Q & A: Choice of Scale for Soloing

If you’ve got any questions, we at Guitar Noise are always happy to answer them. Just send any of your questions to David at [email protected]. He (or another Guitar Noise contributor) may not answer immediately but he will definitely answer!

Back to the “mailbag!” Can I even call it a “mailbag” if it’s an email?

Hi David-

I recently stumbled over your articles regarding Choosing Colors-Turning Scales into Solos.

I’m a 47 year old guitarist that plays great rhythm but has struggled being able to figure what scales to play over what chords for guitar solos. This article series has helped me, but I’m still struggling and still don’t seem to be able to figure out what to play. I’m more of a singer than lead player, but I’m being asked to sing with a guy and take some guitar solos at an acoustic gig coming up very quickly. I really need to figure out what I’m doing wrong.

As an example You Don’t Mess Around with Jim by Jim Croce: On the surface, it’s a I, IV, V progression (E, A, B7). However, when I try playing the E Blues scale, there are a lot of clams in there. Same with the E Major Pentatonic Scale and E Major scale. I’ve tried playing the Blues scale 1 1/2 steps lower, but that also seems funky.

Might I ask what scale you’d use for this song and more importantly, how would I know what to play?

I totally should know how to solo by now, but I’ve always had lead players with me.

Thanks for your time!

Hi

Thank you for writing and thank you as well for your kind words concerning my Turning Scales into Solos series. I’m glad to hear that they are being of some help.

When faced with the many choices one has when soloing, sometimes it’s really best, at least at first, to start out very simply. For instance, in the case of You Don’t Mess Around With Jim, you correctly put the song in the key of E major. The flavor of the song is definitely blues-y, especially in terms of the melody line, which contains numerous G and D natural notes in it (two of the three blue notes for the key of E).

Rather than go with the blues scale, why not simplify somewhat and use the Em pentatonic (E, G, A, B and D). You get the two blue notes that are used extensively in the melody and you avoid the Bb (flatted fifth), which is probably the biggest source of your “clams,” as you put it. Part of the reason for the Bb of the E Blues scale clashing so much is that Croce’s melody line hangs around the B note quite a bit. Dissonance is an important part of soloing, but having that much dissonance front and center can be jarring.

In addition to using the Em pentatonic (which I believe Maury Muehleisen, in the video, is using to solo, pretty much hanging out between the seventh and twelfth frets), you also want to take a cue from him and play short, sparse fills. Just a phrase of three to seven notes here and there fills up a lot of space. More importantly, it decreases your risk of playing notes you might wish you could take back. Keep your phrases short and clean and you’ll be surprised at how much better you sound and at how much better the song sounds.

Soloing, like everything else, requires practice. It also is often the result of experience. You’re going to make mistakes, but the more you can hash out ahead of time by coming up with some short-phrase-solos, the fewer mistakes you’re bound to make playing live.

I hope this helps. Please feel free to write again should you have more questions.

I look forward to hearing how the gig goes.

Peace