2 Giant Simple Techniques To Improve Your Improvised Guitar Solos Now
2 Giant Simple Techniques To Improve Your Improvised Guitar Solos Now
So you've got a couple scales together and you're jamming over some chords and it seems like you're doing everything right. But it doesn't sound like you want it to. Check out these easy tips to focus your solo playing and make it more musical.
A new student came to me just the other day with this problem. The stuff he was playing was technically correct, but just didn't sound very musical. Instead it sounded scattered. This is how we're solving his problem and it will help you too.
1. Play just chord tones. Depending on the chord you're jamming over, some notes in the scale are more important than others. The notes of the chord should form the skeleton on your melody.
Do these two things to practice this
- Pick one position of your favorite scale. Let's take a major scale for example. Learn to play the arpeggios for each diatonic chord, staying just within that one position of the scale. If we're in the key of E major you'd pick out the notes of the chords E, F#m, G#m, A, B, C#m, and D#dim. For some extra juice, take those out to the 7ths as well.
Staying in one position of the scale is important as it will make you think more melodically than just moving a pattern around the neck. That will keep your melodies better connected. You can of course, go through the same process in other positions of the scale.
- Once you're comfortable with the arpeggios, start doing some improv over a progression of 2 or 3 chords. A 12 bar blues or a little two chord vamp is always good for something like this. As each chord arrives, only play the notes in that chord. It will still sound a little "jumpy", but it will help you focus the structure of your melody.
The other notes of the scale will be used as passing tones, from one chord tone to the next. After you're comfortable just playing the chord tones, start throwing in a few of the others. Keep a chord tone on beat 1 for right now to keep things centered.
In a good solo, you should be able to hear the chords going by, even if nobody is playing them, based on your melodic choices.
2. Jam with a metronome. This was one of my problems early on. My rhythm guitar playing was locked in, but my leads went haywire rhythmically, totally losing the groove.
Turn your metronome on to a comfortable tempo. Improvise a melody based on each of these rhythm patterns:
- 8th notes
- 16th notes
- 8th note triplets
- 8th notes and 16th notes, alternating one measure each
- 8th notes and 8th note triplets, alternating one measure each
- 8th note triplets and 16th notes, alternating one measure each
- Do each of the combination ones again, but for just two beats each
Don't think too much about note choice here. You just want to concentrate on keeping good steady rhythms and locking in with the groove. A great solo is less about note choice and more about interesting rhythms.
With these simple exercises you'll focus both your note choice and your internal sense of groove. Once you're solid with those you'll be ready to go on to more complex techniques.
Dancehall Reggae 7" singles. The Base Of Dancehall Reggae Music. A MUST For All DJ's Guitars for sale Play Guitar and Visit Las Vegas Guitar Lessons - How To Play Guitar For Beginners Piano For All Vs Rocket Piano-A new and fun way of learning the piano Learning the Acoustic Guitar Is Easier Than You Think 5 Tips to Improve Your Guitar Skills Computer-Aided Guitar Learning Software: Do These Software Packages Work? Guitar Superstars Review-Guitar Superstars Scam My Chemical Romance song video music TAKE CARE OF YOUR ACOUSTIC GUITAR Nicki Minaj songs music mp3 videos lyrics katy perry songs videos music mp3 lyrics