Hey, Andrew - good job on breaking this down into theory. Although many rock musicians will argue that there's no formula to playing with feeling, there are solid theoretical principles behind why one song/solo/passage of a piece will strike us and another will not affect us at all.

I also liked your explanation of how resolution plays an important role.

So, whereas you obviously can't sit down, take a song and run a mathematical formula to produce the best solo for that song, a good solo will have made use of certain aspects of music theory, whether the guitarist is aware of it or not.

This is almost getting me started in a discussion of how people like Beethoven or Mozart were masters of theory, not slaves of it. It's almost as if they "invented" theory to suit their needs and purposes. Anyways, that's off-topic.