yo HELP!

[guitarperson~#123]

i got the scales or some of them but how do u use them to make a freakin awesome guitar solo or riff

[ez-one]

can you play any cool solo's now???? its about "phrasing" the ability to string a series of notes together with timing patterens, breaks, slides, bends, hammer ons, pull offs, double stops ect.... if you are already able to play some solos from songs that you know then you know that the timing of the notes used and the technique used plays a major roll in how good they sound

[GeorgeC]

So, you want to play guitar solos. Cool! You got “a” scale down? If you really want to play solos it’s imperative, IMPERATIVE, that is, IT’S A MUST, at bare minimum, you get the entire, the whole thing, of the "pentonic scale" down. Do you have that? All five locations of the pentonic are essentially the same notes played in five different positions (of the neck) pending where you need be/want to play/sound you favor hitting. (Every day practice in a different key).

Part Two, learn the 3rd, 5th, 7ths and 9ths notes of the scale(s) for each chord you have/need to play in. That gives you the “safe spots”. Practice the safe spots with a few chord arpeg’s till you get them down comfortably by memory and ear –i.e. three hours/day for a good six months. Master that and the music starts coming to you –it will one day!

Part Three: learn other people’s leads –you’ll see they are all from the pentonic scale (or mixolodian scale) or some derivative thereof.

Lastly, Part Four: Once you learn the scales by memory to where the hand/fingers move faster than the mind (eye) and you can play around target notes,.., you are then HALF WAY THERE. Half way there is one year!

Then, (parallel to the above) you need to conclude and put it all together with “technique”. You have to steal or borrow techniques from other players –i.e. pulls, hammers, slides, pull-offs, note skipping, etc. Playing “Tabs” is the short-cut here, but it leaves out the pentonic or micolodian content, and without understanding “full content” you can’t do it. It just can’t be done in any meaningful respect and there’s no way around it.

What to expect: Three years minimum. Slow learning curves. And lots of practice –there’s no substitute for practice -- every lead guitar player you know had to do it –it’s your turn now. Very important: practice slow and clean at first –speed will come in time with practice.

Then, remember there are essentially three guitars -Strats, Telecasters and the Lester. Each gives a different sound. Each allots itself to different techniques. Unless you are Eric Clapton or Jimmy Hendrix you're not going to play blues guitar on a fender in the same extent one will on the Lester. Likewise, there are many different amps too, and they also give unique sounds.

Say, did I mention there are a good half-dozen different guitar tunings? An infinite number of ways to pluck a string --finger, fingers, pick, first finger and pick, all four fingers and the thumb, all four fingers and a pick. –and the thumb! And use thick strings –minimum start in tens!

That’s the short and skinny of it my friend: know the chords and their safe spots, master the scales, conclude with technique, and use the right guitar and amp. Deviate with different tunings, and keep practicing –s l o w and c l e a n. Remember, speed comes in time.

Email me if you need more help, ideas, instructions, good books, great videos and the like I might be able to recommend.

[dfa666]

Wow...that's quite the response George. i wonder about some comments tho like "use thick strings - minimum start in tens!" there's tons of amazing guitar players who use 9's and even some who use 8's. so why 10's? what does the type of guitar have to do with writing a solo? same question applies to tunings? alternate tunings don't change the notes on the guitar, just where they fall on the fretboard.
I think it's great that guitarperson has some scales down and wants to start writing leads, but your answer is very discouraging. some of it is valid information like the part on playing slow and clean. it doesn't take a minimum of 3 years to become a proficient lead player, it does take practice and dedication. the more practice and effort you put into it the faster it comes together.

[screamin eagle]

I am not gong to be long winded (for a change) and just say this: Learn the pentatonic scale--you'll get that memorized and then say, "Great, now how do I get it to sound musical."

Once you get that scale down learn a couple of solo's note for note. Then after you have memorized them, study them. Try to fit all of the notes in the solo into the scale that you have learned. Once you can visualize this then try to make variations to the already learned solo--but keep the same feel--you want your audience to now that it is the solo to Sweet Child of Mine, but that you are not copying Slash's solo note for note--in fact many if not all guitarist never play the same solo twice, and this is because of a great knowledge of the scale and note relationships.

I don't know if you are into classic rock stuff, but for study purposes--Listen to and Learn the Song and Solo to "Louie Louie" by the Kingsmen. The entire solo is in the first position pentatonic pattern. But there is some build up and movement to the solo despite the fact that it only uses about 9 notes.

Like I said, you may not be into that music, but think of it as studying. If you can play the Pentatonic scale at a moderate speed, alternate picking then you should be able to learn and play this song in one day.

Learn a scale--learn a solo--match them up--figure out why it sounds the way that it does.

MOST IMPORTANT: Not only do you want to add space to your solo so that it can breathe and take form, but it is the notes that you DON'T play that creates time. This is why a 'solo' sounds like a solo' and a 'scale sounds like a scale'.

[GeorgeC]

My bad people. I apologize. The last thing anyone, especially me, would want to do is discourage a fellow musician with getting too complex and/or plugging in too many of my personal thoughts and experiences on the subject. In the same respect, I didn’t want to steer him down the wrong road early on and giving misconceptions about what it’s all about. Let me put it another way and try to make good here to those disappointed with my commentary. Learning music, lead guitar, is no different than learning a new language. Yes, some master the language better than others and a selected few get to speak quicker than most. It’s interesting to note, however, no matter what the language is, many of us begin learning it “incorrectly” without an understanding of “content”, in particular when we learn all the inappropriate words and fazes that gets us communicating immediately.

So, here goes again: I have a Russian friend who recently came to USA. He couldn’t speak our language and wanted to learn how to communicate with us in “English” –his desire was to recite and hopefully write romantic poems (solos), and as soon as possible too.

Early on he became frustrated when he learned the entire English alphabet (scale) but still couldn’t properly speak or write a single word in English, let alone define one. So, we had to teach him all the “vowels” in the alphabet –a, e, i, o, and u. (that is, 3rds, 5ths, 7ths, 9ths, octaves, etc), as well as the consonants (sharps, flats), and outline the “basics” of using a dictionary (music theory). There was really no going forward in any real sense without these basics.

In time, he was able to write and properly repeat some simple “fazes” (licks) without asking us how to spell (tab it) and pronounce (hammer, pulls, pull-offs, slides, etc.) each word for him. Even when he didn’t know “exactly” how to spell or pronounce a given word properly, close was good enough (arpegging). And, although some words were a little tricky and he still needed help in the beginning, gradually he became “independent”. That is, as time passed, with practice, he found he could spell and pronounce new words he never heard before because they sounded similar to other words he was familiar with and knew how to spell --just by sounding out each letter (proper note). All those vowels and consonants really began to have meaning after a while and he realized they were in fact imperative after all.

Time for him to make his first sentence (little solo). Not understand proper grammar --past tense, present tenses --it was difficult to understand what exactly it was he tried to say. Although most words were essentially clear, the sentence as a whole made little sense in proper English (i.e. subsequently learning the Major and Minor fretting of the Pentonic and Mixolodian scales, and how these scales relate to Major and Minor Chords, Augmented chords, Suspended chords, and what happens when we add 5th notes, flat 5ths, 7ths, 9ths on top of the chords and/or in the scale itself).

So, with really no other alternative, we needed to teach him proper English “grammar” (content) if he was ever going to become fluent in our language. This was a bit challenging at first, confusing was an understatement, in particular when it came to “exceptions” to the general rules. Nevertheless, within a year, he was able to generate a simple and common proper sentence, inclusive of noun, pronoun, and a verb on his own. Most important, he was doing it properly (clear) without any help, all in the correct tense (Key, if you will) just by “listening” closely and sounding out each letter of every word slowly in the beginning. He even took a few well rehearsed sentences (couple beginning and ending licks and a little solo bit) and began to add conjunctions, periods, and commons to generated entire paragraphs (Solos). Although we all didn’t exactly refer to him as a poet yet he was getting there --words were rhyming and poetry was being made!. Again, it was interesting to note those all too important and once unfamiliar vowels , consonants, and the proper grammar techniques became second nature . BUT, he never would have got to where he was without something of an understanding of the basics. He spent his second year in USA reading and memorizing a lot of poems (songs, licks, solos). He even began to add his own words (outside independent notes and intermediate licks) to a few memorized/copied poems which allowed him to elaborate on other peoples work. By the end of the 2nd year he was able to generate almost any poem (solo).

One day he met this really hot girl who was in to Hip Hop and Rap music. She often spoke in Ebonics too. Knowing perfect English by now, not a single word was familiar to him in this “new” English-Rap content. He had to spend a lot of time “listening” all over again . Soon enough it started to just came to him. He actually began to understand the Rap Ebonics thoroughly. “Screw the romantic poetry” he said to himself,” I want in on the mainstream”. He learned how to speak, read, and write what our English teachers would define as “incorrect” English No understanding would have been possible, however, if he didn’t comprehend how to properly speak English in the first place!

Now, my Russian friend with his all too familiar Russian-English accent and pronunciations wanted to “sound” like a hot ass rapper. It wasn’t long before he realized certain rappers had very unique voices and the trick was all in the type of microphone (guitar) these artists used –they were fundamentally different sounding than what Elvis used.

In other words, one wants to play traditional blues, you use a Lester (Les Paul) guitar. One wants to play fast Rock-n-Roll, you use a Fender. You will NEVER sound like BB King playing a Fender –you use a Lester. You want to sound like Jimmy Hendricks or Clapton, you use a Fender. You want sound like ZZ Top, while you can switch between the Lester and the Fender, there’s no going forward without a combination of different amps, settings, and some rather creative distortion techniques. While one can play them all on most acoustic guitars and be in the ball park, no matter what your amp is, no matter what distortion you have and whoever be your soundman and mixer, you will NOT get Slash with on any acoustic or classic guitar.

Take it a step further, sting thickness is very important to sounding –it’s everything --in particular on the Lester. The pickups on a guitar respond different to metal thickness. In short, the more the metal the loader the pickup/sounding, and the different the distortion comes out too. Try hammering in 8s and 9s, and then do it in 10s and 11s. There’s a BIG difference, and the amp and type of amp reflects it too. Plug in your classic guitar with plastic strings to any amp and its clearer than daylight the sounding is everything. Switch guitars, and/or strings and listen to the difference. It’s a little less subtle, but you’ll hear it.

In similar respect, you want to play slide guitar, you’re “tuning” your guitar differently. Listen to the lead slide on, say, Freebird, from Skinner, or Statesborough Blues by the Almond brothers. That’s NOT simple tuning. That’s why guitarists have several different guitars. They sound different, they play different, the record different. Listen to Cocane by Clapton live and then from the studio –hes running four overdubs in the studio –he comes close to the studio-sound “live” –and there’s three different backup guitarists helping.
It took each and every pop guitarist we know “years” to get their technique down. It’s going to take time to mimic them –and they don’t give up “all” their secretes.

[jjt123]

Great Man...............

Great! What he said...........

That was just BEAUTIFUL.............

Im gonna read that again when I wake up tommorow.