How do I jump into soloing?

I've been playing for seven months now and my fingers are just getting fast enough to the point where i can start soloing slowly inside scales. I've been messing around in E pentonic and have tried to just improvise things and try and start soloing and I can keep a good pace for about 3 seconds but im slowed down when i have to decide whether to hammer on/pull off, or to just pluck the note normally. When i pluck the note it slows me down but i cant hammer on pull off on everything either. How do i know which to do?

With 2 different ways to play a note, how the heck am is supposed to choose one in a split second and just continue making those decitions throughout a solo??? :confused:

Can anyone offer me any help at all, anything would be greatly appreaciated.

Are we talking Improv or Tabbed music??

Both actually, i was just saying when i was messing around i was improving. but soloing in general because in tabs it says when you need to hammer on/pull off.

i just started soloing. i can play pretty fast but i am having trouble doing this fast awith alternate picking what can i do to improve my alternate picking skills

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------------17----17-19-17-19-----19-----------------------------
--19-17-19----19----------------------------------------------
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what i would do if i were you is go through the standard 12344321 drill on every string while picking alteratley. try switching strings to make the excrecise more random. i still dont know how to know when to hammer on and when to just pluck.

well, just wing it :D just doing simple improv shouldnt take much thought at all. you can try playing it all plucked to start. once you get your groove going and you know where on the fret board everything sounds good, then you can start experimenting with your hammerons/pull offs/slides/bends/anything else.

what other kind of exercises would you think are helpful for alternate picking

I find scales are one of the most beneficial tools for building soloing speed and technique as well as gaining knowledge of the fretboard, theory. and aural skills.

YES I know scales are tedious but anything worth achieving takes time

as far as exercises for alternate picing try just picking alternatley on one string very very slowly, wait about ten seconds and speed it up slightly. wait another 10 seconds and spped up your alternate picking on that one string even more and continue speeding up in small incriments until you reach as fast as you can go. when you think you cant go any faster go to another string and start over. this makes sure you are used to strings of different thicknesses. i did this for about 2 hours straight a few days and i can pick really fast now though not necesarily acuratley but its great for thrash metal where you are playing maybe only one note and alternatley picking really fast, maybe sliding up the fretboard while alternatley picking also sounds good.


as far as soloing goes i suppose ill just practous scales. i dont mind things that are tedious if it helps me acheive a goal. when im improving i guess ill just have to decide when to hammer on, pull off on my own. ill be practicing the 5 major scales though. thanks a bunch, any other recomendations would be great.

Hmm, y'know taht improving is more than just practising scales. It really fascinated me whenever i hear people asking what kind of scale they should use and somesuch.

My advice on improving is this; know your music theory and study harmony. I decided to stop playing lead for a while and just focus only on rythm and harmony and it opened up my eyes to a whole load of stuff. Now i can hear chord changes and i understand what notes are good over what.

For example lets take a simple C G F progession. You can simply stick to using the Cmaj scale, but then for more complex phrasing you can use teh Fmixo (?) and G lydian (?) scales to creat a more interesting sound.


Anyway thats what i do and it find that it helps.

Yeah i know but i have no idea where to find a good place to learn music theory for absolute begginers. EVERY SINGLE theory lesson i've ever seen starts out by saying "you need not have any previous knowledge of music theory to read and understand this lesson" then all of a sudden they jump into talking about steps and intervals and start using termonolgy without explaining it.

Do you know of any place where i could learn theory? Step by step, even if its 20 pages as long as it covers and explains everything. Any lesson at all would be of great help because i''ve tried and i cant find anything thats easy to understand.

Before getting into soloing you need to know some basic principles of harmony and theory.
So you know what scales are compatible to a given chord progression.
The other main element is Technique, to add expression and style.
When you get to that point, you will be ready to improvise.
Bottom line, improvising is not just playing anything, there is a logic behind that aproach.

Read over what i said in my last statement about theory, i just cant seem to find a good place to learn it.

Originally Posted by: SoulDistortionDo you know of any place where i could learn theory? Step by step, even if its 20 pages as long as it covers and explains everything.

Try closer to 1,000 pages.

I'll link you to a thread that explains basic scales and key signatures.

http://www.guitartricks.com/forum/showthread.php?t=16015

there ya go.