Soloing

[LiquidMidnight]

I'm just starting to scratch the surface of good soloing (I just implored Steve and Michael for their advice in their forum) and one thing I've learned is to try to keep some sort of forward momentum in your solo while being conscious of the chord changes in your head. What I'm saying, is it's easy to begin a melody/riff/phrase/lick/scale ect. on one chord, begin to build an idea with it, then when the next chord comes along, jump to the root of that chord (espcially when dealing with non-diatonic progressions) and start playing from there. Well, that's definatley one way to go about soloing. And I'm sure everyone uses it as part of their musical palette. The problem is, if you do it to often, it's going to start sounding to scalar and it's probaly an indication that you are relying to much on (scale) patterns.

With that in mind, start off with a simple non-diatonic, two chord vamp. Start by building an ascending melodic idea on the first chord. Then when the 2nd chord comes along, don't abandon the orginal idea and just jump to the root on the chord. Instead, keep your orginal melodic idea moving and make note of what note changes have occured do to the chord change. (that's why I said, non-diatonic, obviously, you really wouldn't have to worry much if you were soloing over a diatonic progression) For example, if you started your melody on a G7 and the next chord is C7, remember that the previous B that was natural, is now flat. After you get that down, then you can start doing more advanced things with the same idea. Start introducing new melodic ideas, add blue notes, play an altered scale over the G instead of a mixoloydian, add chords ect.

I don't know if this was one of your problems, but I know it was one of mine for the longest time, and I thought I would just share some info.

edit: major spelling and grammar bloopers

 

[CDuff]

The only two Irish guys on this site and we're both called Ciaran.

Anyway, what kinds o' music are you soloing over? Are you just a soloist or in a band?


edit:
..checks profile.....
I'm 1 day older than you. freaky stuff.

 

[God_of_bass]

In response to all previous posts:
1)Thanks, you've all been a great help, I just finished school and I received guitar lessons through school, so I don't have the expertise of my teacher at hand. I appreciate all the help.

2)In between revising for my A-Levels I try to pick out parts of trumpet solos on a few of my jazz compilation cds. This is tricky, yet quite interesting and it's certainly helping. I've also started to 'mix' intervals, using extensions too. I've also looked through a few transcription books, looking at how other players approach a particular chord.

It's all coming together, slowly..so thanks
CToal

P.S.

What I'm saying, is it's easy to begin a melody/riff/phrase/lick/scale ect. on one chord, begin to build an idea with it, then when the next chord comes along, jump to the root of that chord (espcially when dealing with non-diatonic progressions) and start playing from there.

YES!YES! thats another problem, did you just read my mind?
I play in a blues band, I can walk through chords, but when it comes time to solo, say during a 12 bar blues i find it very difficult, I often find myself playing the Root of the chord on the 1..
I'm working on it though, cheers.