GT Solo Assignment: September '07

Hi there,

Sorry about being a tad late for this month. I won't beat around the bush, here's the backing track for this month, supplied by equator :)

Get it from my purevolume site:

www.purevolume.com/julianvickers

And equator, how about giving everyone a short explanation of the track and some tips on soloing over it? :)

Hey guys. .
The Progression is as follows:

INTRO: Em - C -D
VERSES: Em-Am-D-G-C-F-B7
ENDING: Em-C-D

Use the E Minor Scale, modulate to C over the Cmaj and Fmaj chords, and then; switch to the Harmonic Minor when the B7 chord comes. (B mixolydian works too)
Or just play it by ear.

Tempo is 140 bpm.
All the instruments are panned to the sides, so you can use the center.
Have fun guys!




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OUCH! This one requires thought not just jam over. Nicely done equator.

hrmm.. the first thing that sprung to mind was ABBA for some weird reason.. :p I think appregios would work on this one.. shame I can't do them yet.. hehehe.. Definitely has a ethnic feel to it the more I listen to it.. like eastern european.. could even speed it up to 280 bpm and make some nice techno track with a fast sort of Maelmsteen style of guitar with massive reverb and delay effects.. lol

anyway, these are just some very early first impressions of the track, as I sit here listening to it and writing this post..

Woah, this backing track rocks!

Hi guys, man I gotta learn some more scales, only one I knew_did fit sort of.
This is like a wheel of 4ths in those chords is it? seems so.Thanx for comments on last moths track to everyone. I will try to comment this month, thanx guys.
Here 'Tis

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/pagemusic.cfm?bandID=724014

There's something I wanted to say about the backing track.. even though it is set at 140bpm, it still is quite slow because each 4 beat bar has just one chord, then it just cycles over and over.. So while it is a good mix and a good chord progression.. It is missing some movement.. Most of the music I play.. like 95% of it, has multiple chord changes within the same bar.. you will always get a solid bar with the dominant chord playing throughout.. but it is when you make a couple of faster chord changes that really spices things up..

...just my 2 cents worth for future backing tracks..

Originally Posted by: light487There's something I wanted to say about the backing track.. even though it is set at 140bpm, it still is quite slow because each 4 beat bar has just one chord, then it just cycles over and over.. So while it is a good mix and a good chord progression.. It is missing some movement.. Most of the music I play.. like 95% of it, has multiple chord changes within the same bar.. you will always get a solid bar with the dominant chord playing throughout.. but it is when you make a couple of faster chord changes that really spices things up..

...just my 2 cents worth for future backing tracks..

I don't think it's the amount of chord changes. It's just that the drum track is a bit stiff.

Hey guys.
Here is my take. I played the first part using the neck pickup and switched to bridge pickup for the second part.

Equipment: Fender Strat > Dig RP80 > Line 6 Spider II Amp > Emerson Mic > Laptop.

click on the link. equator


Thanks.
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Managed to get started on this track last night (first track I've tried since my own backing track about a year ago!), I think it's real easy to play over at any pace from long ringing notes to shred runs and swept arpeggios. I recommend looking at the solo as a progression all by itself rather than just playing a collection of runs in key. A beginning middle end solo works particularly well over this backing track. As the chords change you can use any number of scales both major and minor - forget working out scales just play what sounds right and experiment with 'off' notes. This backing forces you to keep your solo interesting, the usual pentatonic stuff just won't work here. Production aside, I really like it!

PS I'm not going to listen to anyone elses track until I've finished my own - not being rude, I just find it helps to stay original and not pick up on someone elses ideas! Will comment on all tracks at the end :cool:

Glad to hear you are working on a solo Superhuman.
Yeah, it is easy to play at any pace, I wanted to do a backing that allows players from all levels to jam and have fun.
If you choose to play 16 notes listen to the Hi-hats, if you wanna play quarter notes listen to the bass, snare-kick, if you wanna play slow go with the chord changes.
By the way the chords are two bars long, so you can change scales or modes if you want to.
Have fun guys.

Here's my attempt, a few mistakes in places - no time to iron them out but still happy with the way it turned out :) Had a great time working with the track!
http://www.soundclick.com/bands/pagemusic.cfm?bandID=285164

Gear used: Ibanez Jem > Rocktron Prophesy II (recorded direct) > Cubase SX3

Havent a clue what scales or keys I used, some shapes I've never played before (same as always!). Even though it's a little stiff on the drums it's still a very nice backing track to play over. My solo came to mind almost straight away so I got it down as quick as I could.
Let me know what you think - now that I'm finished my own I'll start leaving feedback on all tracks posted.

Hey guys, here's my track; It's my first take of it after fiddling around a bit with the track...couldn't really come up with anything and then a little lick hit me ^_^

Lemme know what you think! Comments and possible improvements would kick ass as well!

I've listened to Seazer's so far and I like it, it's got some great licks but the parts between those licks sounded really forced and robotic; just my opinion though. Either way great playing!

Heard equators...Man your sweeping is really good here ^_^ The parts you did were amazing man, but I felt like some of the notes you played were out of key...Still good sounding though!

Superhumans wouldn't play for me -_-

MKylman

http://mkylman.dmusic.com

Track: September GT Solo

Just fixed mine, something went wrong in the upload... working now!
http://www.soundclick.com/bands/pagemusic.cfm?bandID=285164

Hope nobody minds a small review of each track - constructive criticisms and thoughts only :) Please don't be offended if I mention something that could be improved - only trying to help.

Seazer - nice take my man, you used a similar tone to myself for the first solo then splashed into a big reverb high gain which also sounded good. Liked the way you used a few different tones throughout the track. A few off notes in there but they didn't spoil it, nice work with the pentatonics - had a 70's rock feel to it is places. My constructive crits, there were a few phrases that had some nice momentum and were definitely going somewhere thematically - focus on those and you get a full solo with a beginning middle and end. Other parts were played well but had the up and down the scale feel - not a negative! You can make those runs a lot more interesting by throwing in some staccato and syncopation - same notes with a more spicy feel. Nice take, you've got good skills.

Equator - man you have improved a lot in the last couple of months. Those arpeggios sweeps at the beginning rocked, very precise and clean - nice job. The rest of the track had a nice feel, some solid themes in there and good direction. Only crit was that I would have liked to have heard a few more splashes of fancy fretwork thrown in to the main body of the solo. One other small thing, the tuning may have been ever slightly out on one or two strings, easy way around that is to throw in plenty of wide vibrato. Nice mix of scales btw, really liked the change after the drum break towards the end, you could really develop that progression into something cool in a full length track. Nicely done, BTW you've got some great looking women on your page!

dethm3tal - different take on the track altogether, started with a definite idea in mind. The tone could sound better with a bit of light delay and some reverb - would make those sustained sections ring out longer. Nice pentatonic runs in there and some good harmonic minor parts too. Crits were on the faster sections - kind of went out of time in parts and lost the flow from the previous parts but I could see where you were aiming for. Overall another good attempt. IMO your pickups are the culprit when it comes to the lack of sustain, easily fixed though.

Some really nice ideas in each track so far, glad I didn't listen to them before recording my own because I would have definitely used at least two phrases from each!

Superhuman:

Thanks for the crit; I think I may do another take somewhere down the line and clean up the faster parts...idk though;

Yours I liked a lot, you really incorporated the arpeggios quite nicely, you had a great tone throughout the whole song, there were some parts where I was a tad bored, but overall you held my attention throughout the whole song and I was thoroughly pleased

See with my track there was a part w/ tapping I wanted to do and I ****ed up on it and I knew I did but I really didn't want to fix it -_- Now that I think about I probably should ^_^

MKylman

Okay, I went over some of the tapping goof ups ^_^

Idk if this new part is any better, I just reversed a few of the licks already in the file...

for those that care, lemme know what you think please

mkylman.dmusic.com

MKylman

Originally Posted by: SuperhumanIMO your pickups are the culprit when it comes to the lack of sustain, easily fixed though.

by doing what?.. I can always use more sustain direct from the guitar itself.. do you just move the pickups closer to the strings? (ie. raise them higher)

Originally Posted by: light487by doing what?.. I can always use more sustain direct from the guitar itself.. do you just move the pickups closer to the strings? (ie. raise them higher)

Well the most obvious thing to fdo is to change pickups to a more high output set that will give a hotter tone. Failing that as an option, then raising the level of the pickup does indeed increase the output (also important to make sure the action of the strings is as low as possible so as not to cause hum or intonation problems). The problem with a lot of stock pickups is that they are muddy and not very sympathetic to tonal variations. Boosting some overdrive with distortion give a more blusey tone that can increase sustain somewhat but... changing pickups is the surest way to improve tone!

Yeah, I just got this guitar a few weeks ago and haven't gotten around to changing the pickups yet;

I was thinking of having a Fernandes Sustainer for the neck pickup and then one of those new DiMarzio DActivator Pickups in the bridge, but idk quite yet

MKylman