- This topic has 7 replies, 4 voices, and was last updated 16 hours, 23 minutes ago by
.
-
Posts
-
-
Hello everyone,
Very new to all this, I’m 62 yrs old and just starting to solo. I hate the normal chords, they work around the bonfire in my opinion, but it’s just not me.
Been trying to follow Brian’s lesson – LEG026, finding it a bit tricky. Any thoughts on how to get started with soloing?
My goal is to play Brothers in Arms, if anyone can point me in the right direction, you’ll have a friend for life.
Anyway, thought I would have a go at using the forum, also my first time. Apologies if it’s all wrong.
Thanks for a great site for what I have seen so far.
Dave S.
-
No matter what song you want to play, the correct way forward is to fill in all the musical blind spots that you currently have. It’s going to take some time going through multiple lessons and just applying the things you learn on a regular basis.
There are many lessons on the site, including the theory course, caged course, and the lead guitar course. You can start going through those courses to get up to speed quicker, or just work through any lessons that interest you.
Your only two years older than me, so you have plenty of time to reach your goal in a reasonable amount of time.
I added you as a friend, so you can ask me about any questions you have directly, and I will help you out. I’ll take a look at LEG026, but what problems are you running into specifically?
EP311 is a much better starting place if you want to get going soloing with the easiest to understand parameters. That’s my recommended starting place.
Root note patterns >>> CAGED shapes >>> TRIAD'S. Just put in the work and watch your guitar skills soar.
-
Hi Michael,
You’re my first ever reply to my first ever forum submission, exciting stuff.
Thanks for the info in any case. I shall certainly have a look at the lesson EP311.
Thanks also for the friendship, I have to work that out too. A lot to learn, I thought all this learning stuff would be behind me. How wrong was I?
Regarding the problems, I have never been schooled in the art of guitar, it is all me.
The soloing scales scare me but I know I have to learn them one day if I want to achieve my goal. I guess I just don’t know where to start.
Gonna start with EP311 and see how I get on.
-
-
-
Hi Richard,
Thanks for the reply. Been playing on and off for the last 10 years or so, can play stuff like rocking in the free world, summer of 69 etc.
To be honest though, playing chords like that bores me and I want to progress to playing solo like the BB’s, Knopflers of the world.
Shall definately have a look at the LEG022.
-
-
Hi David, welcome!
Easiest first step is learning those pentatonic scales. You can do what we call “playing in the key,” meaning you pick one scale in the key of the song and follow that same pattern the whole way. Works best for blues and other simpler chord progressions. There’s a lead guitar course in the MYCOURSES tab, and plenty of lessons on pentatonic (you can filter search tabs by tagged keywords, or use your own search keywords.)
Next stop is learning CAGED shapes, and doing what we call “playing the changes.” Meaning, you change your pattern accordingly as the chord changes in the song. Again, a CAGED course in the my courses menu, and tons of lessons on this topic.
The material here is non-linear, so your best bet is to poke around and make a list of lessons that you want to try, that don’t seem too daunting.
Best of luck!
-
Thanks Alan,
It seems I have a lot of learning to do to achieve my goal.
Already getting some useful tips on here on where to start, so thanks to you and the other guys.
I now have somewhere I can start as it is all very daunting and I’m not getting any younger.
Plus with your input as well. A lot of homework coming my way.
-
-
I was a bit overwhelmed at first too, but it all gets worked out over time spent absorbing each lesson or bit of advice. Even though I’m am heavily into theory knowledge now, it wasn’t always like that. In fact I knew little to none of it except to form and play barre chords and open chords and play decent rhythm. All of the soloing stuff was a mystery and it took a while to learn the language of music and trust the process. So that’s normal to feel that way.
Do not feel like you have to learn it all right away. The lessons we pointed out are no theory lessons. Just learn where a box pattern of notes are and start playing. The ability to play just a few notes well and in time is priceless. Even then, you might still feel like your technical skill to play those few notes isn’t where you want it to be. That’s normal at first. No one starts out highly skilled, but the ones who work at this on a consistent basis eventually do start to play well.
What I did was keep notes on each lesson or thing I was working on, and wrote down all the things that didn’t make sense at the time or were concerns that I had. Then I made it a goal to figure out a solution. Sometimes it’s as easy as asking on the forum here, but other times, it’s going to be something that just has to be born out of time spent with your instrument.
The goal of “I want to be able to solo on such and such song.” is not a reasonable short term goal to set. It’s not specific enough. There are many elements that make up an ability to improvise. The problem is, you don’t know what those elements are yet. It gets revealed over time spent going through the various lessons.
Goal number one should be learning a few simple patterns, then get good at using those patterns to make music in time and with good rhythm. Use an online metronome, drum track, or backing track and just play some simple musical phrases in time to the beat. The phrases do not have to match exactly what Brian plays, everything can be simplified and played at your current skill level.
BTW, that backing track in EP311 has key changes in it. But you end up playing the same block of notes when it switches from A to C and they take on a completely different sound just because the chords underneath have changed. No need to understand why at the moment, just trust that it works and sounds great in this scenario.
It doesn’t hurt to work on your rhythm playing skills as well. A lot of times, I will just play rhythm only on a new song and make sure I know how the progression works and feels. If you can get a good groove with simple rhythm parts first, it makes the soloing stuff much easier because a similar groove is used during the solo parts, just playing individual notes instead of chords.
If you click on the My Account link up top, there is a place where you can fill out your profile. That helps others get an idea what your playing history is, what kind of guitars and equipment you have, and any musical influences.
Root note patterns >>> CAGED shapes >>> TRIAD'S. Just put in the work and watch your guitar skills soar.
-
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
