Improve soloing?

Originally Posted by: caponi14Hey Chris thanks alot, i wonna know something. How experienced should i be before i try to tackle this? iv been playing a little over a year?

And im not done with the Rock courses yet? I quess i should finish them first right?

Missed these questions earlier!

It differs for every person. I would go through the Rock courses, then do the tutorials I mentioned. The whole time, you should use the Slash solo as a reference point to measure your progress. As you improve you should be able to hear and play more and more of what he is doing in that solo over the course of time.

I see a lot of talk about analyzing other player's solos, which is certainly great. But to understand why their solos are so great, you need to be familiar with the concepts of consonance and dissonance. Now this is a huge subject, but I'll try to keep this as brief as I can.

We're gonna keep it simple. Let's say we're in G major. We want a simple I-IV-V chord progression which, in G, is G, C, and D (all major, of course). To solo, we will use the G major scale.

Now this next part will be internalized over time, and you won't even have to think about it. But at first, it will help to break things down. The key of G major contains the notes GABCDE and F#, and the G major scale is GABCDEF#G. These are the notes we want to stick to for the most part. But just playing them mostly at random over the progression isn't likely to turn out something outstanding.

We next need to look at the notes in each chord of the progression. They are: GBD for G, CEG for C, and DF#A for D. Here's where consonance and dissonance come in. The notes in each chord are consonant for that chord, and all other notes are dissonant. Consonant means that it sounds very nice and relaxed over the chord, while dissonant means that there is some level of tension. Every note not in the chord, whether they are in the key or not, has some level of dissonance.

I'm certainly not saying that the only note you can play over a G major chord are G, B, and D. What makes great solos is how they manipulate this dissonance to create and resolve tension. And this is the sort of thing you want to pay attention to when analyzing music.

So to make your solo really lock into and fit the progression, try starting your phrases on consonant notes. When the progression changes to the next chord, play a note that's consonant with that new chord and continue your phrase. This sort of thing will really make your solo part of the overall song.

basically echoing what chrisweyers is saying, another strategy is to familiarize yourself with the location of the chord tones and use these as anchors.
Learn the arpeggio fingerings (but don't fall into the sweep picking trap yet... this is just to visualize the chord tones) and make sure you can start and end a phrase on those notes.

That will lock the solo to the chords.

If you can play a solo even without backing chords and the listener can still hear the chord changes through the clever use of chord tones, that's when you know you've got is worked out.

Combine this with rhythm and phrasing and you should be sorted.

hope that helps a bit

Wow, thats a great tip! I'd never thought to use arpeggios like that before!

Chord tone use is key to keeping your solos sounding authentic and like the aforementioned comment, you want the listener to hear the changes even if you don't have any backing tracks. Great tips.

Would anyone be interested in a "Use of Chord Tones in Soloing for Beginners" tutorial?

Yes i would be interested in everything, im so frustrated at the moment...

I keep asking the same question to myself, ''when am i gonna be satisfied with my improvisation''.... I want to learn stuff like this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2WOUEIxKxc0

He has the exact style that im looking for! But i can't seem to get it nomatter what the **** i do? :(

How can i learn it! That thing he plays!

Remember; he is he, and you are you. Slash is Slash. Eddie is Eddie. No matter what you do, you will always sound like yourself. That is not a bad thing and honestly, that is what you should be focusing on. I see so many posts by you that have this resounding ambition to sound like Slash. I feel Slash is a defining guitar player in our generation,. but you should also work to broaden your scope and let other players, styles, and sounds influence you as well. Where as I am certain you listen to more than just Slash, you simply cannot expect to play like him or at that ability right away. Let your playing develop with patience and age as at this rate, I am afraid you might frustrate yourself to a pretty severe point. It takes time, patience and a love for the process of learning. You will get there, but please relax and let the process take it's course. I have been playing for nearly 13 years of my life and do it as a living, as well as teaching for this site. I can tell you even through that, I am still very unsatisfied with my playing and work all the time to better myself and my voice on the instrument.

Have patience young grasshopper.

Yeah, your right. Im a bit stupid i quess.

Sorry, i don't want to waste anybodys time.

Thanks anyway though

Originally Posted by: caponi14Yeah, your right. Im a bit stupid i quess.

Sorry, i don't want to waste anybodys time.

Thanks anyway though

Not true at all! You are simply on the journey like the rest of us. It never hurts to take a break every once and while either. Another thing I would advise is to set goals for yourself, make lists, and other things that commonly help you to organize yourself and ideas. Again, work to be you and to ahve patience. If you build it, they will come.

What kind of goals?

Goals like, learning a song within a timeframe or something?

It's actually really strange, my soloing has gone up big time within the last 2 days... Im very happy right now actually!


:)

LOL. It's funny that way, when you literally start to see it all settling into place. Keep doing what your doing man, you are on the way to something great. Again, the frustration rarely let's up as all of us are always trying to better ourselves musically (and hopefully personally.)

As far as goals, try making lists for 2010. Have daily goals, weekly goals, monthly goals, and goals for the whole year. Make these things very feasible and don't over do it. You will set your self up for disappoint if you try and take on too much. Trust me, the betterment will come my friend. I am going to post a GOALS for 2010 post either for today or tomorrow; pending on time and energy. You should take a look at it and contribute.

Best of luck sir into the new year!

Originally Posted by: caponi14... I want to learn stuff like this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2WOUEIxKxc0

Most of the stuff in that vid is just goofing around with the pentatonic minor boxes. Probably the single hardest aspect of free improvisation is implying and staying in some rhythmic time.

This one thing is the difference between sounding like you are "just practicing scales" and sounding like you are "playing music on the guitar". You have to phrase things so they sound like complete, self-contained coherent musical statements. And not just a string of notes which could start and stop anywhere.

It's the difference between just a bunch of words strung together:

"dog, cat, jump, run, black, quickly, brown, porch, very, skittish, etc."

And a series of words placed together with a purpose, skill and intelligence:

"The black, stealthy dog jumped up on the wooden porch very quickly. It was extremely intent on catching it's prey. The intended victim was a brown, skittish cat which had been sleepily minding it's own business; but now was frantically running for it's life!"

Make sense?

Have you seen these tutorials on using all the pentatonic boxes?

http://www.guitartricks.com/tutorial.php?input=185
http://www.guitartricks.com/tutorial.php?input=722

Can you do all that in time?

Have you seen these tutorials on connecting the pentatonic boxes? Because they guy in that vid is doing a whole lot of that type of thing. :)

http://www.guitartricks.com/tutorial.php?input=737
http://www.guitartricks.com/tutorial.php?input=843

Finally, as Douglas said, set goals for yourself. Set them in a manageable way. Don't just do this:

1. Here's my goal: Be a competent guitarist that can improvise.

And that's it. This is a great goal. But it is just one huge, "top of the list" lifetime goal. You have to break it down into manageable, realistic steps that will help you get there. Do it like this:

Overall lifetime goal
1. Be a competent guitarist that can improvise.

Yearly goals
1. Map out entire fretboard for major scales.
2. Map out entire fretboard for minor scales.
3. Map out entire fretboard for major chords.
4. Map out entire fretboard for minor chords.

Monthly goals
January: learn to play and hear 3 major scales (C major, G major, D major) in multiple fretboard places.
February: learn to play and use all chords in those scales.
March: learn to play and hear 3 minor scales (A minor, E minor, B minor) in multiple fretboard places.
April: learn to play and use all chords in those scales.
May: learn to play and hear 3 different major scales (A major, E major B major) in multiple fretboard places.

And so on until you get to the nitty, gritty, fine details of what you can everyday to actually work toward those huge goals.

Weekly goals:
Learn, play and memorize the C major scale across the fretboard.

Daily goals:
Mon: Play and memorize C major scale in frets 0-5.
Tues: Learn 3 melodies in C major scale in first five frets. Invent 3 licks using C major scale in first five frets.
Wed: Play and memorize C major scale in frets 5-10.
Thurs: Learn 3 melodies in C major scale in frets 5-10. Invent 3 licks using C major scale in frets 5-10.

And so on.

This is just an example. But do you see how this creates a manageable, systematic heirarchy of goals that are realistic and build from one simple thing into the larger overall goal?

Hope this helps. Best of success!

Thanks people :)

But i must say, it's a pretty big step for me to do it like this. I don't know if i can pull it all off...

But i actually think that it would be a good way for me!

I am forever thankful for your help!

Originally Posted by: caponi14Thanks people :)

Welcome. :)

Can you do all this stuff I asked about? Have you already done it?

http://www.guitartricks.com/tutorial.php?input=185
http://www.guitartricks.com/tutorial.php?input=722

http://www.guitartricks.com/tutorial.php?input=737
http://www.guitartricks.com/tutorial.php?input=843

Chris, I have a question.

I looked at the lessons you linked below and I noticed that some of them are not part of a particular course. Even though I'm still in GF2 I will be progressing soon and am curious, if these lessons aren't part of a course where can we find them, and how do we know when to incorporate them into our studies?

I'm sorry if I'm getting ahead of myself but curiosity got the best of me.

Thanks in advance.

Not speaking on Christopher's behalf, but one of the ongoing questions at GT is whether or not we should make more and more levels of course work or not. That honestly depends on the demand. There are Guitar Fundamentals 1 and 2, Rock Guitar 1 and 2, Blues 1 and 2, and Country 1 and 2. It is after doing those courses that is somewhat assumed that you go through the site and further find tutorials that resonate within your interests and further work to develop your skills.

If you feel it would be better to have more courses, than that can be considered. We really take what everyone says in this forum very seriously and if the demand is there; we will work to meet it. What courses would you like to see continued?

Originally Posted by: frankht
I looked at the lessons you linked below and I noticed that some of them are not part of a particular course.[/quote]
There are three categories of lessons on the site.

1. Course lessons (GF1&2, Blues, Rock, Country)
2. Songs
3. Catalog

Essentially, everything that doesn't fit into a course or a song is in the catalog category. You can find a list of of all the tutorials, including the catalog material here:

http://www.guitartricks.com/tutorials.php
[QUOTE=frankht]
... how do we know when to incorporate them into our studies?

This is a great question. :)

The search function on the site works pretty well, and the page with all the tutorials shows everything available. But that assumes you already know what you are looking for. And if you are a student, that is obviously not always the case.

For now the best thing to do is simply ask an instructor where to find something once you have some specific skill, knowledge or goal in mind to learn. For example, the lessons I linked are related to a list of mine that broadly deal with Learning To Play Lead Guitar.

Hope that helps. Best of success!

No i have not done them yet, Chris (those lessons) only the first 2 you linked.

Iv made it to the 3 one, it's strange, my right hand seems to have some problems on that particular lick, normally i learn that kind of stuff pretty easy :confused:

But i will keep at it untill i get it down.

When should i consider myself done with those lessons anyway? When i get the concept or when i both get the concept and speed?

I got the concept down, but the speed and confidence is not there just yet...

Originally Posted by: Douglas ShowalterIf you feel it would be better to have more courses, than that can be considered. We really take what everyone says in this forum very seriously and if the demand is there; we will work to meet it. What courses would you like to see continued?

Douglas, one of the things that really sold me on GT was the manner in which the lessons were structured. The lesson plans are professionally laid out and very well presented. I was also impressed with the way there were the basics for everyone then different genres to advance to, that way you get what you need to start then are able to move into what interest you without getting bogged down with lessons of no interest.

So far I haven't seen anything that I would want to change or add. My problem was where to find certain lessons I've seen that weren't part of a particular course, I think I just need to educate myself more on navigating the site.

I appreciate your willingness to help though. That's one of the things that sets this site apart from all the rest.

Have a Good New Years.

Originally Posted by: CSchlegel
For now the best thing to do is simply ask an instructor where to find something once you have some specific skill, knowledge or goal in mind to learn. For example, the lessons I linked are related to a list of mine that broadly deal with Learning To Play Lead Guitar.

Hope that helps. Best of success!

Thanks Chris that helps a lot.

I think for now the best thing for me to do is to finish GF2 then move on to the Blues Course. If I do have any specific questions there are no doubts in my mind I can find an answer on this site.

Have a safe New Years.