Beginning Soloing...Any Rules I need?

The most important aspect is simply experience. You can think for hours on how to arrange a solo but ultimately that's not the way to work. Now this doesn't help at all but maybe this does:

"Should a solo start on a certain note?"
You usually start a lick or run on a note from the chord, usually either the first of fifth.

"When is it appropriate to include silence into a solo? "
Many times. Most important is that when you aren't doing anything the groove of the band comes through much stronger, which could be good or bad.

"Slides? Hammer-ons/pull-offs?"
Slides, hammers, pulls and bends are all different ways of getting from one note to the other. The most important thing is having a melody, once you've got that you can basically put them everywhere you can, as long as you still end up with the correct notes.

If you're into rock/blues you want to structure your licks as if they were sentences. Listening to a solo one should easily be able to tell if you were sad, angry or anything else just by listening to the licks. Have a sense of direction, an idea of where your solo should go. If you don't you'll sound like a man that just won't stop rambling nonsense.

This is just the beginning, there are a billion things to consider. But don't panic, all you need to do is put on a backing, play something and ask yourself if you liked it or not. If you did, play around with it, add bends and slides, see what you can do. Learn some licks from your favourite artists. In all cases: each hour you improvise you'll get a bit better. It's mostly a trial and error kinda thing, and you are the only one who could decide what you do and don't like with each solo.

Give me a minute and I'll upload a mini solo.

*edit*
Here you are: Solo

Big bends and notes placed just ahead of the beat and should give this a somewhat 'desperate' feel.

Listen to alot of solos, learn the solos of your favorite players. I don't think there's a better way to learn how to play then that.

I'd second what both Steve-0 and Arjen said.

Also, do you understand how keys and soloing work? Like if the key is A, you'd put that pattern you have starting at the 5th fret of low E?

A large part of improvising comes from gaining confidence in your playing. A lot of players are too embarassed to try to improvise, even when no one is around. It's a process, and at first you won't sound too great, but you'll get better.

I'd start by soloing to a 12 bar blues. Learn each note in the pentatonic pattern you are using, and know which chords are being played. Try to emphasize those chords with the notes. So if you're doing a blues in A, and the chord pattern is A D A A D D A A E D A E, you'd want to play an A at the start of the first measure, and maybe do that same technique for a few other measures, hit an E when that first E chord comes in, etc. Really, just play around, try to find out what sounds good! I'd be happy to record an improv showing what I'm talking about here if you need.

Taso

Less is more, don't think you have you put a note on every beat. You can even leave a bar silent it will give your next phrase more meaning. the pattern your learning is a good one many solos have been made with just that box. I prefer to add the blues notes to it (the flatted 5th) that way if I do a slide or slur I can incorporate it.

Thanks everyone for your help! I'll have to try them tomorrow. I kind of got side-tracked and began learning Sunshine of Your Love by Cream 8) :oops: . I swear I must have ADD!!!! :roll: :wink:

Here is a fantastic site I used when I was in your situation, I believe someone posted this originally on these forums, but here it is again.

http://www.maximummusician.com/GuitarImprovising.htm

Here is a fantastic site I used when I was in your situation, I believe someone posted this originally on these forums, but here it is again.

http://www.maximummusician.com/GuitarImprovising.htm

THANK YOU! That site looks awesome!

After playing against a certain chord progression or rhythm sequence I kind of forget everything I know and just let it flow from within. Then I'll hit on a cool sounding riff and build off of that. After playing the riff a few times refining it even more and expanding it to flow with what I'm practicing against. Everything seems to come together. There are times when I'm asked to play a certain style of lead for a certain song or pattern. In that case I stay a little closer to the known cliche's and dig deep into my hat of tricks to add my own original style that I've spent many moons creating.

Hope you understand what I'm trying to say. Its easier for me to explain things with a guitar than with words.

Joe

In the topic review there are some great words of wisdom floating around. Try learning a few licks of someone elses then change it to make it your own, learn them in all keys. Also backing tracks and drum machines make improvising fun. When you get the licks down you should be able to play them in a bink of a eye. I have a problem of improvising to much and being to lazy to write a solo on paper.

Mike, I'm kinda at the same place as you and it really comes down to practice practice practice. once your comfortable with some or even one of the pentatonic patterns just try and improving to any chord progression. Like Taso said it's gonna sound crappy at first but you have to keep at it.

while your doing this you can try and learn songs with very short solos and then start building from there. learning other peoples solos to nme are a good way to get you soloing down.

I've been at this off and on for awhile now and I have to say I haven't gotten alot better at it. To me it's way more difficult than learning the rhytm to some chord progression. My main problem is remembering all the notes in a long solo. I've attempted several of medium lenght and it takes me weeks to get to the point where I can play alsmost to the CD then I get tired of it and move on to something else. When I go back I can never remember the noteds again.

I hear what your saying about ADD I thnk I have it too!!

Keep plugging away it'll come in time

The point i'm at is I like to strum a song or chord progression and just play against it on a second track. If I strike a wrong sounding note I delete the whole track and start again.

Backing tracks I tend to just stay in one key and roll the dice (its too time consuming to keep starting over) since the back track music sounds good on its own it gives you time to pause in certain spots and think about your next move. If you hit a note that doesn't sound right I try to keep it short and sustain the notes that do sound good. Just hope that in time it will become easier to know the right notes......unless you like music theory you have to rely on your ear and memory

Hi Mike

are you playing solos? My true compliments! It was not so long ago that (reading your posts) you struggled with strummin patterns: this means that you progressed extremly quickly!!!! Even if i'm quite satisfied by my strummin (ok there are a few sixteen notes patterns that i wish to better), I'm still devoted to rhthym guitar only since I've not completly mastered barre chords and power chords (not to mention fingerpcking!!!), so that solo guitar is still very far from my goals! In any case when I will feel ready I'll try to learn a few scales but I do not think solos will ever be my kettle of fish!

Good luck

Mattei

Here is something to try to help you with pauses, stops, Slide, Hmr Ons,pull offs etc.

I like to think of this as making your "guitar talk or sing" or phrasing.

You have picked a good "solo" pattern to cut your teeth with. Try this when you are playing/noodling with your solos.

Sing--out loud or in your head. Do not worry about playing an exact melody. What you want to focus on is your breathing.

When we sing we tend phrase the words through different breaths we may saw 1 line on 1 whole breath or break it up depending on the words and the melody to different breaths.

What I'm getting at is -- when practicing your soloing. Play your notes and licks while you are holding your breath (as if you were using that breath to sing) stop playing when you exhale (to keep from turning blue and passing out) and continue when you get your next breath.

Try thinking of this the next time you listen to your favorite solo. Breathe with the solo and you should get an idea of how phrasing works. BB king is a master at this.

Here is something to try to help you with pauses, stops, Slide, Hmr Ons,pull offs etc.

I like to think of this as making your "guitar talk or sing" or phrasing.

You have picked a good "solo" pattern to cut your teeth with. Try this when you are playing/noodling with your solos.

Sing--out loud or in your head. Do not worry about playing an exact melody. What you want to focus on is your breathing.

When we sing we tend phrase the words through different breaths we may saw 1 line on 1 whole breath or break it up depending on the words and the melody to different breaths.

What I'm getting at is -- when practicing your soloing. Play your notes and licks while you are holding your breath (as if you were using that breath to sing) stop playing when you exhale (to keep from turning blue and passing out) and continue when you get your next breath.

Try thinking of this the next time you listen to your favorite solo. Breathe with the solo and you should get an idea of how phrasing works. BB king is a master at this.

+1!