Solos and improvising

I've been playing for about 3 years now, and just recently (about 6-8 months ago) I was playing in a band with someone I consider the best guitarist in the world (not a joke).

Anyways, what I noticed was that, after about 3 months of jamming with him, my own playing improved tenfold, even though I was just playing rhythm - nothing at all complex. I guess it was just watching his technique and some of his talent rubbing off.

So, my problem now is that I can play at a pretty decent speed, and I know my pentatonic and a couple other scales, but I can't seem to come up with original and interesting solos. I just play completely random notes. My guitar hero is David Gilmour, and I admire his ability to play solos that really move you, with out necessariliy blowing you away with technique.

How do you guys recommend improving one's compositional skills with regards to solos? I try to immerse myself in Pink Floyd music, in hopes that one day I'll have an epiphany and be able to compose solos just like Gilmour, or at least play in his style.

Thanks for your input.

if you can learn gilmours stuff, by hearing it do it.. spend all the time you need for it and do it..
basicly all the blues based people playing the same stuff, but everyone has his little tricks which makes the playing special, and when you hearing people you can hear those little tricks and copy them into your playing, maybe changing them a little, also try to play with as much feel as you can, dont just strumm notes.. add some things around, like bends, and vibratos and double bends....
but then again basicly the best way is to hear good players and to copy them

Maybe to add a new dimension to your improvisational solos you could learn a few more scales. Hopefully you are familiar with the "blues scale". It is very important for soloing, not just while playing the blues! Perhaps you could learn the harmonic minor scale. But if you are more into the "classic rock" sound, it won't seem to useful to you. You could also use modes in your solos, they can sound really cool. No matter what scales you utilize, THE MOST IMPORTANT thing is to know them so well that you don't have to think about the notes you are playing. If you can acheive this, you can put alot of "feel" into your improv.

Hey~
Lookin' to improvise like David G., eh? Well, it isn't that hard, and here's why:
Gilmour uses the pentatonic alot, I'd almost say mostly. But what adds that punch, that "movement" to his solos is this- he follows the chord changes in his solos. Say, for instance, you are playing out of e minor (let's use "learning to fly" as an example). The rhythm/chord playing under the outro solo is a simple alternation between e minor and G major. That's it- 2 to 4 bars of e minor/G major.
So, you would want to play in the e minor pentatonic. When Gilmour looks for something to put in there, he may outline the a minor chord. If you look closely at the e minor pent, you'll be able to see the shape of the a minor triad (a,c,e). This isn't the same as playing in a minor! It's just highlighting the a minor chord in the e minor pent scale, and just for a bar or two.
If you look closely at Gilmour's solos, all of them, you can see the "outlines" of several chords in his phrasing. That solid sound to the solos is actually the sound of playing chords in his solos, not the scales themselves.

Let me know if this helps. There are some other tricks he uses that I would be glad to share.

Michael

Alright, let's have them.

One of the tricks in the blues rep. is to use the minor pentatonic over the major chords. For instance, when playing over E major, A major and B major (a I, IV, V progression) in the key of E major, use the e minor pentatonic. Stevie Ray's tune "Lenny" from Texas Flood is a perfect example. The basic chords of the verse part are E and A major, but most of the lead guitar melody is based in the e minor pent scale. That's one of the standard ways to get the "blues tension."
Gilmour does this, I guess most of the big dogs do it. Trick is, you can throw the major arpeggios and broken chords into it as well. They both work, and together they are an INCREDIBLE sound! Alot of that punch I mentioned earlier comes when he has played several riffs in the e minor scale, but when he plays over the a chord, for instance, he'll occasionally throw in an A major arpeggio. Adds that perfect element, just changing the c in the a minor chord to a c#, from the a major arpeggio. But he won't stick to just the c#. He'll use them both, sometimes in the same phrase. Same thing when soloing over the B major chord. Still the e minor pentatonic, but he'll throw in the d# from the B major arpeggio, and when on the V chord of any progression, also emphasize the 7 note, to really bring out the dominant 7 blue feel.
This is the easiest way to add a little "outside" playing to the pure pentatonic, without actually changing scales or keys.

Does this help with your original question?
Best wishes,
Michael

Hello, this is my first time to post in this website and in this forum. Well, to find out how to improve yourself is by practising a lot of scales. Basically Blues, and to have a variety of idea you need to learn more scales such the Arabic scales, chromatic scales, learn how to play natural harmonics, arpegios (all chords), jazz scales, learn how to tapping, play diminished scales. Try put all this with the sweeping technique and you will find a very interesting sound and ideas. When listening to musics especially in those guitar soloing part, try to imagine how the person played. If you can imagine, you can visualize and transform it into your own idea when playing in a live band. In Malaysia no one knows who I am coz' I didn't promote myself. Steve Vai, Earl Klugh inspire me a lot. I may not play like him but you may see something in him that is called EGO. Ego boost yourself as a CONFIDENT and confidents keeps you ahead. Be like him no matter what is the concept of music you are playing. I can play from Religious song, Classical Jazz, to Undergraound metal song and I can play my own solo in various ways in any chord. This is my EGO and I believe everyone in this forum have their own Ego but does not know how to use is to boost themselves. Only those who reach this level understand what I am saying here. Keep this principle - "Wherever I go, I can play songs whatever they want and whatever they like to hear". So, that means you must prepare yourself with variety of skills and knowledge. Not just playing but the attitude. Don't let EGO kill yourself. Let the EGO introduce you to the people who you are?

By the way, I have never taken any guitar lesson or go to music school as all this I learn by myself and with the influence from my father, uncles and myself. That means you can master guitar even without going to music school. If you are hardworking enough to improve yourselves rather than talking a lot, I believe you can reach the level you have wanted to reach before. So, this is to share what I've learn and why people at the same age and younger than me that I have known couldn't beat me in terms of guitar creativity and skills. Even to those who is 2-3 years older than me. It takes time and it took 8 years for me to master the art of playing guitar and to master what people expect to see when you are playing the guitar in a band or solo. I know some of them here have incredible speed but how about the ideas. Are they playing the same thing with the speed in variety of songs? They know what to answer. That is why, unique is the key and EGO boost you ability and to surprise the people who look at you and your guitar.

Hmmm... I hate to say a lot here, so, anything to say about this post, please, you are welcome. I hope anyway, this could inspire some of you who still in the stages of mastering the string instrument.

Remember:
"It is easy to play guitar and have skills and speeds like the others but it is really hard to Master the guitar as there is no exact definition of Guitar Master. So master it as you still can until the find the accurate denifition of Guitar Master"

Hey Emmanuel,
What did you mean by arabic scales? I am probably familiar with them, but I must call them something else. Do you mean harmonic minor? I've always thought that those scales sound very mid-eastern or arabic.

as far as i know the arabic scale is harmonic minor, i know that there are people who also call this scale, all together with phrygian mode exotic scales, but maybe there are more scales, which i dont know

But phrygian scales are much more "flamenco" sounding than harmonic minor sounding. What's your quote from Zeppelin?

This may sound cheezy but itz true. The only real way to get solos to sound like theyre flowing from you is to let them.Find the right pattern in the rythm progression to get a groove and add lots of 'drama' notes like double stop bends and pentatonic tapping. Record some rythm and play it while you solo in the right key with some of these ideas. Practice til you get it. Good Luck.

I do not know what you may call it and I think the nearest name to it is the harmonic scales + some chromatic scales. I have learn all kind of scales without learning the names coz' I figure it out on my own and even found some ways how to combine scales and it sounds like a whole new scales. I have also figure out a method of picking and fingering that even for beginners there is a trick which let them play like a pro. OK, I have been playing for ten years and I have played from religious music,rocl alternative/grunge, classical/jazz music, heavy-metal, underground rock, blues, raggae, even our local traditional music I can play. Maybe I may not know all the terms perfectly well but I have the experience. OK, The first time I've been in this website there are many scale terms I may not know at least a few, but when I look at the tab, they all are familiar for what I have played before and none of them are alien to me. But if someone willing to explain it to me or teach me all those terms and what does it means, I am willing to exchange my knowledge an d experience with anyone. OK, so far I know terms such as the pentatonic, triad tonic, diminished, augmented, chromatic, natural/artificial harmonic. But some of those guitarist I have known, they said don't give a damn on those terms as long as you know what you can perform on the guitar and produce beautiful sound. It may sound true but at least I know what people is talking about. Anyway, I can give more tips on becoming a great guitarist and how to feel natural with those fretboards, strings, guitar picking and fingering technique. You can even close your eyes or even play the guitar at the back of your head without even looking at the freatboards. How??? This takes Eeperience to do it.

the quote is from deep purple's no no no , from the fireball album