guitar solos

[liquidsmoke]

A good way to ease into learning to solo is to use notes directly from the chords you'd be playing otherwise. Billy Gibbons does this a lot.

Also, you'll want to learn the basic blues box. Once you get tired of being in the box, go looking for different octaves of those blues scale notes elsewhere on the neck. You can map 'em out on paper for reference.

Definitely. I agree on the blues box although if the riffs of a song aren't build on blues notes it doesn't work as well for soloing.

[RacerX]

If you're playing rock & the blues box (minor pentatonic scale) doesn't work, chances are you need to go to the major pentatonic. The guick fix is moving the blues box 4 frets down (ex: If the song's in "A", use the "F# blues box). This is what Leslie West's doing in Mississippi Queen breaks & solo and is also the scale a lot of country/southern rock solos use (ex: Ramblin' Man). Keith Richards uses it a lot, too.

[liquidsmoke]

I actually have no idea what scales most of my riffs are in but they are generally darker and maybe more Euro metal sounding than blues box type stuff. All I know is that so far bluesy type soloing usually doesn't sound right for them. We may end up doing some more bluesy stuff in the future though. I tend to add notes to the blues box to make it sound more metal when I fool around with it.

[jibberish]

If you're playing rock & the blues box (minor pentatonic scale) doesn't work, chances are you need to go to the major pentatonic. The guick fix is moving the blues box 4 frets down (ex: If the song's in "A", use the "F# blues box). This is what Leslie West's doing in Mississippi Queen breaks & solo and is also the scale a lot of country/southern rock solos use (ex: Ramblin' Man). Keith Richards uses it a lot, too.

^ this. same blues box, but moved goes from minor blues to major folksy/country
this is why the key of G is so awesome for guitar players. it uses the E blues box for wankery.

and i know you meant "3 steps down" like your f# is the relative minor for A, as you mentioned

i made up an entire solo for "friends in low places" like this. it is in the key of A maj and i used the f# blues box, except i moved it all over the neck

[liquidsmoke]

I started this thread talking about how solos don't have to be fast but tonight I re-did one of mine and it's the fastest part I've ever written for a song. Very fun. It's not shred but it's going to take a lot of practice to get the muscle memory completely down and eliminate the slop.

[RacerX]

I've been working on soloing on the lap steel. Here's a recent take over a prerecorded backing track. I'm looking for constructive feedback on tone, pitch, technique, etc...

[soundcloud]http://soundcloud.com/alan-47/lapsteel-mp3[/soundcloud]

[bitter]

Uhhhhh. That's baby making music, right there.


Would like to here it with a splashier reverb tail or slightly longer delay. You know, just a little more liquidy as the notes decay.

[RacerX]

Ha! Thanks.

Yeah, I get you on the 'verb. If I crank the knob on my nanograil a bit it'll blur the attack some and add trail. I gotta get a bit better on the volume pedal for this style—I want it to sound more like a bowed instrument. I'm getting it here & there, but not consistently.

[liquidsmoke]

Whoa, kind of reminds me of '70s Yes. Dig.

[Ombrenuit]

I hated solos for a long time in my teenage years - then grew to like then love them. What works best for me the best is recording myself and my band with improvised soloing, listening to what worked and what didn't and learning from there. I've found what seemed face melting at the time didn't sound half as cool on the recording.