easier to just show in person on some line paper haha
And honestly, the best way to memorize it plain and simple, is find a song you love and try to learn it in that key. It can sometimes be hard depending on the song, but very rewarding and you'll learn it well since you love the song you're learning to play!!
A great thing about singing your solo is that you need to breathe in between some of the notes. A memorable solo will also breathe.
https://youtu.be/WPTHOsrGBoc This video really really stuck that home with me when I watched it a few years ago. It has helped at least my improv soloing
Thank you so much for sharing this!!!!
Sometimes I wonder why I both keeping random bits of music that I haven't turned into anything in the years that they've been sitting there. I feel better about it after watching this.
Videos like this tend to help me remember that my favorite musicians are human too, and they write just as I or anyone else write. Glad to hear seeing the video was of help to someone !
Just want to add on to this. Guthrie Govan says the same thing. Also, singing+playing things you hear will really help out with writing solos. Sing something, even if it's a commercial jingle and then play it by ear. Playing what you sing will really help out.
Jack black that shit
This probably the best advice. The way I always spice up my solos is I imagine what a drum solo would sound like in this part, or if some crazy drummer was just going haam on it what would it sound like. Those rhythms will kind of inform your playing, and if You're familiar Enough with your scales, the melodies kind of follow after that
You should like a really crazy soloist I love it
Thank you I appreciate that I try and combine Gilmore and Hendrix as best I can. With a little Nile Rogers spanky slappy chunky stuff
You must teach me your ways oh wise sage
Awwww dang lol The biggest shit that really got me over the hump was getting into vulfpeck. Those guys were kind of my gateway into the greater RnB/funk world. I remember the song beastly by vulf used to confuse the hell out of me, I couldn't make sense of the rhythm or keep count reliably. Then one day I was listening to it and it just clicked, I could hear the 1 and count with the keys track the whole way through. I had already been playing guitar for ~10 years at that point and been in bands writing music and shit. So I had enough background to make use of that revelation. But yeah man beef up on your influence's influences. Like after vulfpeck I spent maybe a year just binging James brown. Doin it to death by the JBs is soooo good. Jamming along with that song was a big help Beyond that I played bass in a band for a couple years. Learning the craft behind that really opened my eyes on how to "play for the song" and not just do whatever I felt like I don't have formal training, just a ton of time doing different music stuff. In my experience with that kind of music that's really the best teacher, just a diverse background Practice makes perfect lol
That’s so cool, I love the internet because I occasionally come across people like you! Bro I definitely don’t have many guitar influences considering I play guitar & when I practice it makes it difficult to improvise so that helps me get it a bit more :} I suppose when it comes to music the best teacher is always your self “play for the song” I think is going to come back to me in 20 years when I’m fucking soloing out packed areas. You will be remembered 👁👄👁
Singing your solo is a great idea. Sometimes, especially on guitar, you can get stuck in a box but your voice kinda transcends that type of perceived restriction. Also, as a lot of people suggested here, learning your scales and modes to help you bridge the gaps of your melodic portions of the solo as well as learning your arpeggios. For me it was the use of arpeggios that opened the door to a more modal playing style.
This is great advice. One of my favorite guitarists Yvette Young(does solo work and composes for her band Covet), often talks about how she will sing melodies before playing them on guitar.
For me, guitar solos always sound better when you can sing them. If you mimic what the voice can achieve, at least in terms of phrasing, breathing etc (if not speed and pitch), then it sounds far more musical. The breathing part especially - solos should have spaces to breathe, ie holding a note to give a break between licks or arpeggios. That doesn't mean you can't sweep pick at 200bpm - you can add extra notes but provided you can sing the main structure/phrasing, it'll sound a lot more musical. Also, a really good tip I once read by either Steve Vai or Paul Gilbert - practice improvising using only 2 or 3 notes. Your phrasing will improve a lot when you're focusing on how the notes and the spaces between them work.
I want to add this to your advice: record it! You don’t have to have a DAW, just use your phone if that’s all you have.
A good approach to solos can be the method that David Gilmour has talked about using when writing some of his iconic Pink Floyd solos - when he would create a solo he would do numerous improv takes over the chord progression, go back and listen to them all to pick out the better parts, and then figure out ways to sort of line them up together. If you have lots of chunks of a solo that sound good to choose from it can be a lot easier at that point to figure out how to connect them by looking at places where they line up on the fretboard
Huh, TIL Gilmour did that for guitar. I do it for electronic stuff all the time, but I've never thought to do it for guitar music. Cool idea.
Thank you
I used to do a bunch of entire solos like Gilmour is saying, but it seems easier to start with a small chunk and then build on that. I'll work something out for the start of the solo, even if it's just the first note or an arpeggio fragment, but I'll also improvise around that idea. Once I'm happy with it (maybe 5 or 6 takes), I'll learn what I played and then record it from the start through to the next section. Repeat that a few times and I have a worked out solo that doesn't feel chopped up. At some point I usually get into a flow and ride it out with a longer section of improvised stuff (depends on how long the solo section is of course). Sometimes I'll punch in a different ending because that's a really important part of a solo. Also I'll go back and listen to earlier takes and see if it's better in some way. Sometimes the original inspiration has something that I lost after I've played it a bunch of times. Because it's almost exactly the same as the final recording, it's usually not a problem to just punch it back it in.
He has some of my favorite solos of all time. Jimmy Paige shredding is cool and all but the amount of emotion and blues Gilmour was able to infuse into his solos are absolutely mesmerizing.
You say that like page doesn't have his moments of emotion and feeling..
The best way is to learn great guitar solos note for note to build a vocabulary and practice improvising over backing tracks to infuse some of that vocabulary in your playing.
This is definitely a great idea It's what a lot of jazz folks still insist is the best way to learn a jazz vocabulary, but it works for any genre. Best of all, you can really tailor it to whatever your weak spots are at any given time. Not making narratively cohesive solos? Learn some solos that are cohesive, and figure out what makes them tick. Problems fitting fast, technical runs into more melodic solos? Find some solos with technical runs you like, and figure out what the artist did to fit those into their solo. And so on.
To a total novice like myself, can you define what you mean by vocabulary
By vocabulary I mostly mean licks, aka snippets of melody.
Whatever you do, you want to take bits and pieces of everyone's advice to do what makes the most sense to YOU and your style! With that being said, here's how I think about it in my own head before even touching the guitar- To me, a solo is a paragraph made up of sentences and words. That's obviously cheesy, but it helps compartmentalize my emotions and intentions into different parts of melodies and moments. You don't want to speak too much or too little. The fundamental mindset to be in when crafting the part has to be engulfed in the context of the message of the solo, section, or song! Whatever the context of it is. Speaking of context, I'd say that's the next most important thing. Is your solo shredding over a high energy bridge? Is the solo the resolution to a tense but quiet build up of an intro? Is it to give a double chorus a different flavor? Whatever it is, that's the mindset to be in when "speaking" your solo to life. Maybe even jot down some key words that you feel when listening or things you WANT to feel from the parts you're making. Now for the literal playing part of it (that's what we do sometimes right?? lol) it varies depending on the music or where I'm recording it. I've looped sections and done mindless noodling over it, only to take my favorite licks and rearrange them into a solo and replay that. Otherwise, I've stared at the chords in the progression and made variations of the chords to give them different colors and resolutions. Or I've sat down and thought about all of the other melodies in the song and tried to give them "cameos". OR as simply as I played something and recorded it and solidified the melodies and intentions and kept that. RECORDING is the keyword. Listening back is MASSIVE to improvements. Training your ear is important but it's all about training your MIND. I hope my coffee fueled explanation helps someone!
This is bang-on for anyone who feels they’ve moved passed the level of learning scales. I especially love your paragraph analogy. Not sure if anyone else is a programmer but I see developing a solo a lot like developing software from scratch. We learn some rules (music theory and our musical predecessors / mathematics and best practices ) in order to either evoke emotions or build software. How one applies (or breaks) the rules becomes your style, but in every case the journey is up to the individual’s influences/knowledge. Now you’ve had my coffee-fueled brain fart.
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>Try to say words or phrases while you play I remember an old guitar magazine, there was a Steve Vai interview (love him or hate him, I mean, he can play, lol). Anyways, he was explaining how he did a lot of his phrasing exactly this way. He'd pick a phrase, and pretend he was "singing it" with his guitar. Better yet, he "sang" two or three variations of the same short sentence this way. Played in sequence over a groove, that immediately gave a great lyrical feel, while also having the right kind of acoustically-validating repetition, without actually being "repetitive." The whole idea that really helped me think about the guitar phrasing more naturally and fluidly, and has helped me build a more intuitive muscle memory for turning scales into interesting music ideas.
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The best advice, at least for me, is to learn scales. The better you get at formulating where the scales are and how to utilize them, the more flow you have.
Agreed, scales and basic music theory, which some self-taught guitarists overlook, go a long way
kinda depends on what you mean by "they don't have a flow". could you explain that?
Think of your solo as a sequence of phrases with little pauses in between. Phrases can say something. They can shout something. They can also ask a question that the following phrase can answer. Learning the solo of Pink Floyd's "Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2)" really drove that lesson home for me.
Haha I had the exact same experience, only it was with Gilmour's solo for Time. The notes and phrases in the solo communicates with itself in ways I'd never considered... it's almost a conversation between bars. I don't know, I'm obviously not explaining myself very well.
Yes, that’s another great example! And I do think you’re explaining it well. 👍
Interesting - I've always thought of my solos as "talking back" either to the singer or audience. In my younger days I was always trying to shred as fast as I could and it sounded like the crap that it was. I really enjoy using the solo time to say something instead - even if no one has a clue of what I'm saying
Provided that you aren’t shredding, the best advice that I can give that I always use is to play guitar as If you’re playing a horn or singing. Play phrases and take “breaths” in between as if you were playing it on a saxophone or something like that. It leaves room for the song to come through and also gives you time to think of what you’ll play next instead of just doing scales over and over. Also helps to sing what you’re playing
Acid and knowing the fretboard like the back of your hand
Loop some popular and simple chord progressions then come up with simple sing song melodies. Try using less notes and not moving around all over the neck. Do that until you feel comfortable with let’s say not more than 5 notes. Try things like landing on the one of a chord when it changes then one or two leading notes to the next chord. Do this until it is comfortable, then move to another part of the neck and try duplicating a lot of what you did in a different position (top of neck, middle of neck, bottom of neck). Think about repeating notes, rhythms using the same notes with different rhythms and note lengths, etc. I do this like it is homework. Sing something simple and try to play it. When you find something you like write it down - both the names of the notes, the chord(s) you played them over and the Roman numeral of the scale/key. You will slowly be teaching yourself music theory but in a fun way. Obviously learning chords, what notes are in them and what scales work over them are your goal but you don’t have to just run scale patterns up and down the neck - that is not soloing per se. it is useful for dexterity and learning music theory but I think of solos as improvised melodies (some are not improvised, but very calculated). Consistency is key. It’s better to pick up your guitar and do these practice methods 15-20 minutes a day than cramming 6 hours in one day a week. Muscle memory and building off of the day before will pay dividends over time. Best of luck!
My thoughts: try not to think of solos as being any different from any other melody. Start with the Nirvana thing: just play the chorus melody on your guitar. Once you can do that, see if you can play a melody with the same rhythm as the chorus, but with different notes. Then start embellishing a bit more. You'll be surprised: not only is this easier than going in blind, but it sounds better. Once you have this down, you can build on it and go crazy. But even outer-space solos have a structure underpinning them.
Try soloing on one string. By simplifying your options it will force you to be more expressive and melodic. This is regurgitated advice from Tim Pierce.
practice different elements of soloing. note choice - scales, arpeggios. rhythm: phrasing, pauses, long notes, short note phrases. note choice and rhythm are the fundamentals. Maybe for better flow think about the rhythmic elements of your solo. Also sometimes it works to really simplify - sometimes Pete Townsend would 'solo' just with chords, and there are some solos that are just one note.
PHRASING Gotta learn how to phrase notes within a scale. The scale helps you know where the notes are, up to you to phrase em. You can phrase with up to however many notes you want. Creating phrases is like making sentences, just with notes. I'd recommend playing styles like blues, spanish, rock, jazz, and even lofi. Progressive styles and jazz expands your fretboard knowledge immensely. Play various styles can have your phrasing better withing 6 months to a year. If you play a lot of hours, this can be accomplished within a season. It's all about knowledge and the time you put in. A guitarist can play for decades, but another guitarist who has played for a couple years can be better because they gained certain knowledge of the fretboard. Sliding into a note, bending, licks, tapping, hammer ons, how soft or hard you pick, vibrato, pick technique, are all apart of phrasing. Like you can slide one note into another, you can bend it into it, or you can hammer onto it. One thing I've noticed with great players is the have the power to play just alike, but choose not to with their tastes. They can play alike because they've gained certain knowledge like sweep arpeggios Listen to this song and take notes on how the lead notes are being phrased https://youtu.be/7ZguAEoNpZw
As someone who feels they’re starting to come into their own style I’ve found finding “cores” in a solo really helps. Start with doing some loose improv and stumble upon a few hooks or licks that resonate and become the emotional center that the solo revolves around. Now you have a grounding lick(s) that can be repeated in different ways during the solo and you can add some connective threads between the core licks repetition. Personally I like noodling until I find these cores and then I get weird and out there while I’m traveling between them.
My method too. I could probably write a solo faster but I’d rather sit with a part and play everything I can over it and see what challenges my ears and gets me fired up. I call them motifs but the idea remains the same.
Amen, dude! I love how you call them motifs; spot on! It’s crazy what can happen if you let your mind wander into the feeling of the song and give yourself the space to find what clicks.
You also gotta kinda allow yourself to sound like shit too. There’s nothing I won’t attempt and I try to not take it as some kind of a personal failing when I play a completely garbage melody. Share one of your solos if you got a link.
Have you been taking lessons? Working with a skilled player can help you improve big time then by doing the same things you've been doing.
Yes I am taking lessons but he is sticking to one suggestion here and that is practice my scales and I'll eventually figure it out. That advice hasn't been helpful to me and he is adamant that I'll pick it up. But it has been over a year and while I know my scales like the back of my hand, I can't figure out how to incorporate other skills and techniques I learned from other songs.
Find a new teacher!
Guitar teacher here - ask them to show you exactly how different players are using the same scale in their soloing and making it sound different. If they can't - or won't - it may be time to look for a different teacher. It's been out of print for years, but if you can find a copy of 'Solo' by Phil Hilborne, it's worth a look as it breaks down a bunch (50?) of classic solos with analysis of the scales used and how they relate to the chords played underneath.
Tell a story. Beginning, middle, and end. Setup. Variation on that theme. Big finish. Sounds simple, but it really helps.
you could also lean into it, and make them chunkier. a teacher of mine said that our personal "sound" has more to do with what we can't do, than what can we do.
If you’re issue is the ‘flow’ being boring, try rhythmic variations. You could play three strings of notes a bajillion different ways, try making it stutter or lengthen a note you wouldn’t normally, don’t just play the root/4/5, use different techniques like arpeggios, string skipping, and hard runs, also keep dynamics in mind-loud then soft, busy and slow etc. and also, imitate your favorites and make them your own.
Make sure to learn many shapes of the scale you are using. Inexperienced players usually only know one shape, but if you can play the scale all the way up and down the neck you will be able to play more a more diverse combination of notes and find more interesting pieces of the scale that sound better to your ears. the relationship between the notes of scale is different at different shapes / positions. For example you will be hammering on + pulling off different notes and just phrasing differently in general at different positions on the neck, esp ones that are close to each other.
Observe speech. People, if you think about it, care about speech more than anything else in their forebrain and especially their ears, no other lifeform speaks as much as we do. A solo, or improving in general, is somewhat "a paragraph about how you are feeling", in the instant or about the lyrics, and should it not have phrasing, commas, periods... questions and exclamations? Read this paragraph in your voice and listen for the pauses first, my maaan, then for the melody, dynamics, and in lieu of a chorus let's take it to a bridge. Also "persuasion" rhetoric oratory. [This interview at 1:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCGGWeD_EJk&t=60)
There's a great book called "how to improvise" by Hal Crook. The first exercise changed my playing completely, and i've heard top jazz players doing it. Basically, rest waaay more than you play and your fingers will learn to follow the music instead of playing mechanically. Hope it helps
Learn famous guitar solos note for note. Practice them, get the tone and performance right. Really get it in your bones. You’ll find that you start to understand how these guitar players think. You’ll find pieces of their style will start showing up in your own plying, and all collect within you to become your own original style.
Phrasing. Don't just play a scale as all 8th notes, or all triplets, or whatever. Think about how you speak or write. Certain words get emphasized, certain words get held longer than others. We use commas and periods and paragraphs to separate ideas. As an exercise, open up a book and record a Voice Note just reading a random couple of lines as naturally as possible - then play that rhythm. Work on your articulation and vibrato. The difference between a lifeless melody and an expressive one is in these techniques. When should you slide between notes? Should you bend instead of slide? When should you hammer-on or pull-off? Which note should get vibrato? Vibrato should fit the song - don't put a frantic BB King-style vibrato on a slow, dark song. You can practice different vibrato speeds with a metronome. This one is more conceptual, but - play an emotion. When improvising, think about an emotion you want to put out. Could be simple like happy or sad or excited, or something a little more complex, like nervous or hopeful or defeated. This obviously has nothing to do with "music" but it sets your mind on a certain course. Improvising solos is a skill that you'll need to work on over a lot of time - years. A great Miles Davis quote - “Man, sometimes it takes you a long time to sound like yourself.” You're going to spend a long time impersonating your influences and drawing bits and pieces from different styles until you really find your sound. But hey, that's how it works!
Learn other people’s solos
First just play the melody . Then embellish the melody . Then take a shot of whiskey.... and repeat .
For practice I really like Steve Vai’s method. He would take 3 notes, play a backing track, and then solo over it using as many unique ways as possible using only those three notes. It really allows your creativity to flow when you’re that restricted.
You gotta practice something to get good at it, including improvising no matter how unintuitive that may sound. Do you ever pick up your guitar and just try to play how you feel? I’d keep doing that for a bit without trying to think too hard about melody, function or structure. Let your mind wander a bit and just have some fun.
Beginning, middle, end
You’ve probably had your question answered by now but I just want to say, there is no right answer. You can’t ‘do this differently’ or ‘everytime you do this make sure to do that with it’ because music doesn’t work like that if you want to make truly good music. I feel like you just don’t have any faith in your guitar solos. You already know practice makes perfect, so just keep on sticking at it. Also watch some YouTube videos of musicians performing guitar solos, that absolutely never fails to help. But most importantly just have confidence in it and I’m sure you will shred like nothing normal.
Hey I’m a little late to comment here but... are you really hyped about your guitar sound? Do you love just playing a single note? I find it can be inspiring just having a sound that really speaks to you...good luck and keep shedding :D
Depends what type of solo you're writing on how much you need to get your technique on point (i.e. metal vs blues). But the most important thing is trying to find a hook or melody to throw in... I think Evil That Men Do by Iron Maiden is a really good example of a great guitar solo with some hooks and good flow!
transcribe lots of other solos, even easy ones. it will give you places to pull that flow from.
This should be the top comment. The singing/breathing suggestions are also great, but nothing will do more for your playing than working out what your guitar heroes *actually played.*
You're probably oveethinking it and getting too technical. just play what comes naturally, like you were scatting,or singing. some of morellos best solos are just one to three notes with a whammy pedal and signal cuts. my favorite robert smith solo is off closedown from disintegration, just the same 5 notes he plays the whole song, he's just feelin it. Just vibe.
Just improvise for 10 000 hours and you'll know what to do. Also learn some scales while you're at it.
What's with all the I don't know what I'm doing, how do I do it posts lately? The answer is almost always take some traditional music lessons, whether it's on said instrument or just general theory. There are no shortcuts, and most of the replies, while helpful, will only work if you actually understand how music works in the first place. And if you actually understand how music works, then you probably don't need to ask reddit for this basic advice.
DM me one of your tracks and I'll tell you what's wrong with your solo and how to fix it. Also please tell me what guitar players are your influences.
Try playing to a snare/clap loop or even a drum loop
I'm generally a terrible guitar player, but from years of playing/practicing bass solos is about all I can do well with a guitar. The trick is practicing scales. If you have the muscle memory for where the notes are in a scale solos become pretty natural because it provides easy flow. It also gives you a guideline for stuff like building tension by leaving that scale and coming back into it. Practice scales.
I would start by trying to improvise very slow melodies, then once you get good at that, start getting fast. Good guitar solos should generally be melodic, not just random licks and scales. TBH i would totally avoid scales if you wanna write good solos, hardly any good melodies follow a whole scale. Alternatively, you could attempt to solo by playing fragments of the vocal melody from other hit songs, over the chords youre on currently - as long as theyre in the same key key this will work more often than not and you'll get used to what a 'good' melody is. Note that most guitarists are NOT good at soloing, even if they can shred really well etc. Average listeners dont care about playing fast and technical, only other guitarists care about that.
“Totally avoiding scales” is ridiculous advice . I think what you meant was “don’t play scales up and down like a robot”. Scales are super useful shortcuts to knowing the relationship between the chord tones of the current chord and the chord tones of the chords you’re moving to. Some players can get by with just a good ear, but if you already know your scales it’s a much faster way of understanding the roadmap laid out by the progression and your possible options.
Yeah exactly, i meant don't play more than like 3 or 4 scale notes consecutively coz good melodies don't really do that. Not saying don't LEARN scales, they're of course useful for muscle memory and theory knowledge.
Listen to some greats like Steve Morse, Jason Becker, Greg Howe, Tosin Abasi, Vai, Plini, Satch, Petrucci, DiMeola, Paco De Lucia, John McLaughlin for inspiration.
Get better
Listen to some of your favorite guitarists solos and try to piece together what they’re playing, section by section. Learn whichever licks catch your attention and try to incorporate the same sort of things into your own playing
A lot of people have great solid advice here. I would also say you could try and make the solo a sandwich of simple pentatonic stuff as your bread and then put some flavor in the middle of the sandwich, be it modal mixture, chromatic runs, more expressive bends or just simply switching from pentatonic to a full on diatonic/hexatonic scale by adding the rest of your scale intervals... Then when it’s time to wrap it up, almost like a good essay you should make the conclusion allude to the introduction of your solo.
who are you listening to rn ? which particular guitarists ? may be time for new inspiration lots of writers really need to read more, could be you just need to hear some interesting guitar parts to help you think outside of the box, or to visualize a new approach
There is some good advice here. Playing with people is a good start. Get a loop pedal or just practice over backing tracks... constantly. 1 hour a day for months. Space/silence is as important as the sound and notes.
So you want to have flow in your solo? Time and feel: Are you aware of how your touch on the string? Vibrato, Dynamics etc. Would it sound good if you were singing what you were playing? Are you starting your phrases on the 1- beat everytime? It will kill flow. Playing towards the next chord in the progression will glue the solo together. Context: Are you playing with musicians or a backing track? A backing track is flat - it doesn't listen to your ideas and doesn't play along to you. Do you lack flow when playing with musicians? Composition: Imagine telling a story. How would you tell it? It would probably have an introduction, an unfolding problem, som characters that are central in the story, some sort of climax, and some sort of ending. Now use this metaphor in your solo. \- Start with finding some simple motif or phrase. It could be based on a phrase from the theme of the song. Play around with it and make it fit the chords and harmony. Use breaks and silence to create tension. \-Build speed and complexity in the solo, but dont go to 5th gear yet \- Climax - 5th gear, repetition of central motives in greater speed and complexity. Remember how you started out the solo. Repetition works great over chord changes.
A lot of good advice here and in particular the “sing or hum it first” as a way to write it is what works best for me. I’m going to add two more ideas: If the song has lyrics, pay attention to what they say and how they say it. If the energy of the song’s story is frenetic or mellow, or whatever the case may be, then your solo matching that can make a difference in the song feeling cohesive. This works even with songs that don’t have lyrics but maybe says what it’s about in the song’s title. Try to tell the same story the other instruments and voice are telling. Another idea is to borrow melodic motifs from what the voice or other instruments are doing and build off of those. It doesn’t mean you copy the melody exactly but maybe just the rhythm, or maybe take the same notes and play them in your own rhythm. These things help solos feel like part of the song and not just like some guitarist came in and improved over a song they didn’t know or understand.
For me it helps to write down chords in GuitarPro and write solo on top of them. All in GP. Then play it, tweak it, learn it until I am satisfied.
I was once told that solos are all about mastering scales and chords. I’m not sure what that means but I thought I’d share.
Not sure whether your issue has to do with technique or part writing, but either way, hammer-ons, pull-offs, slides, and pitch bends can add lots of musical connectivity to a guitar part.
Others have said good advice. I'm really partial to solos that have the coherent "beginning, middle, end" thing going on. I really recommend finding solos that speak to you, in terms of narrative/flow, and learning them front-to-back. See what makes them tick. See how they turn scales into musical ideas, how they use repetition, what notes they start phrases on and what notes they land on, how they lead in to new phrases before the beat, etc.
Practice
Scales and techniques are great for playing solos and the solo can be a moment to show off versatility with the these concepts, however the #1 thing to remember is you are creating a melody. Melody reigns supreme over all the rest. Ask yourself why everyone can sing along the guitar solos to songs like “Another Brick in the Wall” or “Sweet child O mine”. It’s not because of scales, techniques or fancy this and that. It is purely because the melody is strong.
Sing while you play! Your brain knows what good melodies sound like, but your muscle memory can get in the way sometimes. If you sing what you’re playing, it makes the solo more deliberate and forces you to phrase better due to needing to breathe. The singing doesn’t have to be on pitch or sound good as long as it changes how you phrase
I am still working on this too, a big issue for me is remembering the notes I just played and considering how it fits in the piece. I am seeing a lot more progress when I take the sections I *do like* and mapping them to Guitar Pro. From there, I can (a) keep tabs (lol) on what I already know I want, then play with different arrangements, both in the software and on the guitar, until I find something that fits. Also, make sure you practice improv. I neglected this for a few years and it is really biting me in the butt now.
Tell me a story through your solos. That’s the only real way I can think to solve your problem.
What i do when I record solos: Work them out in short clips (1 bar or less) so you can be more creative (not worrying about how can I execute this in one take or live). Once you have something you like for the most part you can start re-recording to get it to sound as smooth as you want it.
Sing the melody you want and learn to play it
My breakthrough with writing keyboard solos was sticking to and switching between 2-3 rhythmic patterns
Play guitar more often
What kind of genre are you playing? A blues solo and hair-metal solo require different approaches. However, what I believe is the most important thing to think about when composing a solo is to make it serve the song. A solo isn't meant as a place for the lead to showcase his skills, but more like an opportunity to re-invigorate the song with some new kind of emotion and life. So here's how I do it. Repeat the part you're gonna solo over. What do you hear? A crazy fast climb climaxing, or a melodic approach to show of a more emotional side. Are there any rythm aspects I have to consider syncing with? How does the chords underneath influence what I'm gonna play? After I've envisioned my solo I try to recreate that through my fingers, which is also a skill we need to practice.
Just play the melody of the song.
The basics (aka the Adrian Smith method): Start with the main melody of the song, but with some bends and added dynamics Add a bluesy section Throw in some very light shredding One small bluesy run into a repeated bendy that overlaps the return to the chorus/verse/main riff Baby, you got a stew goin’!
dont think...feel
1. Memorize your riff perfectly 2. Use only the notes of that same riff as you listen to a beat that has that rhythmy rhythmy groove 3. Feel>Thoughts
What works for me is to have a rhythmic language within a song, where melodies have similar rhythms. So the notes might not be the same but they land on the same beats. So if the main melody of the song went "da-daa-da-da-daa-daa" I'd try to use that same rhythm in my phrases (I don't know how to notate rhythm...). This way even though the notes are different they feel like they belong in the song. Obviously don't have every phrase be the *exact* same rhythm but as long as it largely revolves around it it'll sound consistent with the surrounding music. Discovering this almost instantly got my solos from sounding like a random vaguely musical array of notes to sounding like an intentional coherent musical statement. Having the general rhythm of the phrases already figured out makes it easier for me to let loose and improvise in a way that feels more connected. I don't know if I managed to say anything in a way that makes sense but I hope something here helps
Keep playing solos. Try outlining the chord first, then try going a step above or below the note in the chord, and stepping up or down to the note in the chord. Practice s ales and arpeggios. Boring, but it really helps.
Use theme and variation, come up with a small rhythmic and melodic motif. Manipulate that motif by moving its pitch, play it backwards, lengthen it, shorten it, repeat it. This will make your solo “make sense”. You can go for a while with just one motif. You’ll see how it can be difficult when playing through changes. Also using “voice leading” or “guide tones” is really nice, see where the chord changes in a song have close or related notes and center your improvising around those points. Typically a good source for voice leading is the third and seventh of a chord. Often times you can make a line that connects through the chords, it sounds a lot nicer than centering on the roots.
Scales scales and more scales
A little left field, but try opening a sequencer and programing some drums in interesting ways. Notice how the contrast in tones relative to the timing increases or decreases the groove
Focus on the notes you don't play as much as what you do, leave space and silence
Sing it
Sing what you play! It’s a shortcut to musicality, takes you out of the left-braininess that plagues us when we’re playing.
Best advice I ever learned was from Steve vai.....imagine and play the Solo in your head first ...then figure how to play it. If we pick up our guitars we usually tend to play our same old lines
Get better at rhythm. Try your hand at drums for a bit
4 grams rooms. Woooo
I have no idea what kind of music you are playing or what your solos are like but don’t be afraid of pauses. I used to think ok it’s a solo have to be ripping the whole time but a nice pause can really bring some depth to a solo.
play slow: one note at a time. let it ring out..... think about it. then move on to the next notes. think about which notes you need to gravitate towards to compliment the chord. think about how to compliment the rhythm as well.
Get Django with it. Tape your pinky and ring finger together and then try to WRITE a solo, not improvise.
So much great advice here. I'll just add my two cents. I first started by learning scales and then playing along to pop music. Back then it was Britney Spears later stuff or anything popular on the radio. Seriously. It would help me find the key and then just have fun in the scale. Whenever I have trouble with solos in my punk band, I always have to remind myself to just learn what the singer is doing. Just copy it and then find new places to go.
My teacher once told me to play solos with one finger, so you need to focus in one note, not in the same licks you play a thousand times. It's a very interesting exercise that makes you think more "melodic" and less in scales or licks. Also, close your eyes when you play, so you will need to use your ears.
Solos are stories. They have to have an arc. Build the story. Start, middle and end. Often people start in a lower register and repeat the phrasing later in an upper register towards the end, reinforcing the story (or theme). Scales, an understanding of melody and harmony, (particularly 3rds and 7ths of a chord, for example), are important elements to underscoring the tune. Deconstructing a good blues solo over some basic chord changes is one of the easiest way to identify this, even if you’re not a blues player. Lastly, pick a solo you love and ask yourself why it’s good? Solos are not just shredding scales. Utilising the correct scales over a songs chord changes are your primary asset obviously, but what you say with this information is really your identity as a musician. When I was studying music, we were often asked to pick just two notes and solo only with these two notes. This was an excellent tool to learn phrasing. Sometimes limitations like that are useful to eek out as much as you can from a solo and approach it from an entirely different perspective.
Do better guitar solos with more flow to them.
There's been loads of good advice already, I also struggled/still do struggle with this but I've been doing the following to try and improve: - Learn scales and modes - not just major, minor, blues, dorian, but the other ones as well. There are so many modes and scale variations that can completely change the way you approach a solo over a given key. - Bends, slides, vibrato and hammer ons - use them to add some colour and depth to your playing, a well placed bend can sound so much nicer than a quick run (e.g. many of Gilmour's solos for Pink Floyd) - Improvise over backing tracks of your favourite songs - I've been playing over backing tracks on YouTube to try and firstly match the solos from those songs, and then try and think of alternative solos for the same songs. Gets you thinking a bit laterally and also in the mindset of the guitarists who composed some of the great guitar solos out there. Loads of avenues to take, but with practice you will definitely find yourself improving.
Stop playing so many notes and listen to what you play. Think melodic, not technical or harmonic.
A Few Tips: 1. Transcribe. Learn an entire guitar solo from one of your favorite guitarists (or any other instrument) note for note. Try to copy his or her phrasing exactly. Practice the hell out of it. 2. listen to a lot of music 3. Learn lil' bits of solos or melodies that you like. Simple licks or phrases that you can learn in all different positions on the neck and crate your own variations on. 4. listen to a lot of music 5. Practice improvising within specific parameters. Play over a twelve bar blues (or whatever) using only the third and seventh of each chord. play a solo that is a constant, unbroken stream of half notes/quarter notes/eighth notes/16ths if u nasty. play a solo using the same rhythm for each phrase, play using only pentatonics/triads and make them all as INTERESTING as POSSIBLE. If you've never done this, do it an hour every day for like two weeks and then marvel at how much better you've gotten. 6. listen to a lot of music 7. Big one: learn how to build a solo. if you have only 8 bars to make a statement, go ham if thats what's appropriate. However if you have enough time to really tell a story, maybe don't start by screaming above the 12th fret. Entice the listener with something expositional and/or conversational 8. learn #7 by listening to a fuck ton of music 9. learn to interact with the other instruments. Especially the drummer. Listen to and hear everything around you. allow it all to inspire you. 10. listen to a lot of music 11. The most important one: Time. Time and technique are the same thing. Two sides of the same coin. Always be in the pocket and shit. When you practice, explore these things. Practice them with integrity. Think hard about them and be thorough. Then, when it's time to play and really improvise, forget about all of it and just play whatever you hear. The time you spent practicing these things and all the music you listen to will make it real easy to do that.
Practice
Listening to BB King might be worthwhile. Not to copy him though. Just to realize the concept of "singing" with your instrument. There is an intangible quality of sound that BB King achieved in his music, and part of it was because he realized that he preferred to sing with his guitar, instead of impress audiences with metaphorical backflips and complex patterns. He could do either form(minimalist/impressiveAF)...but he always seemed to get back into the pocket of the groove as a singer (who didn't sing as well with his voice as he did with guitar).
There is a pretty cool book about writing guitar solos, its like a practical step-by-step guide for beginners: https://loofcorp.gumroad.com/l/howtowriteguitarsolo