hey everybody,

I've been "jamming" with some friends for about a year now, we've had some great times and some decent jams IMO considering none of us have played that long. Normally what we'll do is use either our drummer friend or a drum machine to hold a beat, one guitarist plays chords as the other solos over it. I normally hold things together with the standard root and 5th, root octave kinda thing as the guys seem to like simplicity.

Until recently this has been fine for everyone, but now they're pressuring me to solo. I've jammed a little to drum tracks but never really made anything up to go along with a band setting- just making some noise having fun kinda deal.

I've been reading a ton of books and things online about playing bass and writing but I still can't seem to come up with much as far as a "solo" goes. I know my basic scales, pentatonic, arps, triads, blues pentatonic, modes- so I guess I'm asking how would YOU practice soloing?

For example tonight's chord progression was E, D, B, C; Guitars solo'd in E Min Pentatonic. Do I just mess about in E Min Pentatonic until I get something I like? :help:

Thanks for your help!!

I would suggest three ways to go about it.

1) practice noodling around on your own over the top of your chords and experiment with what you know about scales etc, and simply see what works and what doesn't. You'll quickly learn what sounds like crap, what sounds acceptable and what sounds great.

2) Get recordings of solos that you like from songs that you know and learn them note for note. These can be solos on bass or on guitar or even on keys or sax or whatever. Practice them until you know them and then re-use them in other ways. Modify them by adding notes or taking some notes out or repeating phrases.

3) Keep learning as much theory as you can about soloing and apply this to #1 and #2.

Repeat as necessary.

Scales are okay, but they only take you so far. Look for common tones and stepwise connections in the harmony, especially when you've got a progression like you the one you offered.

So in your example, you have E (E G# B), D (D F# A), B (B D# F#) and C (C E G)

Notice the notes in each chord that are just a half or whole step away from the notes in the next chord and work around those small movements to highlight the changes. So, for instance, one pattern might emphasize the ascending D, D# and E in D B and C. That will give you a nice sense of motion in a small enough space that you can play around with it.

Once you get a handle on the way that the chord tones lead into each other, you can build some sequences around them. These are basically little three or four note patterns that you repeat in each bar, but you shift the notes to reference the chord tones in each measure.

So for instance, you can play something like this: (all on the G string)
|--9-11-13-11-9--|--7-9-11-9--7---|--8-9-11-9--8---|--5-7-9-7--5----|

That way you're hitting good chord tones in each measure and locking in to a phrase that you can plug into different contexts. Once you get comfortable with that, then you can experiment with the same little melodic phrase based off of different chord tones.

Here's the real secret. Learn how to play. OK, that sounds flippant, but what I mean is that the goal is to hear something in your head, and have your fingers pull it out of the bass. So, the starting point is to have some ideas!

Sing what you think would be a cool solo. Then work to play it on the bass. To practice this, do exactly that. Record yourself singing a solo over the changes. Sing the solo with your bass safely locked away in its case so you don't play bass, but you sing MUSIC. THEN get your bass out and learn to play exactly what you sang.

Repeat...

So, over those changes, I'd start with what I was doing as a bassist- outlining the chords. Then to solo, ignore the roots (because that's what keeps most bassist sounding like they can't solo), and extrapolate.

Look for common tones, and listen for the tones that jar your ear too. That progression of E D B C (assuming they're all major chords)- that E and the D could work together with any combination of notes from the A major scale. But when you get to the B, it's going somewhere else, isn't it? So find the juice in the B chord that pulls on your ear and work that into your melodic idea.

jte

wow, sweet advice guys. I think I kinda knew what you guys suggested before hand, but now its in words in a way that I understand what I'm trying to do and will be able to implement it. I've started learning solos I like and listening to solos on other instruments that I like looking for patterns in them (I had done some ear training in my theory class at school, I just graduated high school) so I'm really working towards it. I also started analyzing some bass lines that are SUPER simple (zz top is actually where I started) to see what dusty used for fills and such after seeing the roots he was playing.


I've got a drum machine (in a digitech bp80) and I built myself a looper pedal so I'm off to jam through some progressions and see what sticks!!

Thanks so much everyone! =]

i would suggest not thinking and just feeling the beat. don't masturbate and add variation in speed.

Though not specifically geared towards soloing, I found this series of videos quite helpful:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8QazNAZjhM

Did an excellent job giving some insight to how a bass player can insert some flare without unsettling everything.

Here's one approach. I'm also working on it, but this one proved helpful to me:
1. Learn licks and runs in your personal practice. Jam on them with a drum beat. Experiment on changing the notes and the rhythm and everything else in between.
2. During jam time, think of a lick. That will be your main idea. This will depend on your imagination and creativity, but mostly try to remember one that feels right with the current song/jam/tune.
3. Extrapolate on the main idea. Expound it. Change things a bit as you go. Be sensitive of contour - climax versus steady, soft versus hard, ascending versus descending.
4. Think of melodies as you go; usually not far from your main idea. Get to play that melody, try singing what your head tells you. You may not hit the perfect note or pitch, but I'm sure you'll be able to follow on the rhythm and the contour (see #3).
5. Never get out of the groove. Stay on it, even when soloing. Take note of the chord changes, of the downbeat, the one, etc.

My suggestions sort of synthesize what others have said.

Use you ear to decide what sounds "in" or "out", as far as what scales/notes to play with what chords. Remember that "bad" notes can be useful, too, when it sounds like you are playing them deliberately!

Start your solo with a lot of space... even take a (musical) breath before you begin. Take a simple idea, play it a couple of times, and then begin to change it around in different ways. It's called "development." You're trying to tell a story.

Rule of thumb: Gradually go from simple/quiet/low to busy/loud/high.

I know that these are all conceptual things, but, again, it really doesn't take long to figure out the theoretical chords/scales/notes stuff... use your ear. The harder part is playing something coherent and musical.

Wow guys, thanks so much for your help! I am trying to use everything and take it all into consideration. The best part of this is I have a recording (very bad quality but whatever!) of the guys running through this jam without a bassist in it so I can kinda practice with that for right now. Unfortunately for them (fortunately for me!) their bassist just stopped showing up and doesn't return their calls at all so now I'm in full time instead of part time like we had been doing. :bassist:

thanks again for all of your input! I really appreciate all of it, as its been very helpful to me so far.... maybe I'll get the guts to post a recording of us with the bass solo when I figure it out... :ninja:

thanks again! =]

For a jam type solo that CANNOT sound bad, play the root note of the chord twice at (eighth notes) on beats 1 &.

Do this, and you can honestly hit like random notes around the fretboard and noone will be able to tell you it sounded bad.

Also, I was jamming with a few guys for a while, and when I finally did step up and solo, they were just happy to hear me do it and even though it didn't necessarily sound that great, they were really supportive, I'm sure your friends will be too.

Please do not just hit random notes around the fretboard. Some people will definitely be able to tell you it sounded bad.