UGH solo'ing...

[mshilarious]

If you pick to pieces all the solos in pop since day dot, you'll find it is lick based. The tricky players find unique ways to join the licks together, but really they're still playing the same notes.

Not Brian May, he is the acknowledged master of the melodic solo. "Killer Queen" is arguably the greatest solo ever.

 

[DrewPeterson7]

Try it. Solos are so outdated and cliche. Especially if you're talking about blues licks and zep style crap.

Solos are fucking awesome, man. Sorry, but I can't agree with you on this.

 

[Brohnis]

Yeah, there's good music without any guitar solos...but what about all the current Rock music that has the insane 100MPH shred solos...is that really "moving forward"...?
Sure, it's technically awe inspiring, but I think also that's the type of playing that turns your typical audience off to solos. They might go "wow" the first few seconds, but after awhile all those types of solos sound the same to the average listener (just insane 100MPH shred)...and the only people that end up getting off on that are the players and other shredders.

IMHO...easily identifiable melody/harmony is what catches the typical listener's ear...and sticks in their memory...much more so than speed and technical prowess.
If you can drop a melodic solo that actually highlights/underscores the rest of the song...it gets noticed more so than just a flurry of notes.

Yea that's what I was saying. I also said that just shredding all over the place is equally un-impressive.

I think that to a degree, any decent guitarist who puts his/her mind to it could play lightningly fast, therefore I find it a bit underwhelming with metal bands when every solo is the same...I just switch off.

So yea, I agree that guitar solo should be something melodic and interesting...notes or runs that aren't typically placed together.

Guitarists that blow me away aren't ones that play fast or can tap like a man posessed, it's guitarists that are just themselves and play something that I couldn't think of. For example...Johnny Greenwood? Incredible. One of the most innovative guitarists around for sure!

 

[mattdee1]

100MPH shred solos...is that really "moving forward"...?
Sure, it's technically awe inspiring, but I think also that's the type of playing that turns your typical audience off to solos. They might go "wow" the first few seconds, but after awhile all those types of solos sound the same to the average listener (just insane 100MPH shred)...and the only people that end up getting off on that are the players and other shredders.

My sentiments exactly. Yeah, you watch some wanker's hands fly around the fretboard and think "wow, impressive" but it gets old quick. I'm drawn to music for how it sounds, not what the musician's hands look like while he's playing.

And I do think what was old is becoming new again.
Right now we are on the tail end of the modern "Pop" phase (same as back in the late '50s thru late '60s). Maybe a more progressive Rock vibe will take hold of the general public once again now...

It would be interesting to see this happen, but don't hold your breath. IMO, popular music is only going to continue to get more dumbed down and lame. With the unending popularity of pop culture dreck like American Idol, Dancing With the Stars, and all of reality TV in general, it's obvious that the general public's appetite for brainless trash is all but insatiable. Against that backdrop, it's hard to imagine people choosing to listen to music with key modulations and odd time signatures.

 

[ocnor]

It would be interesting to see this happen, but don't hold your breath. IMO, popular music is only going to continue to get more dumbed down and lame. With the unending popularity of pop culture dreck like American Idol, Dancing With the Stars, and all of reality TV in general, it's obvious that the general public's appetite for brainless trash is all but insatiable. Against that backdrop, it's hard to imagine people choosing to listen to music with key modulations and odd time signatures.

I agree people are becoming much more lazy and stupid and have the attention span of a parakeet. This is obvious when you listen to the lyrics of modern music and they repeat the same line over and over and over until you just want to puke. I'm at a loss to understand how people can be so F'ing mindless.

 

[miroslav]

I'm at a loss to understand how people can be so F'ing mindless.

Marketing.


I'm trying to figure out if it's possible to bottle the cheers/screams of a crowd of 13-17 year-old girl fans (if you don't know what that sounds like, just listen to the American Idol/America's Got Talent/Lady Gaga crowds)...
...'cuz it seems like these days, if you can't coax those kinds of screams from your audience...you're not going to make it.

So I figure, maybe if you can bottle it.....

 

[ocnor]

Tend to agree these days... if your solo doesn't stop people who are listening to the music in their tracks.....then it's not worth having..

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[grimtraveller]

Part of the problem is the mentality that a song has to have a solo. They're great when they're organic but once the solo became de rigueur, it was only a matter of time before we reached........now.
The other problem is the assumption that solos must be by guitars.

 

[pure.fusion]

Surely we're all dancing around personal taste. A guy growing up in the 70's progressive-rock-extended-length-stadium-epic era is more likely to prefer a solo in his music than the rocker that grew up in the uber-structured, 3 minute pop song era.

"Part of the problem is the mentality that a song has to have a solo."

Personal taste man. I left pop music 15 years ago. I like my songs to be 80% solo...

And on the subject of speed in solos, nothin' wrong with speed. But agreed that speed in a solo, at the cost of solo composition, sound and feel in my opinion is a step backward, not a step forward.

Cheers,
FM

 

[miroslav]

...the assumption that solos must be by guitars.

As a songwriter...I never think during the composition "must have guitar solo here" ...but as guitar player, it's a natural desire to want play/add a solo during the recording production...not so much because I just *gotta* have one, but because I feel a song often (not always) needs a break of some sort in-between the lyrics at some point, otherwise they seem like a run-on sentence, though there ARE some songs that sound perfect without any solos or breaks or whatever.
So it's really a song by song thing, and I think if you are the songwriter and the person doing the playing/recording...it's YOUR music, do what you feel like.
I mean...it's not like we all have millions of fans critiquing our music and song structure choices!

But yeah...I try to include some "solo" variety by doing an organ solo sometimes or maybe some piano...sometimes acoustic guitar instead of electric...sometimes pedal steel…and if I could play sax or trumpet I would work those in too...
...but the electric guitar still gets lion's share of solo spots.

 

[rayc]

Dave Hill's solo on Everyday - simple, short, melodic & GREAT!

 

[heatmiser]

Surely we're all dancing around personal taste.

For the most part, yes.

Although I think that in some genres at least, the trend is towards less instrumental solos in popular music than in the past.

I love a good solo. There was a time when I might've have considered it the make or break part of almost any song. Not so today. I am fine either way, although in popular music, I think some kind of instrumental break where the melody gets played around with or contorted in some creative way is practically a must.

Shredding I just don't get at all and whether done well or not doesn't strike me as very musical or supportive of the song as a whole. I don't know anyone who is not a guitarist (or wants to be one) who enjoys listening to that sort of thing.

Conversely, I think most musicians and non-musicians alike can enjoy and relate to solos that play off the vocal melody where the instrument acts as another voice carrying the tune through a verse (or whatever) and hopefully bringing a new perspective to the listener's perception of what the melody is, or can be.

I am equally fine with a good guitarist blasting away through a 20 minute instrumental jam as I am with someone ripping through a 3 minute number with no real "solo" at all.

My apologies to the OP, who probably wasn't interested in my perspective on the merit of guitar solos in general but rather how to get back into soloing after being away for a while...my only suggestion might be to improvise - a lot - particularly over music you're not familiar with or from a genre that normally wouldn't have guitar "solos" (classical - gangsta rap - whatever you're least familiar with) which can bring out some new ideas (in my limited experience anyway). Failing that, smoke a big doob and try again.

 

[mshilarious]

Personal taste man. I left pop music 15 years ago. I like my songs to be 80% solo...

I prefer my songs to be 80% melody, but I'm not too particular where that comes from. If it's the singer, OK, sax, OK, guitar for 20 minutes, maybe if it was Duane Allman . . .

 

[pure.fusion]

Failing that, smoke a big doob and try again.

hehehhe. Why is it that all of your solos sound good after that

FM

 

[ZoSo58LP]

haha i love how i brought like everybody into this topic from this part of the forum to debate solos....

...then again, sigh, i'm starting to wish i was a bassist in a band instead of a guitarist...i mean, yeah guitars fun being all loud and shit with my dsl-100....but idk i DID start off as a bassist 10 years ago...and i do have a loud ass bass cab lol...ugh

 

[mshilarious]

Bass is great, you can solo all the time and nobody even notices

 

[ZoSo58LP]

hahaha thats the spirit!

also, i'm starting to realize with this new band i'm in that all the shit i'm writing is same basic bullshit riff-esque formula....like, ugh, i don't think well outside the box on guitar and it's starting to really make me feel like shit and hate every single thing i write

atleast if i were on bass, someone else would be writing and i'd be kicking ass with some badass walkin basslines....ugh...i miss bass i just got in this band too and now i'm wondering if it was a mistake haha

 

[grimtraveller]

at least if i were on bass, someone else would be writing

Lemmy, Stanley Clarke, Paul McCartney, John Entwistle, Glen Matlock, Charles Mingus, Jean Jacques Burnel, Phil Lynott, Roger Waters, Roger Glover, Andy Fraser, Bootsy Collins, Larry Graham, Jim Lea, Tom Hamilton, Geezer Butler, Tom Petersen, Gene Simmons, John Paul Jones, Dick Taylor, Jack Bruce, Alan Lancaster, Robbie Shakespeare, Nic Simper, John Deacon, Geddy Lee, Martin Turner, Sting, Bernie Edwards, Chris Squire, Adam Clayton, Brian Wilson, Mike Rutherford, John Wetton, Miroslav Vitous, Jaco Pastorious, Overend Pete watts.......

 

[Greg_L]

hehehhe. Why is it that all of your solos sound good after that

FM

They don't, it's just that potheads are generally stupid.

 

[ZoSo58LP]

Lemmy, Stanley Clarke, Paul McCartney, John Entwistle, Glen Matlock, Charles Mingus, Jean Jacques Burnel, Phil Lynott, Roger Waters, Roger Glover, Andy Fraser, Bootsy Collins, Larry Graham, Jim Lea, Tom Hamilton, Geezer Butler, Tom Petersen, Gene Simmons, John Paul Jones, Dick Taylor, Jack Bruce, Alan Lancaster, Robbie Shakespeare, Nic Simper, John Deacon, Geddy Lee, Martin Turner, Sting, Bernie Edwards, Chris Squire, Adam Clayton, Brian Wilson, Mike Rutherford, John Wetton, Miroslav Vitous, Jaco Pastorious, Overend Pete watts.......

lol no i know bassists write (i'm a bassist and i write!) but in this band i'm in it reallllllly seems as if they look towards me to just write EVERYTHING. i'd like it if my bassist could come up with a riff or two outta nowhere, but idk i don't think he's got it in him :\