Technique on making solos?

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myhatbroke

myhatbroke

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Is there a technique anyone has to come up with a solo? I can play pretty fast but I'm horrible at improvising. Anyway to improve this? I assume its an "ear" thing. So how??? is the question...
 
that's a HUGE question. start by learning the solo's that you love. easiest ones first (by ear of course). learn some chord/scale/arpeggio relationships. that should put you on your way but don't expect it to come easy or quick.

.......almost forgot.....experiment like crazy.
 
also, try recording a bunch of different versions. listen back to them, and remember all the licks that you think sound good. then build it from there..


that's how david gilmour does a lot of his solos (apparently). also try building up your licks, record them and save them.


edit: i'm also assuming that you already know yer scales etc
 
Good place to start is to play the melody, then change it a little more each time until you have something you like.

Another way to learn technique is to start out with somebody else's melody for a couple of bars, then go off in the weeds from there. Of course, there are those of us who like to do that just to mess with people's heads. I find it fun when playing solos in jazz bands to get a couple of people to all agree to start with a well known song when they solo in the last song of the night. Suddenly, you've got a solo that stars with Hail to the Chief, a solo that starts with Twinkle, Twinkle, and a solo that starts with Rule Britannia or God Save the Queen. :D
 
myhatbroke said:
Is there a technique anyone has to come up with a solo? I can play pretty fast but I'm horrible at improvising. Anyway to improve this? I assume its an "ear" thing. So how??? is the question...
Click to expand...


if you want to get good at improvising you have to do it. lay some rhythms and improvise over them. multiple times multiple ways, multiple rhythms. learn new riffs, alter them to suit whatever you're playing. take your mistakes, the times you fall and crash and turn them into lead lines. take a base melody, improvise around it, alter it, slowly as you play, a little at a time, and keep altering it, then come back to the main melody and start altering it again in a new direction.

those are a few ways to improve your improvising. there are more i'm sure.
 
It's all about time/timing. If you have a problem improvising you need to learn rhythmic patterns. Playing fast but out of time isn't going to sound right.
 
I use an old blues trick which is amazing. There's a saying among blues guitarists that if you can't sing what you're playing while improvising, you're doing something wrong.
Take a scale you think you know well (for me it's the natural minor), and just play while singing. It sounds really hard, but it's easier than you think. After a while, you can play the melody you're hearing in your head straight away.

When it comes to an actual solo, I tend to sing a melody that I would lie to hear over whatever the chords are, then work out how to play it.
 
Yeah there is a technique. It's called practice. IN other words, there is no magic answer to becoming proficient at soloing. Your ear needs to hear things over and over. You build your sense of melody. You become more familiar with all aspects of playing and you stand a better chance of being decent at it. Listen to melodies. Listen to percussion. Listen to the bass. Dont stay within the confines of a particular scale or pattern. Try playing something then play it in a different position. Try playing it on one string only. Work out bass patterns then add something on top of it. Learn a solo note for note then alter it. Try to make a rock song reggea (sp?). There are a gazzillion things you can do. But practice and doing them are the real only constant. And if you want to be a good guitarist, dont obsess on soloing. The more you know about rhythm, the better your soloing approach will become.

damn, that almost sounded like Yoda.
 
Hahaha thanks guys. Damn I've never taken lessons so I have no clue about scales and notes and all that. :(
 
Listen to the masters.

Grateful Dead, Phil Lesh, Warren Haynes, Jimmy Herring, Larry Campbell, John Cippolina, Barry Melton, Santana ( Garcia said Santana has the best ears in the business).

In fact.......... I saw Santana jam with the Dead at Las Vegas. When he first came out he just stood there, didn't play a note. The Dead were wailing away on Birdsong IIRC, and when Santana stepped up for his solo he took off into a new space with it.

I'm not a great soloist myself by any means, but it seems to me you need not only the chops and experience of scales and modes, but also taste and imagination, and you need to be a really great listener to know what needs to be done to make everything groovier.
 
This is a very wise post :D Listen to this man. I would also add experience to this, because you get there with a lot of hard work and dedication.

c7sus said:
Listen to the masters.

I'm not a great soloist myself by any means, but it seems to me you need not only the chops and experience of scales and modes, but also taste and imagination, and you need to be a really great listener to know what needs to be done to make everything groovier.
Click to expand...
 
Adding to my other post... There's a guy on my college course who doesn't know ANYTHING about theory, and he's possibly the best guitarist I've ever met - he knows what he wants a solo to sound like and just plays it. Practice and ear training is the key maiit
 
OK so the key is to not use tabs but use my EARS instead... Gotcha! :D
 
i always find the best way to write a solo is to listen to the music you're going to solo over without a guitar and try and sing a solo in your head. That way you think more in terms of melody and what you want to hear and less in terms of what technique you'll use. Also stops you falling into the habit of just playing your favourite licks:)
 
I agree with elementary here......hum or sing what you would think is a good solo. Sometimes you can come up with some great stuff if you just put the guitar down! Scales are great to know, but it's easy to get into a pattern of "well I'll just throw THIS scale in here" to fill the gaps. If I figure out a new lick or some sort of pass that is new, I record it and try to incorporate it into one of my tunes I'm working on. Sometimes it takes the song to a whole new level, sometimes it kills it!!! It's all about experimenting
 
soloing

e----------------------------------------------12--14--17-
b----------------------------------10--12--14-------------
g-------------------------7--9--11------------------------
d-----------------5--7--9---------------------------------
a---------3--5--7-----------------------------------------
e-1--3--5-------------------------------------------------



e-17--14--12-----------------------------------------------
b------------14--12--10-------------------------------------
g------------------------11--9--7---------------------------
d----------------------------------9--7--5-------------------
a-------------------------------------------7--5--3----------
e----------------------------------------------------5--3--1-

Here is a solo that never stops. Try it at diferent parts of the neck and do parts of it. There is always a solo in this scale. :)
 
that it is a weird sounding scale....but its a good excercise :D
 
I've always found call and response a good starting point for a solo.

Play a phrase, and then follow it by a phrase that 'answers' it.
You can't go on like that for all 108359395857 bars of your prog super-solo, but it's a start ;)
 
There is definitely a technique or at least a formula of components that make up a good solo. I won't tell you them all, because then everyone else will know. I'll give you one that goes a long way to making your solos more "epic" or melodic.

I think it was John Bonham who said regarding a solo that people remember the beginning and the end and not much in the middle. Drum solos, I think, are very dramatic - good ones anyway - and there is alot to take away from them to apply to guitar solos.

You have to draw people in, then do your little masturbation thing - gee whiz - and then get out with a good clincher. I have always been pretty good at the beginnings and ends, so people perceive me as being much better than I am technically.

I think a good example of the components in execution is the solo on VH's "You really got me". He starts out with that kind of simple rock doublestop kind of thing and then goes to the his fingertapping applied in a really traditional-sounding lick - then blah blah blah squeal squeal garbage - then he ends it with that cool pickup selector with one volume knob set to zero with the feedback "lick" (I'd call it a trick).

If you put a good "Dear sir" and a "Sincerely, myhatbroke" in there, the rest of the solo isn't gonna hurt you much, even if you suck.
 
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