Hey I'm getting into guitar a little more seriously to the point where I might be having to do some lead guitar. I'm more comfortable laying down the rhythm and sometimes find myself out of ideas when soloing. I can lay down a decent, sort of generic sounding guitar solo with this method:

1. Find the Key
2. Play the pentatonic blues scale all over the neck, keeping a good sense of the root noot.

This works pretty well, I mix in slides and bends, but I'm more interested in what say James Burton does during Elvis's songs as far as "vamping", supporting the chord progression with two/3 note chords around the neck. I guess thats like "triads", stuff that isn't power chords but still fits within the key of the song. Things I can play within the key of the song that aren't just single notes. I'll mess around barring a couple notes of the scale if they're close together and playing that as a chord and it sounds pretty good but I don't see the pattern yet like I can with the pentatonic everywhere.

Any thoughts?

Keep practicing and improvising and don't worry about why something sounds good, just make it sound good imo.

You'll remember where things are with muscle memory and visual and **** eventually, but don't get consumed with it because you don't want to play the same **** over everything. Don't be afraid to play sour notes. They can be pretty awesome sometimes.

the first piece of advice i can give you is that you aren't trying to learn a bunch of licks and play them in a good sequence. every solo you play should be relative to the song in which you play it. for example in the jazz idiom, that is how soloing always work, but even in rock, the better artists work with the specific song.

here is a very simple example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRGwjByOF7k . Notice how you can hear the words in your head as the guitar plays? This is not a particularly good video and there is no embellishment but what you are trying to achieve begins with something like this and can go as far as essentially 'free-styling' off the vocal. Imagine speaking with the guitar. Like, hear the words in your head, and play the pitches you hear relative to the words. Thats the first piece of advice- reference the other musical material, whether its the rhythm from the drums or the melody from the vocal or other musical instruments; this will immediately give you ****loads of material to work with in every musical situation.

the best way to learn about the other thing you are talking about in my experience is to practice something called a 'double stop'. basically if you just play a note on any given fret, for example the 5th fret on the G string, and then play the 5th fret on the A string (this will be C on the G string, and A on the A string) it will create a minor double stop. If you can play the scale on the E string, you can always find the double stops on the G string that are the 3rd of that note. It will either be the same fret, or one over (for major).

Then to get stuff to sound in key, you just have to learn to harmonize the scale. There's plenty of ways to learn this. I haven't watched this vid but Dave Weiner usually explains **** pretty well so i'm sure he'll teach you how to harmonize the scale here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMRCdi_azS8 .

This is a good place to start if you want to introduce chords into your solo. Remember that if you are playing in A minor, you want to harmonize the C major scale. So your chords would be: C major D minor E minor F major G major A minor B minor (or diminished). All those chords will sound good over a minor groove in A, especially if you are only playing roots and thirds, as i mentioned in the double stop example (although you can obviously play double stops with any notes).

Once you can play double stops like that, it becomes pretty intuitive. What i am learning now a bit more is playing larger chords with more tonal colour (eg outside the scale) as well as different voicings (the way you play the same chord on the instrument).

Good luck!

Alexiemartov

I believe what your saying in the second paragraph is play the vocal melody

I would agree with that statement as there are several songs that do this very well, such as the nirvana song you referenced.


As far as double stop, keep in mind that like most things in music, too much of anything is not good. Especially if the idea is to play live. After several songs with essentially the same guitar solo in different keys the audience will lose interest.

I played rythm in a band and was lucky to have a very good, creative lead guitarist and he was really unique. I would say for my money, be as creative as possible and CREATE a part for every song if its a band playing originals. Spend some time and by all means be creative. Its not easy. I am a ****ty lead player cause i always revert to messing around in whatever key the song is in. Yeah sometimes it sounds good but im not getting any better and im certainly not serving the song. The greats always put the song first. And always played the part that best served the song, not what made them look the best.

Good luck

i'm saying reference the songs other parts. the most easy way to do this is to quote the vocal line. then as you improve you can improv off the vocal line and write licks around it that sound original but also familiar since they are written with the vocal in mind.

also saying groove with the drums or bass line. reference the rhythms or notes in your solos.

be more dynamic and tell are story with your solo.

those are some good starting points that most average lead players dont focus on at all but all good players.