can any 1 tell me the way they think is best to write solos,should i be using scales or is it best to improvise?should i have something in my head and tab it out or make something up using the guitar?
Well I like very fast solos, so what i do is making up something very slow, making it a mix of varition and pattern, scales and tecniques. I then play it fast and see how it sounds.
Sometimes when i'm doodling and improvising, i think afterwards "hey that sounded pretty good actually!"
So why not record yourself improvising and then if its good, figure what it is u played.
well, I would say if you know where you want to take a song, you won't really need to worry about solos or improvisation. What i mean by that is, in my opinion, if you have a melody or idea then that would be the best solo. Of course, you could expand that idea/melody then by using those scales and so forth. Most importantly, when you're writing a song, figure out if it really needs a solo or not, some songs say plenty enough without soloing.
Steve-0
I don't think there's is a line between scales and improvising, when one improvises they usually find themselves in another world, but I think it's important to keep your solos grounded in music theory, even if you're flying away like a Steve Howe outburst.
I don't follow my dreams, I just ask em' where they're going and catch up with them later.
-Mitch Hedburg
Did you see that!
I agree that once you have the melody, the solo should come easily enough. Start by playing the melody over and over until you really get the feel for it and you should start going into another direction. As for theory, I disagree. Guitarists who play scales as solos are particularly boring. People like Steve Hackett, Andy Summers, etc go with the flow and feel of the song without giving theory a single thought. I'm not putting theory down, it has it's place, but if you stick too much to theory, you'll miss out on a lot of stuff that feels right but which theory says you're not allowed to do.
When you are willing to write a solo for one of your songs make sure you first write the melody so you know if they'll fit together. So when you've written a melody you can actually do both. When you go to improvise I have learned a trick to play easy and right.
When you use the following frets you're always right
E--1----3---------6------|
B-------3---------6------|
G-------3----5-----------|
D-------3----5-----------|
A-------3----5-----------|
E--1----3---------6------|
This is in A# when you want to play other scales just put every note to the right and you'll get a B major then C,D go on
Greets Arjen
Well, I personally think that a solo should be how you feel for the song. Like an outburst really. One day a solo will come. Or you could do what I do sometimes. Use a pentatonic scale, go into a blues lick, and fly up the neck and do a bunch of bends and hammer ons and pull offs, and wide vibrato if you have the energy for it.
EDIT!
Also, use your index and middle finger and go up frets all across the neck and strings. Like so
(VIBRATO)
--------------------------3-----5(BEND)--3
----------------3----5--------------------------5--------3
------1----3-----------------------------------------------------5-------3
1--3
Hey.
I think the best method is to play the song, stick a mic in front of yourself, and SING what you think the solo will sound like.
Then transcribe whatever it is you did.
90% of the time, it'll be something pretty cool.
"The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side." -- HST
Here's how another put it:
Guitar.com: Describe your approach to soloing?
Jerry Garcia: It keeps on changing. I still basically revolve around the melody and the way it's broken up into phrases as I perceive them. With most solos, I tend to play something that phrases the way the melody does; my phrases may be more dense or have different value, but they'll occur in the same places in the song. So most of the time there's some abstraction of the melody in there — at least that's what I'm thinking.
What I do is start with the chord progression. At each chord change I either nail the root note or another note in it's triad and then improvise from there. That keeps me grounded with the melody. I try and play a groove to the music using scales, blues patterns etc. I'll just play the over the loop, again and again and keep what sounds good. If (1) part sounds good high on the fretboard and another low I will work something out to connect the (2) together.
Hope this helps.
Ambition is the path to success...persistence is the vehicle you arrive in!!!
Well unless you like shredding stay away from scales (speed doesn't always equal good). Scales are essential to learn and just as essential to forget. Soloing is very much like talking or singing. Use the melody and solo around it. Make sure you leave pauses just as you would if you were talking or singing. This is called Phrasing! When I solo I usually do a question and answer type of style if you get my gist. For eg. I may start off my solo using the notes from the Ionian scale or one of it's modes, take a pause than switch over to its relative minor for a couple of bars and so on. Remember, there are no wrong notes in soloing, only poor choices.
