How Do I Play Guitar Solos?

Having taught hundreds of students over the years “How do I play solos” seems to be one of my most frequently asked questions, especially from younger students. Admittedly it’s a slightly vague question, but I read the question to mean, “I want to play cool solos, sound great, look great and impress everyone.” Well if that’s what you mean, good for you! After all, the reason we all started playing the guitar was to look cool and attract women….wasn’t it? Ok, so that’s only part of it. I hope like me you also just happen to love the sound of a good solo. If this is the case then I can help you.

Let’s start by getting the bad news out of the way. I won’t mention names, but I know of some teachers out there who answer the question “How do I play solos” by giving the student pages and pages of licks and riffs and no explanation of the theory behind them. This approach may slightly help to improve your “bag of tricks” but you’ll always find it hard to pull a solo out the bag with this method of teaching. For example, if you learn a great lick in the key of A minor could you apply it in the key of E minor without having to sit there and figure it out?

By the way, some players have played great solos without much knowledge of what they were doing, but in most cases had to write the solo first. Rather than dealing with written solos or exceptions, let’s deal more with the goal of being able to consistently come up with a good solo even when improvising.

The truth is, to be really great at soloing you have to understand what you are playing. I once heard a great quote which says it all:


"Don’t just learn a lick. Learn from a lick”

In other words, one good approach to soloing is to make sure when you learn a lick you understand why it works, what scale it comes from etc, etc.

By now you’re probably starting to realise that I’m heading in the direction of theory, scales and other technical stuff. But before you tighten that noose, let me assure you that the word ‘scale’ is not a rude word, nor a word that should make you feel ill. You’ve surely heard the saying “It’s never as bad as you think”. Well it just so happens that the saying works for music theory. Yes, you will get confused at times, and yes, you won’t sound like Jimi Hendrix immediately, but stick at it. As Jimi once said:


“Sometimes you want to give up the guitar, you’ll hate the guitar. But if you stick with it, you’re gonna be rewarded.”
-Jimi Hendrix


Well said that man!

So please understand that to be able to play like Joe Satriani or Joe Pass or whoever floats your boat, you won’t just acquire soloing ability through osmosis, divine intervention or simply wishing it. You have to actually do something about it.

So where to you start? Well rather than throw you in the deep end and start talking about ‘symmetrical this’ and ‘altered dominant that’, simply start by getting a few basic skills under your belt. Your ability to solo to some degree will be determined by your chord knowledge. One function of chords when soloing is that they act like a landmark to help you find scale patterns as well as determining which scales are appropriate to use. So know your chords! There are plenty of resources on the net and in books about learning chords. Forgive me if you’re already pretty hot on chords. If so, you’re already in great position to learn soloing. If not, I suggest you spend some time learning them, not forgetting barchords. You may not like them yet, but when you get used to them they’ll be your allies.

When learning scales a good place for guitarists to start is the pentatonic scale, simply because it only has 5 notes, is comfortable to play and is the staple of many musical styles such as rock guitar.

In case you don’t know the scale below is the A minor pentatonic scale:

E||----------------------------5-8-8-5-----------------------------||

B||-----------------------5-8------------8-5-----------------------||

G||-----------------5-7-----------------------7-5------------------||

D||------------5-7----------------------------------7-5------------||

A||-------5-7--------------------------------------------7-5-------||

E||--5-8-------------------------------------------------------8-5-||

There are only 5 different notes in this scale: A, C, D, E, G. It’s scales such as this you’ll have to familiarise yourself with. The process is somewhat mechanical at first, but where the fun starts is when you attempt “phrasing”. A phrase is a musical sentence or if you like - a lick, riff or melodic section of music. So instead of aimlessly fiddling around a scale it’s much more musical to construct short catchy phrases.

Have a look at the following lick:

E||-------------------||

B||-------------------||

G||-----7-----5-----||

D||--7-----7-----7--||

A||-------------------||

E||-------------------||

Look familiar? They are all notes within the A minor pentatonic scale. This is therefore an A minor pentatonic lick. Now that you know the pentatonic scale, you should be able to recognise other licks as being from the pentatonic scale.

Forgive me if you already know this, but even if you do it’s import to reiterate it as it adds credence to the quote you heard earlier: "Don’t just learn a lick. Learn from a lick”.

This is only one simple example, but applies to all scales and arpeggios, triads and intervals.

I think I’ve made my point pretty clear. You have to educate yourself and be disciplined in the process. The results will be well worth it.

And now the good news. Once you have taken the first few uncomfortable steps on your road to enhancing your musical skills, your learning curve will take a huge turn in the upwards direction.

Warning! Please don’t settle at the pentatonic scale and stop there. About 95% of guitarists never seem to learn any more than this scale thus earning themselves the label of “just another pub player”. Ever noticed how most pub band players all sound the same? If they’re content with that then fine, but I suspect that some have a dream to be better and I know with almost 100% certainty that they have the ability to achieve that dream.

Seeing as you’re reading this you are probably ambitious and keen to enhance your soloing ability and willing to do what it takes. Perhaps what you need now is some more direction.

The following are some short and straightforward steps or rules if you like to point you in the right direction:

1. Educate yourself. Expand your musical pallet. Whatever level you are at you can NEVER learn everything about the guitar and therefore have no reason to ever stop developing as a player. The endless quest for perfection is a worthwhile one. If I was to know everything there is know about music I think I would lose interest and take up golf! So enjoy the challenges you will face and embrace the knowledge that there is always some wonderful new skill to be obtained. Do you know your chords? Do you know the major scale, modes, the melodic and harmonic minor scales, intervals, arpeggios, triads etc etc?

2. Immerse yourself in more music. Study more music. Find out what and who you like the most. If it’s Carlos Santana, for example, what did he do to get so good? What techniques or scales does he use to get his sound?

3. Surround yourself with better players, preferably pro musicians. You can learn a hell of a lot from other people.

4. Define your goals. Do you want to sound like someone in particular? Do you want to be an accomplished rock player or jazz player? By defining your goals and writing them down you are in a better position to reach and surpass them.

5. Practise a lot and practise correctly and efficiently. Are you really practising or just playing? Are you hitting all the notes cleanly and accurately?

6. Discipline yourself? Do you practise an hour a day, every day?

7. Motivate yourself. The best kind of motivation is that caused by seeing results. Good practice will therefore lead to motivation, but you also have to keep reminding yourself what your goals are and how you will achieve them. Listening to your favourite artists and new ones will help to inspire you.

8. Never give up. Never stop learning. Don’t get down when you have a bad day or a bad gig. You are only human. Even the greatest players in the world have bad days, but the better you get the less noticeable your bad days will be. Steve Vai, on a bad day is still awesome!

And finally…believe in yourself. You’ll be amazed at what you can achieve with a positive attitude, lots of correct and efficient practise and persistence whatever your level of ability, whatever your age and whatever your experience.

The only thing stopping you is YOU! So what are you waiting for?

By: AndyRidgeway

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Andy Ridgeway is a renowned guitar player and teacher. He explains the secrets of correct practise, good tone, good musicianship and more in his guitar technique manual - "Mach 1 Guitar - Play Better Faster Guitar the Easier Way" check out his site

www.mach1guitar.com

or email Andy a question at contact@mach1guitar.com