To say that soloing can only be done with single-notes is narrow-minded. I am not trying to put anybody that said this down, but if you are saying this, you probably haven't heard much of the work of jazz giants like Joe Pass and Gerry Beaudoin.
Think about this... when Dave Brubeck gets on the piano and plays a solo, for the most part he doesn't play single notes. He plays chords in conjunction with one another that also have a melody in them. Who says that a guitar cannot do the same thing?
The great Joe Pass changed the way many guitarists looked at the fretboard. When playing, he found ways of weaving chords and melodies into one. This meant that he didn't even need a band to back him up most of the time! And when he was in front of a band, he sounded even more incredible!
For the most part, chord/melody solos haven't broken into rock guitar. Hopefully, that will change. The first thing I would do is pick up some recordings. Joe Pass is a great start (any album of his will do).
You could from there buy transcriptions books of his, but you may not want to...
Soloing with chords is much harder than single notes because not only do you have to make sure one note fits over the chord background, you have to make sure all the notes fit.
Try this to start off. Get a Dminor vamp going. Now play a simple 3 note melody over it. Write it down. In that same key (let's say you're playing in D Dorian minor - no sharps, no flats), write the thirds and fifths over the 3 notes you originally played. Now play the melody again, but this time play it with the harmonies on top. Congratulations, you are soloing with chords.
There are only two important things in life - There's music and theres girls, not necessarily in that order....
The Ace's Guitar Tricks
The Ace's Guitar Tricks
