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.
IMHO you nailed that one, Wes.
I agree whole heartedly.
Bish
"I play live as playing dead is harder than it sounds!"
Arjen makes a good point, nobody likes to practice the frustrating things but everyone likes to play the stuff they're good at. I guess my advice would be that if you want to solo, then practice soloing and deal with the frustration. However if you're content being a rhythm player but are tired with people saying "how come you never play lead?", don't worry about it.
Steve-0
Nothing wrong with just playing rhythm guitar :D I myself really suck at rhythm, and I know some really great lead players that don't play rhythm that well. Some really good rhythm players include Ian Scott, James Hatfield, Pete Townsend( I know..he plays lead guitar also) and check out some of the Jazz guitarists :D --the dog
Since posting this question I have been focusing on solos when I listen to songs on the radio while driving. What I have noticed thsi there are a LOT of great tunes that have absolutely no solos in them! Girls, Girls, Girls but Motley Crue is the one I heard today...unless you want to count the outro as a solo it's all rhythm work and a SMALL amount of fills...
I was fooling around with the Blues Scale in the 5th position and came up with this mess! Don't ask me what notes I was playing since I just want to get some sort of rhythm flowing. Let me know if there is anythin in here I can keep.Please don't expect much since I was just trying to see what notes make a goos sequence.
Thanks
Mike
That wasn't bad at all, so keep trying to play solos out of scales.
Lead guitar doesn't always play completely improvised solos. Many times a lead guitarist will also enforce the rhythm section.
Here is a simple solo over a 12 bar blues in the key of G. The G phrase is played with notes from the G Major scale, the C phrase over the C chord uses the C Major scale, and the phrase over the D chord uses the D Major scale.
This is a very famous riff that you have heard in many Rock and Country songs. Strum the standard 12 bar blues in G and record it. Then play this solo over it.
So sometimes lead guitar is also rhythm guitar, something you should like.
G
e-----------------------------------
b-----------------------------------
g----------------------------------- Play 4 times
d--------------------------2i-------
a----------2i--2-—-5p--5-------5p---
e—-3m--3----------------------------
1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &
C
e-----------------------------------
b-----------------------------------
g-------------------------2i-------- Play 2 times
d----------2i--2---5p--5------5p----
a—-3m--3----------------------------
e-----------------------------------
1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &
G
e-----------------------------------
b-----------------------------------
g----------------------------------- Play 2 times
d--------------------------2i-------
a----------2i--2-—-5p--5-------5p---
e—-3m--3----------------------------
1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &
D
e-----------------------------------
b-----------------------------------
g-------------------------4i-------- Play 1 time
d----------4i--4---7p--7------7p----
a—-5m--5----------------------------
e-----------------------------------
1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &
C
e-----------------------------------
b-----------------------------------
g-------------------------2i-------- Play 1 time
d----------2i--2---5p--5------5p----
a—-3m--3----------------------------
e-----------------------------------
1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &
G
e-----------------------------------
b-----------------------------------
g----------------------------------- Play 1 time
d--------------------------2i-------
a----------2i--2-—-5p--5-------5p---
e—-3m--3----------------------------
1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &
D
e-----------------------------------
b-----------------------------------
g-------------------------4i-------- Play 1 time
d----------4i--4---7p--7------7p----
a—-5m--5----------------------------
e-----------------------------------
1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &
If you know something better than Rock and Roll, I'd like to hear it - Jerry Lee Lewis
It's definately good to have both skills, then you can fit in with other musos in almost any situation :)
Use the Big Muff, Luke
