when you are soloing, which do you find that you do most:
A) solo over the progression
or
B) solo over the chords

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63supro
"The good thing is in a club situation, most of the patrons are trashed and really can't tell the difference."

When I write a solo, I usually will play something fairly basic along with the chords of the song. And then embellish it with different notes or phrases altogether. It's all about the sound for me; I use the technicalities to point me in the right direction and then the rest will fall into place. Some songs stay real basic as written and others end up completely in a different direction. I can typically hear where i want a solo to go, but playing it can be a different story sometimes.

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What I like to do is find the chorus melody and use it as a hook in the solo. Keep hammering the hook home, broken up by bits of expression inbetween.

Or if there is no chorus in the solo, no way to get it in. Imagine a vocal line, play it on my guitar, work around that.

Forget that playing to chord progressions mate. It is important to be able to do it, cos with blues stuff you're restricted as to where you can go. G phrygian is no good over a major keyed blues for example. Though it can work great in a minor blues, if you're clever. Either way you end up stuck in boxes, big yawn.

So don't worry about it, theres a easy answer.
1; Find what you like about the lyrics, the bit everyone sings. 2; Work out how you want to voice that on the guitar. 3; Get it in key.
4; Make a great solo that people can whistle. Easy (yeah right!)

Even when you listen to the real blues masters a lot of em unwittingly employ that technique. One of the reasons I think some pop act guitarists are a hell of a lot better than some of the supposed greats.

If you think about it, country guitarists do it a lot too. Especialy with country style slide guitar.

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No no and no

Sounds kinda like BB King style right there. A huge part of his playing ends up with the melody not necessarily being right at the forefront of the solo/riff, but 9 of 10 times it'll be there if you listen.

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Like I said Tim, the difference between a good guitarist and a legendary artist.

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No no and no

to be honest, i dont write that much solo's. i make them up on the spot, go wherever the music takes me. its way better than playing a solo written on a sheet IMO

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riley

Niki's post was a good one.
there's lots of different types of solos,in a song like a pop or country song where you get a short slot to say your thing,you better make it sound right in line with the lyrics and chorus,mixing what you want from both...in a 12 bar blues song most guys take 24 bars but most repeat themselves,sadly,...in that type of song you need to think of what you would want to hear someone sing and go from there and let your guitar imitate the voice as much as possible.
In a jam band type thing,well,that's where guys really get boring fast,few can do it well,but you have to build your solo so it has a beginning,middle and end.......if you're soloing over something like "In Memory of Elizabeth Reed" by the Allman Brothers,you should have a lot of experience or you will put somebody to sleep,it's a simple progression and tough song to sound right....listening to jazz horn players for years will help you improvise in the right groove.
Bottom line...everybody wants to solo,not many can do it very well,they just run up and down the scales and think that's all there is to it.

Quoted in full - that is SUCH a good post. Nothing to add.

I know it's a gear site, but it wouldn't hurt to talk about actual music a bit more round here...

Cheers - C

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Not the site it used to be...........

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

Amen to that. No problem at all, we can change that by posting a music type of topics.

Back to the topic, I was not sure how to explain what I do but luckily, Niki sums it up well.

does this mean im forgiven for my fondness of the pignose, and getting 2 posts shut down by posting about a kid getting pepper sprayed, and using the curse word d@mn?

oh and my who was bigger stones/beatles and my BB King/Jimmy Vaughn posts?

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63supro
"The good thing is in a club situation, most of the patrons are trashed and really can't tell the difference."

Huh? What's this about pepper spray?

And as far as I'm aware only Clint Eastwood is UNforgiven.

Regarding Pignoses: you may be confusing me for others. I have nothing against those amps in the slightest. I was only pulling your leg because couldn't help noticing that the first three pages of the Super-Sonic thread seemed to be about how a 100 watt gigging rig isn't a one watt practice amp. Which I guess is nothing more than the truth.

It's all good clean fun!

Cheers - C

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it was tounge in cheek mr ceri.
i know you well enough to know when your yankin my chain

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63supro
"The good thing is in a club situation, most of the patrons are trashed and really can't tell the difference."

That's a good question. I wish I had some technical answer for it. I'm pretty much musically illiterate. I never learned theory, and I don't know a whole lot about the chords I use sometimes. Is it a 7th? 9th? 5th? Heck, I don't know. It just sounds good.

My whole life I've played by feeling. I listen to what I'm working with. Like Niki pointed out, I imagine my guitar as a voice. Like I'm playing 6-vocal cords. Trust your ears, and make sure what you're playing doesn't sound out of place.

I just got through starting to write one last night for our upcoming EP.

Here's a link if you wanna listen:

http://www.bandmix.com/shredd6/

This particular song has a very basic 3-power chord progression. I just listened to it, noodled around a little, and let the ideas grow for it. This is still in it's 1st rough stage.

Very useful to have a drum machine and a recording device ( I used an Alesis Multimix-8).

I just plugged my guitar right in the board clean for the rhythm. Then used my Metal End distortion pedal straight into the board. Not looking for the utmost quality sound. Just a way to loop and play to it. Then I record the solo twice to make sure I have it down. In this track the solo is done 4-times in the same track. Then the harmony.

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hmmm... a little of both I guess? I been trying to work on more melodic soloing, instead of just doing a whole bunch of neat tricks and stuff...

I learned from the CAGE concept, and I do a lot of bluesy soloing and scale runs. I'm going to start working on arpeggios inside chords and more chordial stuff.

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