Title: How To Improvise a Guitar Solo
Tags: how to improvise guitar solo
Blog Entry: Ever wonder how your favourite guitarists come up with amazing and unique solo lines on the spot? Ever wonder how these lines or licks fit so well in the songs, despite the fact that they are totally spontaneous? The answer is simple. All of these amazing players have mastered one thing: the art of improvisation. While this is not an easy skill to master, it is extremely helpful, as learning to improvise not only sharpens your skills, it allows you use all you have learned in a real life situation. Improvising also expands your creativity and vastly boosts your imagination. Learning to improvise is crucial for you to find your own voice on the guitar, and once you do you will have opened up a whole new dimension and added an amazing new tool to your arsenal. Below you will find the steps to begin your journey to becoming a master of guitar. Steps Learn scales. You don't have to learn them all(although it would help), but at least learn the pentatonic scales (major and minor) in all five positions, and try to learn the blues scale (the minor pentatonic with a b5). Once you have mastered these basic scales and can play them comfortably in all positions, download simple bluesy backing tracks off websites such as guitarbt.com and try and improvise over them. Don't worry about playing fast, just try create simple melodies at first. If you can't download these backing tracks for some reason just create a simple loop of an I-IV-V chord progression. For example in the key of Am the chords would be A, D and E. When you are able to improvise and create decent melodies using these scales it is time to learn new modes to spice up your playing. Try to learn all of the modes--major and minor--and master them. Each one has an amazing characteristic or voice of its own that will add new colors to your palette and really spice up your solos. For example, the Phrygian mode sounds dark and sad, whereas the Lydian mode is more relaxing and dreamy. Once you have mastered these modes, mix them with your blues and pentatonic scales for the best effect. Try making melodies and jamming over backing tracks. Mixing all of these scales will really bring a sense of uniqueness to your playing. Perhaps most importantly, always know what the rest of the band will be playing. You will need to know what chords you will be improvising or playing your solo over: in order to fully stand out your solo has to complement them. Every chord is different, each chord has different intervals that give its distinct character and make it sound the way it does. Not all scales will sound right with every chord--this is why scales were stressed so much in the earlier steps. Know what sounds good with what. Be a balanced player! Knowing all these chords is great, but you must remember that rhythm counts, too. Have a good feel for the time, and you should be fine. And always remember that clean and slow playing is definitely better than sloppy fast playing. Super-fast jams are fun to listen to, but sometimes slow can sound cool, too. Play what you are sure you can play well. Pay attention to phrasing and style. Play the notes according to the feel of the song. For example, if it is a ballad, be more subtle and use more legato, gentle technique. If it's up tempo or a heavy song use more aggressive, staccato playing. How you hit your notes are as important as what notes you play. Hitting the same note on different parts of the string or plucking it using the fingers instead of the plectrum can also drastically change the way the note is delivered. Different muting techniques, be it left or right hand, also change the way your solo sounds. In the end, improvising is not about showing off your notes-per-second. Its about making your guitar speak and enhancing the quality of the song. Learn how to do artificial, natural, and pinched harmonics on the guitar and slowly incorporate them into your playing, this will really make your improvised solos stand out, and the audience will remember you. Lastly, develop your own sound. Feel free to be inspired by other players, but by all means do not copy them. If all else fails, pentatonic scale is generally your best Plan B. Tips Practice, Patience and Perseverance are key to developing any guitar technique. Improvising is no different. Develop your own identity through your playing. Watch closely how other players improvise to get a better grasp on the technique. Jam with people who are better than you. Don't be afraid or intimidated, just play from your heart and be sincere, you can't go wrong. A good knowledge of basic music theory helps. Never play the same thing twice, always try develop new ideas. Start your solo with longer notes and more melodic passages before playing speedy and complex passages, music is about melody, it's not a race, plus the audience will remember your improvised solo better. You don't always have to stick to scales. Sometimes it is good to use "outside" notes. Just make sure you blend them in with the root notes, so they don't sound discordant with the rest of the passage. This applies especially to chromatic passages or lines. Be confident and when improvising and don't think too much. Let your ideas flow. The audience always knows when something is or isn't natural. NEVER BE DISCOURAGED. EVER. If your guitar has a Floyd Rose style floating tremolo bridge learn how to use it. The whammy bar can literally make your your guitar sound as if its really speaking thus learning how to master it could be another new strength in your already vast repertoire of tricks. Also try incorporating arpeggios in to your playing as well.Two handed techniques are also a welcomed addition. Just remember to apply whatever you have learned immediately. Its pointless learning crazy licks, scales, arpeggios, or tapping sequences if you don't know how to use them. Warnings If you master the art of improvisation, you have taken one step closer to becoming a guitar god, and this means people will start bothering you and asking you how you do it, you will get more attention, especially from the opposite sex. So advance at your own risk! To help get you going in the comfort of your own home click here now! Article provided by wikiHow , a wiki how-to manual. Please edit this article and find author credits at the original wikiHow article on How to Improvise a Guitar Solo . All content on wikiHow can be shared under a Creative Commons license
VIEW FULL VERSION: Link