Soloing

[Triple-o]

I am changing the way I approach soloing. Instead of looking at scales and chords for direction  I am looking at the melody and feeling in the song. For example, this morning I was working on a solo for the song “Crazy” by W Nelson. I came to the conclusion that if  I take the basic song melody and try to “sing the song with the guitar” with the use of bends, slides etc. it sounds  more like an extension of the song.I even tried making up additional lyrics. so it wouldn’t just be a repeating the song.I found that I have a better sounding base for a song solo.Keep in mind I am still using  the C scale diatonic chord tones except Am and I am using a dominant  A7 C7 just like the song hits version.I am just not letting them “pull the strings” only as a framework to get around.

Playing licks never made sense to me. They are just melodic lines that have no meaning.Just numbers in a tab.It would be like taking David Gilmour’s solo in Comfortably Numb and playing it as a solo to Autumn Leaves. It would still sound really good, but what does it have in common with Autumn Leaves. Well, that may be a stretch, but you get the picture.

Anyway its a work in progress and I’ll see where it takes me. By the way it was Gilmour’s solo that made me look beyond the standard licks, because when I hear him play,  I hear the song, even though it’s in another language.

Edited September 5, 2020 by Triple-o

[Triple-o]

On 9/5/2020 at 12:15 PM, Triple-o said:

I am changing the way I approach soloing. Instead of looking at scales and chords for direction  I am looking at the melody and words in the song. The song “Crazy” in this solo writing attempt.

This morning I started singing  “I know, I am just crazy, but isn’t love often crazy. Then I tried using  intervals and single notes from the key of  C to see what would be easy to play and sound those words. It wasn’t  to difficult. I was only thinking about intervals and I was surprised when I looked at what I was playing how  it all fit into the Am pentatonic patterns,

 So, that tells me  I haven’t “pay my dues” as far as the scales go. I also think that I might not need to play someone else’s lick, but maybe a few measures might be useful to get me started. Then as I start building I could eliminate the beginning and replace it with my own.

I know the song is  32 bars long and in the  AABA form. I guess I also need to learn about that song form and some song building blocks to see where a solo would go.A crash course in song writing seems to be what I need.

Edited September 10, 2020 by Triple-o