Intimidated or Not Interested in Soloing?

I don't solo much, because I don't like it. I could if I wanted to, not that great and all, but a bit. I play my acoustic taht much, so it doesn't bring a need to solo a whole bunch.

Don't worry about it, but don't stray away too, it might be usefull some day.

My problem is, I start something that sounds good, but can't finish it. :? I think I end on the root note too much. I'm-a-workin' on it.

The other thing is, I hear some killer solo's in my head but, I'm not fast enough to do them -or- can't find the chord that goes with it. On top of all that, I'll forget the darn thing!

All a work in progress. It will all come in do time. I'm not worried about. 8)

I agree with Off He Goes, nobody says that you have to solo but it's not a bad skill to have. Take a listen to some records and try to find some REALLY easy solos (if you're a red hot chili peppers fan, I know for a fact some of their songs have easy ones). If you're content being a rhythm player then that's great, but it's always good to have lots of goals.

I started trying to play solos day one. I was into Hendrix, Clapton, Page and guitarists like that, so I probably practiced lead guitar more than rhythm. I still practice lead guitar more than rhythm.

As far as keeping time while playing solo, I hear the rhythm section in my head. I just imagine bass, drums, rhythm guitar in the background and play to that. People jam along to tracks, I do the same thing except the track is in my head. Don't know if that helps.

And you do not play solo like rhythm. You don't count or anything like that. It doesn't matter if a note or phrase is a little off time, in fact sometimes that is what makes a solo sound great. If you hold a note a little too long, you just come back to the beat on the next note. If you try to play exactly on the beat, your solo is going to sound real mechanical.

And you can't beat yourself over the head worrying about bad notes. You are gonna play bad notes, everybody does. I remember Jimi Hendrix once said that when he hit a bad note he just bent the note until it sounded good. And this is great advice. And sometimes a bad note is the coolest note in the solo.

The best thing to do to get good at lead is practice technique. Practice hammer-ons, pull-offs, slides, running up and down scales, and practice moving from one position of a scale to the next.

Sliding is one of the most useful techniques in lead guitar. If I am playing in the 1st position Minor Pentatonic and I get the urge to go higher to the 4th position, I will just make a long slide. Sliding from position to position works very well. It always sounds great and buys you time to adjust to the new position. Practice sliding between positions and you will see what I mean. Long slides sound great.

Listen to some real easy solos and start there. Like the simple solo Eric Clapton plays in Wonderful Tonight. Slow and super easy. Then as you improve, take on more difficult solos.

Try to let go and have fun when you solo. If you try to think too hard, or concentrate too much you are going to be stiff and freeze up. Just let go. Sure you will hit a few bad notes, who cares? And when you do, just bend 'em like Jimi said. :D

Another thing that can help you transition from strict rhythm (just strumming) to soloing is to try your hand at what could be called "riff rhythms." Think of the guitar part in the Stones' Jumpin' Jack Flash. You've got some chords and then a few single notes (conveniently located in the chord structure) as well as a few partial chords, meaning that you only hit two or three strings - kind of like you already do with both power chords and blues shuffles.

Speaking of blues shuffles, there are a lot of single note and double-stop blues riffs that are traditionally played by the rhythm guitarist of the band.

One more idea is to employ arpeggios for rhythm instead of straight strumming. Think of the Animals version of House of the Rising Sun. The rhythm guitar is all arpeggios. One of the hardest things for a lot of beginning soloists is getting the feel of the timing or phrasing of their solos. Starting out with both rhythm riffs and arpeggios can help you get a great start to that aspect of soloing.

Also listen to music where the rhythm guitar is actually the soloing instrument. The first part of the solo in CCR's Proud Mary is a good example of this.

Hope this helps. And don't worry about not soloing. Not everyone does and many who do don't know how to play in rhythm! :wink: Timing has to come first when you're playing with others.

Peace

heh, man that would be real wierd for me - i solo non-stop n write my compositions based around lead...I guess the best way to start learning is not neccessarily playing something easy and building up - in fact I think that is totally the wrong idea for 2 reasons!
1) I have always been improving myself by playing stuff which is basically a too difficult for me. If you keep learning all these peices that really push beyond your limits, your gonna get much better than playing easy stuff rnt u?
2) Learn solos you like. Not just cos its real easy or cos ppl say its a good one to start with. Your not gonna be keen on learning to solo unless you really like the solo.

Once you feel you can pull off a respectable solo, try and improvise a little (or a lot as I do lol. watever u want)

I love both - in a completely different way, but equally :mrgreen:

Thanks everyone for your imput. I know it's just a matter of DOING it but I just need a place to start.
heh, man that would be real wierd for me - i solo non-stop n write my compositions based around lead...I guess the best way to start learning is not neccessarily playing something easy and building up - in fact I think that is totally the wrong idea for 2 reasons!
1) I have always been improving myself by playing stuff which is basically a too difficult for me. If you keep learning all these peices that really push beyond your limits, your gonna get much better than playing easy stuff rnt u?
2) Learn solos you like. Not just cos its real easy or cos ppl say its a good one to start with. Your not gonna be keen on learning to solo unless you really like the solo.

Once you feel you can pull off a respectable solo, try and improvise a little (or a lot as I do lol. watever u want)

I don't play stuff that is EASY. I work on challenging rhythm parts as well. However, rhythms COME easily for me...meaning I hear the beat in my head and it translate to my hand (strumming) fairly quickly.

I played for years before even bothering to work on my lead skills. I'd learn the occasional solo from a song, but I couldn't solo over a rhythm for anything. I only seriously started working on it 6 months ago or so and regret waiting this long. Now, that's pretty much all I do, and all I really have a desire to do. I've been jamming with some guys a few times per week, and we'll lay down a chord progression and just play over it, trading solos back and forth and messing with the chords here and there. We've spent hours jamming on the same progressions to the point where I'm sweaty at the end. I have infinitely more fun doing this than I ever did jamming with people and just playing covers of songs.

I suppose I'm trying to say that while soloing can be intimidating at first because it is more difficult to pick up on than a new chord, it's well worth it in the end (what on the guitar isn't this way?)

i started soloing by playing the riff to "give me some sugar little honey bee" off tom petty's wildflower album. it's really catchy and was stuck in my head for a long time. it's just a little pentatonic riff but i played it hundreds of times, and soon i was learning the pentatonic scales and bending notes and copying howlin wolf licks. just find a few simple riffs that really catch you, and play them, then start working off those to create your own riffs and leads. you need to know where the notes of the scales are, too, unless you want to play everything by ear.

First I would learn some simple pentatonic scales.I did this the hard way when I was learning to play guitar by just playing around barr chord shapes. I had no idea what I was doing until 20 years later I decided to learn some scales( I discovered I was playing pentatonic scales and I did not know it :lol: ) Also start with some riffs( very short solos if you will) Just play over some 12 bar blues stuff :D. --the dog

A great source of very simple solos to start with would be Creedence Clearwater Revival. John Fogerty was called "the man who never played a 16th note". John's solos are usually very simple and straightforward. He rarely plays fast either, but has a gift for playing that "perfect" note at the right time.

Get a Greatest Hits album and learn John's solos. This will get you off to a great start.

A great source of very simple solos to start with would be Creedence Clearwater Revival. John Fogerty was called "the man who never played a 16th note". John's solos are usually very simple and straightforward. He rarely plays fast either, but has a gift for playing that "perfect" note at the right time.

Get a Greatest Hits album and learn John's solos. This will get you off to a great start.

John fogerty taught my how to play lead guitar :D He is probably one of the best guitar teachers of all times 8) 8) 8) Also Back when I was 19 some guy showed up at my door step and handed me a stack of BLUES records and told me "do NOT play anything but the blues for six months" It worked well for me :D --the dog

I practice and like both soloing and rythem.. I am like Mike in that I can hear it all in my head but I am not fast enough, YET, to play some of the parts. My teacher taught me a trick that works really well for me. He knows that I am a singer.. so he simple taught me #1 how to tell which notes were "correct" for the key I am playing in... then I simple sing with my guitar. Its as someone earlier said. you dont play it as a steady rythem.. you hold back a little for tension.. or you use yoiur vibrato to make it a bit soulful... I like listening to BB King for inspiration..

BUT, I dont think you HAVE to pick it up from day one.. but as others have said I would work on it now and then if I were you.

Geoo