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I have been practicing both the pentatonic (major and minor) scale and the major scales for about 2 years for soloing purposes. Till now, I am not able to put together a good melody. That means, my notes don’t sound musical. Please advise me on the art or science on making a good melody when soloing. In fact, I can select the key to play in but still my solo doesn’t sound musical. What am I doing wrong? Please help!
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This is a difficult one to answer because once you get past the knowledge of the scales (which it sounds like you’re at), your ear / gut start playing a major role in playing a solo, and to be honest, it’s all about emulating what you’ve heard others do. I like to make the analogy that playing guitar solos (or any instrument solo for that matter) is a lot like talking. In the beginning, you have to learn your ABCs, then how to read and spell simple words, and over time, you’re able to create sentences, and improv sentences on the fly when you speak. That’s why learning particular licks are so important with soloing, think of those licks like words. If you learn enough words, you can start to make sentences. A lot of the way we talk (our dialect, the way we phrase things, etc.. are a direct influence of our surroundings and what we’ve heard) – so playing a solo isn’t really that different.
For me it all started with Albert King. I was able to figure out a few of his licks and could apply them to other songs… phrasing them the way that he would.. then over time I started learning licks from lots of other artists and eventually ended up with my own style. So now when I approach a solo, there are certain phrases that I know I can go to and will use… no matter what the song. Does that makes sense?
Not to be all salesy, but the blues guitar lesson course that I have for sale teaches you the background as well as those 43 different licks (words) that you can use. They are repeatable licks as well, meaning you can really use them at any point in the song and they’ll work (for the most part) – so think of them as legos that you can stack however you like. If you don’t feel like buying that course, I also have lots of free licks available as well, BB King, Clapton, Robert Cray, etc. – Hope that helps.
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Brian, do you mind if I offer some advice?
MK, instead of trying to freestyle a melody over jamtrack/song, try learning some licks. Say you have three or four that you have down really good. Then play those licks and don’t be afraid to repeat a lick or a section of the lick.
Then experiment with those licks by changing speed or what note you come in on (think of it this way, it’s the spaces between the notes that gives you a sound). Then experiment by picking some notes, sliding into others, and/or hammer on pull offs. A technique I like to use is to frame a note…if I’m steering towards a certain note that I want to resolve at I’ll frame it with notes either side to build tension before the resolve.
Once you can do that, start looking where else on the fret board you can play those licks and experiment with those. Let your ear be your guide on what sounds good over a chord progression.
Mistakes are good, cherish them. That’s how you learn and if you’re not making mistakes you’re not pushing your boundaries
Hope this helps some… -
Very well said Darby. Yes I totally agree with the mistakes are good bit. Don’t expect a solo to come out perfect.. they rarely ever do… I’d say that 95% of the solos I play even now have plenty of mistakes in them.. but I love making them up on the fly so that’s to somewhat expected I guess. Back to the words / sentences analogy.. making a mistake is similar to when you say “ummmm” while you’re talking. It’s sort of your brains way of figuring out where to go next.. and that same thing happens when soloing (unless you’re Steve Ray Vaughn) 🙂
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