Solo=Key?

[bleedthru]

Ok, ive been playing for like about 5 years and i have been trying to do solos, they sound ok, but to me they dont match they song. Does the solo have to like be in the same key as the song. And oh yeah i dont know anything about keys. so it may be a problem, if you can answer my question and explain key or send me to a site explaining it, i would appreciate it. Thank you.

[Edited by bleedthru on 08-13-2002 at 10:56 PM]

[Led Zeppelin]

The chords used during the solo should be in the same key as the solo. So if your playing in C throughout the song, and youve written a solo in D, then step the chords up to D. So a C-Am-g progression would become D-Bm-A. An example of this is in "And I Love Her" by the Beatles. The song is played in the key of E but for the solo it goes up to F and stays there for the rest of the song. Hope that helped.

[bleedthru]

It answered half of my question, but now how do i know what key im in. thanks though

[Josh Redstone]

I'd say that reading music is very important when writing songs, cause then you dont have to worry about figuring out what key your in and stuff.
If you read music, the key signature will tell you what key your in. If not, here's a litle trick that works most of the time, there ARE exceptions.
The first or last note or chord of the song usually tells you the letter name of the key your in, and wether it sounds happy or sad tells you if its major or minor. It still helps to understand a bit about music theory to apply this trick. It USUALLY works, there are exceptions like I said.

[servinservant]

Blues scales are the best for solos, you can play anything in that key with a jazzy,bluesy type feel and it will always sound good

http://www.myguitarsolo.com/scales.htm

here is the best site on the net for scales

[bleedthru]

thank you servinservant, those are the type of scales i need anyway, thans alot

[Incidents Happen]

yeah, but when you are playing a solo, just remember not to be restricted to one scale. Sometimes when im jamming with another musician, we'll be jamming in C Major, right, so sometimes instead of playing C Ionian, i play C Lydian, or C Dorian, just remember not to only play Ionian or Aeolian.