How Lead Guitar & Solo Works

[MusicPebbles]

Yup thats my doubt. I'm not sure how ppl make originals, do their guitarists just anyhow find any nice melodies in what ever keys that they're playing in and it will work? lets say the song's chord progression is Am-C-Em-F. Guitarist can find melodies for the song with scales in these keys?

ANd Guitar SOLO! how do u make up solos? still following the key of the song and can just spam the scales?

 

[futures]

The creation of a song is not always the duty of the guitarist. Sometimes the guitar player might write a chord progression (Am, C, Em, F for example), and its the vocalist's job to try to sing a melody over that, and you're on the way to a song. More often than not, a song will only remain in one key. Modulations (change of key) may take place, but its not easy to do it decently.

As for solos, there're many solo techniques. You don't spam scales per se, because if you are in the key of Cmaj, the only scale you're gonna be spamming is the Cmaj scale, and that's only one scale. Not to mention it will sound terribly boring. Usually people improvise, or come up with something different, of course reflecting the motif of the song.

Some ways to do this:
1. Re-arrange the melody
2. Repeat the melody in a different octave and adding some new turnarounds etc.
3. Alter the groove of the song

The list is endless, its up to you to explore the options available.

If you want to get technical about constructing a melody over a chord progression, the easiest way is to utilise chord tones - the notes which the chord progression contains.

Hope this helps!

 

[MusicPebbles]

ic thx can i solo over each chord? that means change scales every chord progression

 

[redhat]

improvisation

i think this is a interesting topic, i am aso into soloing n improvisation stuff lately, i think softies guitarist can give more pointers on this, i often find myself sounding the same when i solo etc when i solo,i think is it becoz of my phrasing that i need more solid work on? can anyone talk more abt soloing guitar techniques like beside the major minor pentatonic as well as modes, how to give a more expressive melody in solo, is there some guidelines to follow or just purely building on experiences from other ppl solo n then creating yr own licks?

 

[futures]

'Copying' other people is one way, building up your vocabulary of licks and all. It'll also help you to find your own style so to speak. But one thing i try to tell my students is: if you find yourself repeating yourself, stop, and go in a different direction. Avoid those same phrases, slow down, and try to do things a little differently.

Also, try not to limit yourself to the pentatonic scales. The pentatonic scale has only 5 notes, that's 2 less than the diatonic scale. Although that forces you to be more creative with less notes, you're also compromising on the options available.

Another very important thing is to train your ear to recognise intervals and all that. That'll help you immensely in playing what you hear, and recognising what will sound good over a certain chord progression. Knowing the intervals will then help you to know how to craft your licks to go for a specific 'mood' or expression. Hope this helps too!

 

[donutator]

You can also play the modes of the key over the chords (eg: in C major, you would play the D dorian or E phrygian over the D and E minor chords respectively)

hope this makes sense

 

[futures]

If you want to use modes, its always important to know which intervals to emphasise in order to bring out the tonality of the mode. So in this case, flat 3rd for dorian, and flat 2nd for phrygian.

 

[seannyap90]

erm my improvisation is not that good now...

But i can tell u that a good solo needs 3 things

Rhythm, Dynamics and Phrasing

Try to use as little notes as possible. Good solos do not necessarily spam the whole scale. A musician just picks a few notes and use the above 3 things to tweak them.

Some examples are:

The riffs in you give love a bad name by bon jovi
The starting part of the solo of Beat It (by MJ (rip) and van halen)
Maybe I'm a Leo By Deep Purple (how Blackmore use the same few notes to make legatos)
You can observe Thomas Blug for his use of his dynamics and phrasing skills in his solos.
Of course, you can listen to Vai or Satriani for their phrasing and melodies. But if you want more feeling solos, listen to Eric Johnson, Gary Moore and Jeff Beck.


There is another method too...but i do not know whether it is a good idea. Sometimes I just play the song, pick some notes of any random scale and follow the flow of the song and after that I would deviate into some random rhythm...haha

For basic rhythm playing, go check out Paul Gilbert's rhythm lesson. Highly useful tool to explain why rhythm guitar is the basis of lead guitar.

Lastly remember music is about lots of experiment! You can apply and play around with music theory too!

Ah remember Richie Blackmore also recommends lots of copying of licks! You can have 2 guitarists playing the same piece, but producing different feels!

 

[vernplum]

Check this old thread: http://soft.com.sg/forum/how-guitar/1341-how-solo-improvise.html

 

[666999]

Try to solo 1 note in 4 bars.

 

[empihsrow]

Actually, it really depends on your playing style and the music you listen to.

If you're into metal/jazz/blues, I believe tonicization or the "wrong" notes add a lot of flavour to your music. Being able to spot cadences and play them at the right time can also help a lot.

Reckless or just random shredding will only get you somewhere.

Most importantly, use your heart and your ears to write out a solo.

 

[geoff1121]

follow the pentatonic scale. when i learnt it it felt like i opened a pandora box of improv solos. howeva the structure is just the base of where ur fingers should run around, in the end its all about the feel as u play along, remember one thing though, as u slowly get better, ur technical side will try to overcome ur feelings, and thats how all souless shredding spammers started, pure skill no feel.

 

[Jimi2]

scales and arpeggios

Well learning how to improvise is a life long task. Go to a music shop, u will listen to a lot of riffs played with a lot of skill... now ask the guitarist to improvise on 4 bars of a A7 chord...Believe me that will be another story...

Why ?
Because usually the beginners will learn patterns, but will have more difficulties to do something new, surprising, or lets say improvise on a new tune.
As a matter of fact u need to know the SCALE related to ur chord. ( Do u KNOW the chord of ur favorite songs ??? When i started the guitar i did not have any idea ha ha ) For instance if u have a A7, u can use a D Major scale, but also a pentatonic ( in fact inside the major scale u can use 3 or more pentatonic and go from a pentatonic pattern to another one, Santana loves this kind of motion ).

After that u need to know the ARPEGGIO ( that means the notes of the chord in every position on the neck ). This is very useful because arpeggios give u ideas or patterns , but playing a scale up and down is a meaningful exercise but does not give u a lot of ideas ). For instance when someone plays a A7 chord u can play a A7 arpeggios, but after a while u will find it boring and predictible. Thats why in blues and jazz we have "embellishments" that means u "add" a little something, for instance u can add the B note on a A7 which is the 9th degree of the A and this will sound different.
U can use also an arpeggio subtitution ( Em7 instead of A7 apreggio, etc )

After that, it is useful to learn the LICKS of ur favorite musician ( this is the hard part but the most useful because u will start to "SAY" something with ur guitar.

Of course some people do not need to learn all that stuff ( a little bit like learning a new language ) and the more talented are able to play interesting ideas without opening a book..we are so different...

 

[guitar_loser]

To me...i make solos by listening to my fave song and try to improvise it into my own material...

Also...it depends on the notes of the song...for example...the chord is Cm,u play the solo starting with a low note and getting into a higher note of the same chord...u get wat i mean???u can just shred anyhow as long as it is on key...hope u guys understand cos i myself dun understand wat im talking...HAHAHAHA!