Guitar Noise

Paul Tauteroff shows how guitar players who are already familiar with the pentatonic scale can learn and utilize the modes in their lead guitar playing.

Quite often, guitarists solo as if they are paid by the note, totally ignoring phrasing and melody, two key aspects of soloing.

In our latest lesson in this series, we look at a basic rock progression and examine the choices we can make in terms of scales for soloing.

There are three important creative aspects of musicianship that can help you move up from being someone who just dabbles with the guitar to a serious musician.

In this lesson we look at how single notes can be used to create far more interesting solos than simply using safe notes.

We are going to look at how to recognize when to use the Dorian scale, and also take a moment or two to compare and contrast it with the minor pentatonic scale.

It only takes a single note to change the minor pentatonic scale into the “blues scale.” And what a world of difference that one note can make! As in the previous lessons in this series, we’ll provide you with MP3 sound files in order to help you create your own solos.

Last time out we sampled the different flavors the major and minor pentatonic scales offered us as tools for soloing over blues progressions. While each had its owns merits, we can create an even more tasteful (not to mention useful) solo when we combine the major scale with the blue note elements of its own minor pentatonic. Come listen!

While it’s vital to use a chord progression to help you decide on a scale, knowing the style or feel of both a song and a scale is just as important. This lesson focuses on the minor pentatonic scale and why it is used so much for blues (and other genres) in major keys.

After spending our last lesson looking at all the notes in a scale, this time we’re going to just look at a few. One of the best things you can do to get going as a soloist is to minimize the number of notes you use in a solo. Focusing on one, two, three or four notes will help you on both rhythm and phrasing, which make a solo a lot more interesting than just stringing as many notes together as fast as you can.

This page answers your questions about scales and includes some examples of how you can use them to spice up your playing.

Putting together solos is not easy for a lot of people, and the conventional teaching (“just use your scales”) doesn’t always make sense when you’re just starting out. In this, the first of a series of articles, we take a listen to the differences in tonal color between the major scale and the major pentatonic.

In his follow up to the basics of soloing, Josh demonstrates the major scale and the pentatonic and their usefulness in helping you improve your lead playing.

Josh Urban takes you through the very first steps of soloing, making the process a little less mysterious than many of us think it is! And less scary, too…

Our favorite arranger of Celtic music takes a short summer vacation and brings Guitar Noise readers a little bag of rock guitar riffs based on repeated phrases of notes. These are easy, fun and will add some spice to your soloing. Enjoy!