Me and a couple of fellers at work have a little band thing going. We recorded one track and well into the second. I just laid down a solo yesterday and was actually a little pleased. I really don't consider myself that good of a player and solos always kind of scared the crap out of me but i really wanted to try and do a nice job.

I basically figured out the scale i needed to work off of and tried to build it a little at a time so not to fall into my pet peeve trap of faking it through a vertical pentatonic pattern... I ramble on here but my question is how do you guys work out your solos if that's your thing.

I'd also like to learn to incorporate modes... is there a good guideline to know when to use what mode for a certain mood?

Way too technical for me.

I just play what I feel at the moment. Makes it hard to duplicate sometimes, but that's my style. If I try to work it out in advance, it sounds too methodical and soulless.

Hi captainc: a serious answer - I go for a long (long) walk, get the music in my head and then try to hear solo passages over it. I turn it around and around, try out different things, go off on tangents, come back to the theme... It's a long walk!

The trick then is to try and hold what I came up with in my head long enough to get home and start finding a way to play it on the instrument. That last is where I usually come unstuck. Technically fabulous I ain't.

There is a point to all this. Brian May said he approached things in a similar way, because if you try and compose a solo with the guitar in your hand your fingers just resort to the same old same old. I think that's along the same lines as what you said about trying not to "fall into... [the] trap of faking it through a vertical pentatonic pattern". Those patterns are the things our fingers know and will go on churning out endlessly if we let them.

Nothing more dull than listening to someone just stitching together all the flashy licks they know. There is a reason guitarists such as Brian May and Dave Gilmour so often top lists of favorite ever guitar solos, and that is because though they may not be as technically adept as EVH, Satriani and others their playing is lead by the melody - and you achieve that by playing it with your musical mind, not your fingers.

Does any of that make sense?

Sounds good in theory - damn it's a struggle in real life though!

Oh, also I whistle a lot while on that walk. Lil Hardin said she seldom heard Louis Armstrong play anything on his trumpet she hadn't heard him whistling first. If you can't whistle it, it probably isn't very interesting - musically speaking.

Cheers - C

Total sense... i fully agree. What i ended up doing was sort of just that. I'd record a bit and once i found my self a bit stuck, rather than force it, i'd go back to my desk (we have the luxury of having access to recording gear right here at work) and just sort of think about the music in my head and go back in to the studio and work it out on the neck. Gilmour is my favorite guitarist and i have read that he works in a similar fashion where he pieces solos together til he gets what he's looking for... note: i am NO David Gilmour by any stretch.

Hi captainc,

My approach is based on inspiration from a groove of a song. I base my solo on the rhythmic part of the song and use chord progression to guide me to the notes. I usually ended up hitting a lot of root and 5th in my improv.

Interesting what Ceri mentioned, I never focused on melody. Gotta try that.

one word......improv

one word......improv

Great answer Ceri!

If you can't hear it in your head, you can't play it on guitar.

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I use the "no guitar in hand" approach as well for the hooks or theme and fill in around that with the guitar in hand.

I too have to hear it in my head first.A hand recorder is a help to me. I'll sing the solo as I go..until I'm happy with it........... Mike

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The blues ain't nothin but a good man feelin bad.

what ceri said.

seriously, i shoot from the hip. sometimes i hit. sometimes i don't.

i agree, it's scary sometimes. someday..............

Like walking a tightrope with no safety net. You have to find ways to make it work...or else...

But playing within the chord structure leaves little that can go wrong.

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Being able to play and enjoy music is a gift that's often taken for granted.

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Ceri has the best approach ... clear your head in one way or another. I do something totally unrelated to music (like dishes or anything else like that) and then ideas form on their own. A lot of times, I end up hearing something classical so then I can break that down in several ways for the guitar and bass.

Back when (when I could still read/write decently), I'd try to get down on paper at least an outline of what I'd come up with. Nowadays, thanks to those neat little digital recorders, I'll play out ... but not edit ... my ideas in a "stream of consciousness" style.

From there, I might let others listen to the variations I came up with. Or I may work them down into a semi-finished single idea. But the key is not to try to force your way to this point from the beginning.