Good at Rhythm, can't solo!

Hi, i've been play about 2 or 3 years. I am pretty good at rhythm and stuff, but I cannot solo! Can anyone recommend exercises/chords/etc I can use to help me get into soloing. I mainly play rock/metal but I hear learning Jazz solo's can REALLY help with metal. Thanks!

you have to practice in order to get an better. Learn scales and junk like that first, and then try soloing through a whole song of your favorite bands. Just keep doing that and its a start.

You definately gotta know your scales, and a good dose of modal theory too. Pick out a solo you really like, then pursue it with a single-minded determination until you got it down pat. Pay attention to how it was structured, and create one of your own!

Learn a lot of others solos too. There's a whole bunch of 'standard' riffs that have been around for ages and even if you don't use them in your own solos, it's still good to know them. It's also good ear training to learn solos from CD's etc... Like, trying to figure out how a solo was played and what strings and frets were used.

Pentatonic scales are a pretty good place to start I'd say. They're really easy and sound kinda cool straight away. Good for blues and rock. But after that you gotta learn other stuff coz it's boring playing just pentatonic.

Listen to more guitar solos and then try learning them from tab books or powertab :D

If you are genuinely good at rhythm then half the battle is over. Just practice a few scales and arpeggios to train yourself the patterns. DONT spend too much time playing scales all day, its boring and uninspiring.

By all means practice them but try listening to a solo in your head before you sit down to play. Most guitarists write solos through improvisation, they just fly up and down a few scales and through in a few pentatonics with the typical blues bends.

Improv helps but try listening to the backing track, then imagine what would sound cool over it. You can whistle, hum or sing a few bars to yourself or imagine it exactly in your head. Then start working it out on your guitar note by note. You will end up playing patterns that you would never get by just playing scales or improv. You will aso learn a hell of a lot about the fretboard and what works where. The most important thing is that it wont sound like everyone else who just plays any old collection of notes in the relevant key. Good luck!

Another thing I meant to mention earlier, is to learn to use subleties in your playing. Things like slides, bends, hammer-ons, pull-offs etc...
You can play the same lead a hundred different ways just in the way you slide the notes around or what strings you're using.
So try to get control of things like bending and vibrato really early on.
Try bending quickly or slowly.. do vibrato very slow sometimes or really fast... slide a note up one time, then the next time hammer on instead...

What a huge subject. Here's a couple of small bits of advice.

Yes, learn your pentatonic and blues scales but don't get so caught up with only those scales. I did and for a long time and it certainly held me back to a degree because one tends to fall back on what they know.

Learn the major scale over the entire fretboard, all positions. Once you do that you will be amazed at how much easier it is to learn modes...which you will want to do even if only later on. Everything, and I mean everything, starts with the major scale.

Start with learning easy solos from bands you like. At the time, for me, it was the slow first solo to Master of Puppets. Stick with what you like at first and "practice" will be a joy.

And the big one.....LEARN SOME BASIC THEORY. Start with understanding the I-IV-V relationship. Even great players who claim they don't know a lick of theory, in reality, actually do know a bit just from experience. Their ear might dictate where to go but the ear is bound by the same rules that define theory.

-Tom

to improve you rock blues solos hear led zepeling, guns ´n roses, AC/DC and scorpions they´re melodic and some fast but if want some metal basics learn the solos of Metalica and Iron Maiden but remember dont try the hard ones or you´ll end up playing in a mediocre way ..........I know about that

I think it's bad advice not to learn hard solos. A lot of quality ground can be made simply by "single-mindedly pursuing one solo" as Leedogg said. Once you can play it in a mediocre way, you can figure out the subtleties that really make that piec unique and that will help you tremendously

Originally Posted by: ScottMoneyI think it's bad advice not to learn hard solos. A lot of quality ground can be made simply by "single-mindedly pursuing one solo" as Leedogg said. Once you can play it in a mediocre way, you can figure out the subtleties that really make that piec unique and that will help you tremendously

I agree, but in order to be that way you have to have two things that many people are missing: 1. awareness 2. honesty within oneself

If you are not completely objective and critical of what you hear when you play yourself back you will never really learn the little nuances of what makes a piece great....no matter how long you practice it. You have to be utterly honest with yourself and mature enough not to get discouraged from that. And seek other players' honest opinions. A fake compliment might work to satisfy one's ego but that's all it's good for, which, in the end....gets you nowhere.

Learning other peoples solos is fine but I have a problem with it as a method of learning to play guitar...
Say you try learning something by Kirk Hammett, you are trying to emulate someone elses style. That's the problem. It has taken Kirk his whole life to get that style, use of vibrato and frequently used patterns. It doesnt mean that you won't be able to play the way he does, but you won't be doing anything new. I believe that you only start learning how to really play when you work on your own material. I have never played in a covers band so my approach to tab has been for getting a handle on exotic and difficult phrasings.
Playing covers is a fun way to get started but don't spend too much time on tabs alone. They are only a part of the learning process and will contribute little (but not nothing) to the creation of your own style.
One cool way of learning constructively from tab is by attempting some classical pieces. You can apply your own style without being influenced by someone elses inflections while playing over the backing music. There are some really cool pieces out there that sound amazing with a metal approach. Check out all of the great players that were influenced by the great composers who created their own style eg. Yngwie Malmsteen, Michael Romeo, Randy Rhoads, Steve Vai, Marty Friedman, Jason Becker etc etc etc