I need advice to help me with playing guitar solos......

[Buddy J.B.]

How do they do that? I know scales but when I try to play a solo, they sound so lame.... what got you better? It's my goal to be a lead guitarist. Please help needed here!

[Genesis]

You have to be real good to improvise solos. That means practice, practice till u've got ur scales cold. However, here's a tip: Learn the arpeggio patterns for major, minor, diminished etc. and this'll give u some idea of following a chord progression. 

[makane]

PRACTICE
that's pretty much it.

[Aero]

I'd choose to pick a damn good gutiar teacher...

If you learn stuffs with a teacher, won't be easy at all... but if you learn by your own, and you learn some wrong stuffs, to correct those errors will be double hard even with a teacher.

[makane]

I'd choose to pick a damn good gutiar teacher...

If you learn stuffs with a teacher, won't be easy at all... but if you learn by your own, and you learn some wrong stuffs, to correct those errors will be double hard even with a teacher.

But when you learn on your own, you also get your own unique sound.

[Aero]

I'd choose to pick a damn good gutiar teacher...

If you learn stuffs with a teacher, won't be easy at all... but if you learn by your own, and you learn some wrong stuffs, to correct those errors will be double hard even with a teacher.

But when you learn on your own, you also get your own unique sound.

wrong, you can get an unique song even if you go to a teacher... even slash did study in a music school with tracii guns.

If you learn some stuffs in a wrong way, you will be very very limited in speed and technique skills...

[conny]

Knowing the scales inside out only helps to communicate with other musicians. No theory knowledge will stretch your fingers, write you a solo or express emotion for you. That's your job. You will hear what fits and make sense and what doesn't. Just use your ears. Make yourself a guide track with a nice rhythm guitar. And then just play, see what happens, see what works.

[Sakib]

listen 2 ur influence's solos in more detail. If u like their style, do a bit of a cut and paste thing and do similarly. like i try n blend in Pearl Jam, GN'R, Alice Cooper, Black sabbath, maiden and other similar influences in my solo. NOT COPYING THO

[D]

Knowing the scales inside out only helps to communicate with other musicians. No theory knowledge will stretch your fingers, write you a solo or express emotion for you. That's your job. You will hear what fits and make sense and what doesn't. Just use your ears. Make yourself a guide track with a nice rhythm guitar. And then just play, see what happens, see what works.

Conny is dead on

U gotta feel it dude

its gotta just pour out of your soul.

[AdZ]

Knowing the scales also helps in doing more complicated interesting runs that don't result in you sounding like the same regurgitated crap over and over again.


But theory's for losers, of course.

[providman]

Knowing the scales inside out only helps to communicate with other musicians. No theory knowledge will stretch your fingers, write you a solo or express emotion for you. That's your job. You will hear what fits and make sense and what doesn't. Just use your ears. Make yourself a guide track with a nice rhythm guitar. And then just play, see what happens, see what works.

Conny is dead on

U gotta feel it dude

its gotta just pour out of your soul.

I couldn't disagree more with both of you. Knowing scales doesn't mean you have to sit there & play scales when you're soloing, but you have to know what notes to play & what notes not to play, within the context of what you're playing or soloing to, otherwise, you'll be hitting bum notes left & right, & you'll sound like hell. OK, so if you're composing a solo you can just keep throwing notes out there & see what works & what doesn't, but that ain't gonna do you any good if you're playing live & jamming and/or improvising, & anyway, there's nothing wrong with knowing scales & theory, no harm can ever come of it, it can only make you a better musician. Playing live is where it's at, as far as I'm concerned, & a big part of our(my band's) music is improvisation, & to be able to improvise live in front of a crowd & not have them think you suck or are boring requires a great deal of musical knowledge and, yes, knowledge of scales.

[conny]

Knowing the scales inside out only helps to communicate with other musicians. No theory knowledge will stretch your fingers, write you a solo or express emotion for you. That's your job. You will hear what fits and make sense and what doesn't. Just use your ears. Make yourself a guide track with a nice rhythm guitar. And then just play, see what happens, see what works.

Conny is dead on

U gotta feel it dude

its gotta just pour out of your soul.

I couldn't disagree more with both of you. Knowing scales doesn't mean you have to sit there & play scales when you're soloing, but you have to know what notes to play & what notes not to play, within the context of what you're playing or soloing to, otherwise, you'll be hitting bum notes left & right, & you'll sound like hell. OK, so if you're composing a solo you can just keep throwing notes out there & see what works & what doesn't, but that ain't gonna do you any good if you're playing live & jamming and/or improvising, & anyway, there's nothing wrong with knowing scales & theory, no harm can ever come of it, it can only make you a better musician. Playing live is where it's at, as far as I'm concerned, & a big part of our(my band's) music is improvisation, & to be able to improvise live in front of a crowd & not have them think you suck or are boring requires a great deal of musical knowledge and, yes, knowledge of scales.

At the end of the day, there is no golden recipe, each one has to find his/her very own approach to music and then just go for that. The real good stuff never came from people who did it how everyone else was doing it. I'm not saying you can do better without the theory, but you can do just as good without it. It just depends on if YOU need it or not. If you just rely on theory when composing, the result will be that mathemathical "music by numbers" bullshit.

I've learned music theory in the past three years, and it was one hell of a painful lesson, because I've been playing guitar for years BEFORE learning the theory. The only thing I got out of it was that I can now explain what I mean both in normal language (= not music) and on the paper (read/write music). That helps a lot, but in no way does it have any impact on how I understand or more importantly FEEL and create the music.

Maybe I just have perfect hearing and that's why I could play before, I don't know, but I tell you I see no difference in my playing skills or composing or anything. For me it's never been "play in this or that key, this or that scale", for me it was always "play that rainbow bridge, that setting sun, the rain, that lonely lady one over there", know what I mean? That's what's on my mind, and no theory in the world will bring it to my hands or your ears ever. Hard to explain...

[Thorazine Shuffle]

It's Rock in Roll.  It's about rebellion.  hell, look at Neil Young.  His solos are for shit, but yet you can remember them.  If the person listening to your tune can "feel" the solo, then you got it.  Put your heart into it.

 

[Oddy]

Knowing the scales inside out only helps to communicate with other musicians. No theory knowledge will stretch your fingers, write you a solo or express emotion for you. That's your job. You will hear what fits and make sense and what doesn't. Just use your ears. Make yourself a guide track with a nice rhythm guitar. And then just play, see what happens, see what works.

Conny is dead on

U gotta feel it dude

its gotta just pour out of your soul.

I couldn't disagree more with both of you. Knowing scales doesn't mean you have to sit there & play scales when you're soloing, but you have to know what notes to play & what notes not to play, within the context of what you're playing or soloing to, otherwise, you'll be hitting bum notes left & right, & you'll sound like hell. OK, so if you're composing a solo you can just keep throwing notes out there & see what works & what doesn't, but that ain't gonna do you any good if you're playing live & jamming and/or improvising, & anyway, there's nothing wrong with knowing scales & theory, no harm can ever come of it, it can only make you a better musician. Playing live is where it's at, as far as I'm concerned, & a big part of our(my band's) music is improvisation, & to be able to improvise live in front of a crowd & not have them think you suck or are boring requires a great deal of musical knowledge and, yes, knowledge of scales.

At the end of the day, there is no golden recipe, each one has to find his/her very own approach to music and then just go for that. The real good stuff never came from people who did it how everyone else was doing it. I'm not saying you can do better without the theory, but you can do just as good without it. It just depends on if YOU need it or not. If you just rely on theory when composing, the result will be that mathemathical "music by numbers" bullshit.

I've learned music theory in the past three years, and it was one hell of a painful lesson, because I've been playing guitar for years BEFORE learning the theory. The only thing I got out of it was that I can now explain what I mean both in normal language (= not music) and on the paper (read/write music). That helps a lot, but in no way does it have any impact on how I understand or more importantly FEEL and create the music.

Maybe I just have perfect hearing and that's why I could play before, I don't know, but I tell you I see no difference in my playing skills or composing or anything. For me it's never been "play in this or that key, this or that scale", for me it was always "play that rainbow bridge, that setting sun, the rain, that lonely lady one over there", know what I mean? That's what's on my mind, and no theory in the world will bring it to my hands or your ears ever. Hard to explain...

why do some people look down on learning theory so much. like its a virus or something. yeah all the big guitar players claim to know no theory but really whether they like to admit it or not........they know what note will sound good.......they know if a certain chord is playing they'll know where on the neck to play a lead line or play another voicing. They know their theory.......but not in the traditional way.

i disagree with D and conny, i would advise everyone to learn theory. You can be capable of what guitars players do that i said above in no time. You'll know what notes to hit where.......you'll learn how to express what you want better.

There's a reason why some notes sound better than others. Some carry more emotional weighting some create tension. Knowledge of this will help craft a better solo. If you figure it out yourself.........well congratulations whether u like it or not you know some theory. But you could have figured it out a lot quicker had if you know theory in the first place.

here try this. record yourself strumming on a g major chord for ages. then play it back and along the g string just chromatically move up one note at a time the whole octave playing along to it. You'll hear how all 12 notes sound in relation to a chord....some will sound awful to you and some will sound great.

ah i have a ripping hangover im in no mood to discuss this.......i'll cut it short here

[*Izzy*]

Knowledge wrecks creativity, theory wrecks guitarists?

[purplehaze1988]

Oddy, the reason i tihnk people dont want to learn theoryy (apart from the effort of course) is that we see people like tool fans, who ever time they hear a new song tell oyu what time signature, key etc its in, and for those of us who like to just play rock n roll, we dont give a flying fuck.

sure, it does have its advantages, but for many people it takes control, and they stop playing from the heart, opting for "developing" their music instead.

[D]

I know theory, I studied it in school and I know the scales, the theory all that, Im just saying when u are listening to a rhythm guitar riff and tryin to solo, u cant go


"ok this song is in E, So i gotta go E,F#,G#,A,B,C#,D#,E

it helps to play in key but U gotta be able to do a lot more than that.

For instance if u are playing in E, U dont necessarily have to solo in E because E is in so many different scales.

basically, I improvise my solos, I listen, pick out what kicks ass and keep it and then eliminate what sucks.

I take what kicked ass and build on it with another phrase.

pretty soon i have a kick ass solo to lay down on my track.

Nothing wrong with learning all u can about guitar and music, but if u dont have the ability to convey emotion through your fingers, all the theory in the world wont help.

Many singers can sing a high C, but if Axl hits a high C and Joel Madden From Good Charlotte hits a High C, trust me, there will be a huge huge difference.

Music is more than just notes.

[Thorazine Shuffle]

Knowledge wrecks creativity, theory wrecks guitarists?

In most instances, yes.  But a guitar player, like say Jeff Beck, who uses both, then that makes for a dangerous guitar player.  It's kinda like using the darkside and the Jedi side to the fullest abilities.

[Genesis]

Theory is your foundation. It's on this that u build ur creativity.   

basically, I improvise my solos, I listen, pick out what kicks ass and keep it and then eliminate what sucks.

That's fine if ur recording a song in a studio. But if ur playing live, u don't have time to test which notes sound right and which don't. That's what theory is for: So u know what will sound good and what won't. Of course, for good guitarists, creativity comes from taking these notes and playing them anyway they like... and if u're really good u'll know which notes sound good with a song, even if they aren't from the same scale...

Nothing wrong with learning all u can about guitar and music, but if u dont have the ability to convey emotion through your fingers, all the theory in the world wont help.

I think we all agree that just learning theory sucks if u aren't able to convey your emotions through ur music.

[Slipdisc]

Knowledge wrecks creativity, theory wrecks guitarists?

In most instances, yes.? But a guitar player, like say Jeff Beck, who uses both, then that makes for a dangerous guitar player.? It's kinda like using the darkside and the Jedi side to the fullest abilities.

I completely agree, very well put!

Some of the greatest players ever, certainly know their theory...

It's very much possible to be a good player without ever having studied theory, but once you add theory to the equation a good player becomes a complete player.

This is also a great way of explaining it, I once read somewhere:

"Music theory when related to the guitar can be like being stranded on a tropical island in the middle of nowhere. The view that you currently are accustomed to may be nice, but without the ability to leave where you're at, you will never know how much better it can be"

-PEACE-