1 Topic by 06sc500 (edited by 06sc500 2008-02-04 02:29:48)

  • Registered: 2007-04-25
  • Posts: 551

Topic: Anything to soloing besides practice?

Hey, I'm fairly new to the world of guitar solos.  I learned to solo on my acoustic, as I'm getting my first electric in about a month.  You don't hear acoustic solos very often, but after listening to Clapton Unplugged I decided to give it a try.  I was able to try soloing on an electric when I tried out my soon-to-be Dano Hodad last week.  Anyway, my question is, am I doing things right when I solo? I basically just move my fingertips from fret to fret-I try to finger chords if at all possible.  I know that there really is no "right way" of doing this, as Herman Li from Dragonforce solos with his hand on top of the fretboard.  I'm just wondering if there are any tricks or techniques I can use to make things a bit easier, or is good old practice makes perfect how it's done? Thanks

"A steering wheel don't mean you can drive, a warm body don't mean I'm alive"
Switchfoot

06sc500's Website

2 Reply by Russell_Harding (edited by Russell_Harding 2008-02-04 03:47:08)

  • From: A black hole in deep space
  • Registered: 2007-10-28
  • Posts: 7,862

Re: Anything to soloing besides practice?

i think if you learn scales major and minor to start it will train your fingers and your mind as you get used to the different modes you will sudconciously remember them but it takes a lot of practice to be smooth and fluid but start with the basics first and progress one step at a time if you keep at it you will improve so.......practice basics you have to crawl before you can run

"Growing old is not for sissies"

Russell_Harding's Website

  • From: Bellevue, WA
  • Registered: 2006-06-15
  • Posts: 3,336

Re: Anything to soloing besides practice?

Scales.  Then scales.  Then more scales.

And when you're done.

Scales.

Someday we'll win this thing...

[url=http://www.aclosesecond.com]www.aclosesecond.com[/url]

jerome.oneil's Website

4 Reply by cytania (edited by cytania 2008-02-04 13:10:55)

  • From: Nottingham, UK
  • Registered: 2006-08-08
  • Posts: 690

Re: Anything to soloing besides practice?

Solo is a chance for a guitarist to show-off, make some fireworks. How you do this is down to you.

One way to think of the solo is as a form of singing. In fact you may have seen guitarists making strange mouth shapes in the middle of a solo. Listen to Zep's 'You Shook Me' and you can hear Jimmy Page making the words 'babe, baaabbe, you shook meee, shoook meeeee' in a call and respone with Plant's vocal. So if a song has a reucrrent theme or riff, find it in the appropriate scale set. Having a motif like this will give you a fallback position. So you play up and down the scale, do some fast twiddling... then run out steam... Go back to that motif, this reminds the audience of the song and you can keep repeating it till the band fall back in behind you.

The best advice for a solo is keep it short and rehearse it. Not just what you'll play but how the song will come out of it. Time for a 'secret signal' like Team America ;-)

'The sound of the city seems to disappear'