Tips for Great Guitar Solos

Here are some tools to use and strategize with when your trying to come up with ideas for guitar solos and nice lead lines in the context of modern music. None of these are mysterious or unreachable for even beginner guitar players. We use other similar and related templates to help us in other areas of our work, school, sports, and lives; so this can be considered the guitar-solo template.

Music as conversation:

My favourite soloists in music always seem to have an inate sense of what the other 

instruments in a song are doing and how to converse with them in a meaningful way. 

Even though they (guitarist) might be the prominent soloist in the band, they seem to be looking to play off something the bassist, drummer or keyboardist is doing underneath or to the side of them.   

Melody playback:

Great guitarists always use the songs melodies and themes to help come up with

solos and lines. I like to learn some of the vocal melody lines at different locations on the

fretboard and sneak them into my solos, lines and riffs. Sometimes it helps to use melodic content

as your start the solo or as your move up higher on the neck and build to a high point in the solo.

  

Rhythmic changes:

Many beginning guitar players make the mistake of being too predictable. Lead lines that 

always start at the top of the bar or always on the on-beat can often sound uninteresting

and unimaginative and leave the audience unmoved. It's important to mix things up with 

lines of unequal length, starting on the off-beats and playing over the bar-line. Adding 

triplets, rhythmic hick-ups and space between lines can add a fantastic amount of

dynamics, tension and excitement to your playing.  

Linear vs. Positional:

If positional playing (in one scale form) is putting me in a musical rut or not working in a 

specific song I will try a linear approach (playing on one or two strings). Sometimes

a small adjustment of that type will put you on a fresh path to new inspiration or

just on the path to what the song really needs. 

Chord or Target tones:

Just as horn players and piano players love to play lines that include arpeggios, triads and 

chord tones, many guitarist avoid this approach because it takes a fair amount of fretboard and

theory knowledge. A solution is to start with simple small triadic shapes on the 1st 3 strings and

highlight those in lead lines. A perfect example of this is the solo in 'Comfortably Numb'.

Phrases and sentences:

Way to many guitarist solo with musical run-on sentences. Try to leave some blank space

at the end a lick or phrase, like a period at the end of a sentence. I might try to play 4

phrases for an 8 bar solo or think of a solo as a musical poem. It will help create those

wonderful story lines we hear in classic solos. 

Space or "Air":

Don't be afraid to leave space and air in your solos. Sometimes the best thing to do 

when you want to play is to be silent and listen to what's going on around you in the

music. Try for 25% less notes in your solos. 

I hope this helps you to at least begin to strategize and think about soloing in different ways. 

Enjoying Music

When we talk about the enjoyment of food, we are not generally thinking about the 'grabbing' of a greasy hamburger from the drive-thru on our way to a ball-game that we should have been at 5 minutes ago. When we talk about the enjoyment on nature, we generally don't gravitate toward a picnic in the middle of a busy city street. When we talk about enjoyment of art, our minds don't lean toward discussing the merits of the 'visual perspective and composition' in a Calvin and Hobbes cartoon, and when we think about a thing like Canadian culture, crime and poverty might easily take a backseat to Hockey and Peacekeeping.

So in considering music, the pure enjoyment of it shouldn't be: rushed, as in the way we sometime eat; cluttered, with peripheral noise of the busyness of life, like a busy street; frivolous, like the cheap art of cartoons and media; or 'out of context', like misplacing the virtue for the vice in music.

The context for this will be to slow down, let the music take the centre stage, feel it's full meaning and see the good and the beautiful within it's forms.

ENJOY YOUR MUSIC THIS WEEK!

Were it not for music, we might in these days say, the Beautiful is dead. ~Benjamin Disraeli

Take a music bath once or twice a week for a few seasons. You will find it is to the soul what a water bath is to the body. ~Oliver Wendell Holmes

Most people use music as a couch; they want to be pillowed on it, relaxed and consoled for the stress of daily living. But serious music was never meant to be soporific. ~Aaron Copland

Music is forever; music should grow and mature with you, following you right on up until you die. ~Paul Simon

Music produces a kind of pleasure which human nature cannot do without. ~Confucius

Music can noble hints impart,

Engender fury, kindle love,

With unsuspected eloquence can move,

And manage all the man with secret art.

~Joseph Addison

The Right Hand Rules

A common mistake that many guitar players make is to allow the right hand follow the left. For strummers, pickers, riffers, and shredders this can cause overall rhythm and phrasing problems that stall development and musicality in many guitarist. It's really the right hand that gives the pros the advantage over novice players in touch, dynamics, articulation, and most of all rhythm and groove.

To break this down, I will use the example of a beginner guitarist learning how to strum through basic chord progressions. When I work with new students I will let them know that I expect them to be strumming along to the mp3s of the songs that they are learning sometime within the 1st month. Many of them think this is not possible and once they start working on the chords they comment that their chord changes are not fast enough to keep up to the music. I will do a simple demonstration of me playing the same chord progression and literally tapping my head between each chord change without stopping the right hand rhythm. The student sees immediately that I'm taking even more time between chords by tapping my head than they are with their slower chord changes but that the secret is to not stop the right hand strumming; Let the left hand catch up to or follow the right. To do this well the left hand has to start the chord change on the last part of the previous strum pattern (see below).

                                                                ^

                                                              Change point

By keeping the right hand moving you'll play seamlessly and smoothly through any chord progression in the very first month of your guitar playing journey. 

The same sort of principle will apply to all styles and roles you'll play on your guitar. Rhythm is the boss - the right hand is the ski-boat and the left hand is the skier.

More Common-Note Chord Progressions!

I will include 4 more common-note chord progression in the remaining guitar friendly keys of E, A, G, and C. Try superimposing them over standard chord charts and you will have some nice harmonization within the key and some musical glue in the chord progression.

There are a couple of chords in some keys that will cause minor problems but in general we can find 2 to 3 common notes to use within a given chord progression, and it really creates a unique sound for guitarist of all styles to create with. Have some fun with your playing.

Common-Note Chord Progressions

There is definitely a trend in modern music for guitar players to act as a 'musical glue' in rock or pop songs. Some great examples of this are "the Edge" of U2, Don Felder of the Eagles, Lindsey Buckingham of Fleetwood Mac, Mike Rutherford of Genesis, Mike Campbell of Tom Petty, and many more.

These players all seemed to create repetitive catchy guitar riffs that just brought the songs chord progression and melody together with a magical musical glue.

Take a look at this sample below.

Using common notes in your chords and riffs is a fantastic way of creating memorable guitar parts and to imitate some of the great classic and modern artist.

Listen to Guns 'n' Roses "Sweet Child O' Mine" and hear how Slash plays the same riff over a chord progression and how it creates musical continuity and a cool sounding harmony.

What I need to play a gig?

If I run through my checklist of things I need to play a live show (gig), I immediately think of guitars,  picks, strings, cables, pedals, amps and maybe some appropriate stage clothes and maybe a book to read if there are technical problems that cause long delays.

The gear stuff always seems to take care of itself but today I want to talk about another side of the things needed to play a gig.... and that is: PREPARATION.

Preparing for a gig or a show for me is never just preparing my equipment or simply packing up the tools for the job at hand. The preparation I am talking about involves three main focal points that help me more than anything else to do a good job.

KNOW YOUR GUITAR

I am in constant need of resharpening, refreshing and reshaping my guitar playing 

to keep my playing from being stale, predictable, and sloppy. I was labelled a gifted

child at the age of 4 but I can't, and have not been able to rest on that assumption or

label to sweep me through the challenges, however small, of live and studio performances

that I have learned to not take lightly or for granted. I have to know my instrument and

know how to animate it to be an effective guitarist 

KNOW THE MUSIC

Knowing the music for a gig is essential to playing with some confidence and making
 a good impression on the artist or producer that hires you. Knowledge of things like
different chord voicings, memorizing main melodies, song-arrangements, tempos, and quick transitions from song to song can make rehearsals and sessions go smoother, leaving room to
be more creative and establishing a rapport with the other musicians and singers you're
working with on the gig..

KNOW YOUR ROLE

Sometimes your role as a guitarist can change with different producers,
arrangers and artists. It's important to get a sense of what the people you're working for
are wanting as far as the approach needed to fulfill the your duties and meet the expectations
of that musical situation or event. Try to find out some information. Mt role can change from
rockstar to quiet sideman or from main lead player to 'bread and butter' rhythm player depending on the expectations of the artist.

Preparation can involve more than you think and presenting yourself as being prepared will put you at the top of the list for being called back and gaining the respect of other players.

The best preparation for tomorrow is doing your best today.

H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

Understanding Chords ( part 2 - the chord progression )

Last time I explained how simple major and minor chords are made and that they tend to be confusing to the guitarist because the guitar has to make 3 note chords ( triads ) over the 6 strings: and sometimes that needs a little more expertise and strategy compared to working it out on a linear keyboard or piano. This problem is usually solved by the guitarist by just memorizing the chord shapes from a chord book or chart and avoiding learning the individual components or the strategy or theory involved in the making of the chords. This method can work for the novice/hobby guitarists but should not be avoided by anyone really studying the guitar and music.

I think just the knowledge of the process of chord making is a nice musical stepping stone to build on as you explore the next step which will be putting the chords into chord progressions.We don't necessarily need complete comprehension at this time, but it is important to think of these lessons as stepping stones to be walked over time and time again as you study and play.

Chord Progressions: A chord progression is a group of chords played in succession: used in music to play or sing a melody or riff over as a part of, or the whole song. 

Eg. We might see something like the song to the right. 

The chord progression for Kumbaya is:  C - F - C (3X) and F- C - G - C

So we have chords made up of 3 notes called a Triads that are put together in various combinations (chord progressions) to make up the popular song we hear everyday on the radio. The challenge for the student guitarist is to go beyond plain knowledge of the those chords to eventually learn how they work as individual chords and how they function together as musical moments.

There, in the chords and melodies, is everything I want to say. The words just jolly it along. It's always been my way of expressing what for me is inexpressible by any other means.

David Bowie Quote