Labels: Guitar
Tips on playing guitar solo
Guitar solos revolve around the improvisation of scales. Hence, knowing the scales very well will help you in learning guitar solo. I feel that the major, minor, harmonic and pentatonic scales are the most useful. Not only does it increase your overall movement, it also makes sure you use the correct fingering. Of course another important way to master guitar solos is to practice. The more you practice, the better you get, it is the law of nature.
Soloing is more than just a couple of scales, and patterns. It is used to express feelings. The pentatonic scales give a rather sad feeling. So, if one is looking to make a sad solo, he or she can improvise on one of the pentatonic scales.
I am going to give you an example, the Harmonic Minor Scale and the pentatonic minor; both are awesome and unique scales. Gary Moore used the Harmonic minor scale for blues sound, in the song 'I still got the Blues'. Hopefully, you can clearly see that solo are improvisation of scales.
If you don't improve your soloing with a bend, a pull-off, etc. Your solo may still sound like a scale. So what can you do in order to play a good solo?? First of all, you must know the key of the song. Mostly the key of a song is the first note you start playing on it. Always make use of techniques like bending, tapping and such to add colors to your solo. Take a look at dragon force ‘inside the winter storm’ or practically and dragon force songs, played by Herman Li, you will realize that his solo is filled with different techniques such as power chords, sliding, tapping and palm muting.
So, the bottom line is, master your scales before learning any guitar solo. Then, try to improve the solo using various types of guitar techniques.
Any other consideration should be off the list.
There are a number of reasons for learning scales, one being that they are fundamental to learning the theory of music, and if your ambition is to become a classical guitarist, then you will also be required to learn about the theory of music. They allow you to learn about harmonics and pitch, and the effects of sharps and flats. Some note combinations are discordant to the ear, and scales will make it a great deal easier for you to compose a series of notes that will sound good.
Another reason, more important to guitarists, is that they enable you to play a series of notes without thought that will sound good, especially when played fast. Most fast guitar riffs and solos would sound meaningless if played slowly, but sound great when played fast. That is because they are based upon the pentatonic scales. You could conceivably use a major or minor scale, but with a pentatonic, you only have to learn combinations of 5 notes.
By learning a few pentatonic scales, you will be able to play fast guitar licks up and down the frets, using the same 5 notes in the same order. If you listen to the main solo in 'Bohemian Rhapsody', written by Brian May, that is played using a pentatonic scale, as is 'Eruption' by Eddie Van Halen. You can play the same notes over a number of octaves and it will sound great, because the notes are a scale that is pleasing the ear. Hence, the importance to a lead guitar player of learning guitar scales.
Once you get up on stage and start playing, you are not going to remember a complex series of notes to make up a rapid guitar solo. You have to play the notes by rote. If you have learned a guitar scale, the pentatonic in particular, you will be able to play anywhere on the neck of your guitar, as long as the notes are true.
Sure, you will have to change it for each string, and according to where on the neck you play it, but the notes will be the same and they will always be played in the same order. In practise, it doesn't matter to you if they are sharps or flats or neither: you are just playing the notes, and don't have to understand the theory. If you have learned your guitar scales properly, then you won't have to remember because of the muscle memory involved.
It's the same with chords. If you have learned your chords properly, you don't have to figure where to put your fingers, you just play the chord and you fingers automatically get them right due to the muscle memory of repetition and revision. You don't start a new song in your gig, and then wonder what the chords are: they come automatically, and so do the scales when you need them.
That's why learning guitar scales is important, and why you shouldn't screw up your face when asked to play them. It's money in the bank, that you will withdraw when you are finally standing alone in front of 10,000 screaming people and striking up the first note of your fabulous guitar solo. It's only dozens of repetitions of a pentatonic scale, but they don't know that - they think you are fabulous - a star- and all because you took the time to learn your guitar scales.