Help to make my sols more interesting

[madmccann]

Ive been playing for about a year and a half. i have learned the major and minor scales in the different modes, the pentatonic scale, the blues scale and arpeggios. what else should i learn? Im in a small band and i am the designated lead guitarist but the problem is all my solos sound boring i think this is because i just stick to the one scale in every solo. the problem is i cant seem to mix the the bluesy stuff in with the major and minor in away that sounds any good in a solo. does anyone have any tips for me?
Thanks very much

[imikeyi]

if your solos sound too much like scales, try string skipping

[popmusic_sux]

add some hammer-ons, pull-offs, bends and vibrato in there, and depending on the type of sound you want, maybe some kind of harmonics. change speeds a little bit, dont play all 16th notes throughout the solo. do some string skipping, play some octaves...

[talldeke]

First of all, there are as many different opinions on this topic as there are guitarists. I can give you my views and hopefully they can at least get you started, or encourage other to give you some more ideas.

It sounds like you have a lot of very good tools (scales, arpeggios…) available to you to make some really good solos. I am no expert, but I think executing a good solo begins with planning. Every solo occurs in a context. Without the rhythm guitar, bass, and other parts of the band, or at least the earlier setup almost any solo would sound empty. If you are simply playing an appropriate scale, you won’t clash with the rest of the band, but you won’t really be totally in sync either. When I try writing a solo I start off by looking at two things: the chord progression and the melody.

Solo’s using the melody-some suggestions
1. First of all, is anyone playing the melody?, or is it only sung. If it is only sung, then a solo could be as simple as playing a chorus without singing, but the guitar playing the melody. This gives the guitar a chance to “sing” and builds a sense of unity in the song.

2. Alternatively, you could play along with the melody, but add enmeshments or passing notes, but make sure that you regully come back to the melody.

3. Again if the melody is being sung, you could throw in a little echo of the melody after a line.

Harmonizing with the melody-some suggestions
If someone else is handling playing the melody (the keyboard player or anyone else) then there are a few (at least) ideas to make some interesting solos.

1. Parallel motion: simply play along with melody but a little above or below the melody. This can be done using fixed intervals (example-always a major third above) or scale intervals (example-always two scale steps below),

2. Similar motion: you move the same direction as the melody, but not necessarily using the same intervals.

3. Oblique motion: you play one riff against a stationary riff. For example, if you are playing in D, you may play a simple D major scale, but every other not is the root.

4. Contrary motion: move in the opposite direction of the melody. If they go up, you go down…

Soloing using Chord Progressions-some suggestions
This is my favorite “method” for making riffs. Again the important think to do is to keep in mind the backdrop (chord progression).

1. Ascending/Descending from chord changes: Make sure that at the start of each chord change the note you are playing is the chord’s root. Then either go up or down (skipping steps is okay too.) When the next chord change comes, jump to its root and then start to ascend/descend again.

2. Ascending/Descending to a chord: First figure out how many notes you want to play under a given chord. Then start that many steps away from the chord by so that just before it is time for the next change you finally reach the root. In this case you could argue you aren't playing lead guitar, but more like "following" guitar, but it still sounds cool.

3. Ascending/Descending to the next chord: Same as number 2, but instead you target is the next chord in the progression. This gives a good sense that you are leading the song.

4. “Spiraling In”: This is a term I made up; I’ll try to explain what I mean. Make sure the first note you play is the root, then go up a down a certain interval. Follow that up by descending below the root by that same interval (or scale interval). Then jump above the root by even greater than before, then jump below the root by even greater than before. (I hope that made sense.) This gives a sense that the song is centered on the root and everything is sort of falling apart. Then when the chord change comes, you quickly restore order by hitting that chords root.

5. “Spiraling out”: Same as number 4 but now you are starting far away from the root and you are jumping around until you land on the root. This gives a sense of everything working it way back into place.

6. Arpegating the relative majors/minors: as simple as this sound you can come up with some cool solos/leads just this simply.

7. More fun with relative majors/minors: Use any of the above ascending/descending methods, but instead target the relative major/minor root of the chord.

8. Combining any or all of these methods: I wouldn’t change the approach you use on every measure because you would loose a sense of coherency. However, you may want to use one approach for the chorus, one for the verse, and one for you screaming solo or you may not want to use any of these “methods” at all.

That’s all I can think of now, I would be curious to hear how other people approach the topic.

[nunly81]

Hell throw an effect in there. Wah and reverb always make them sound interesting. Also speed changes, going from slow to fast and back to slow. Its all in you. Play how you feel.

[acidXrock]

Use everythign eveyrone has said, accidentals, different techniques, effects, and just go crazy and creative with it.

[deftones]

@ talldeke

i must say that was a rather insightful post.

[acidXrock]

Yeah is there anything like that post on Cyberfret where I could go read? If not that post should be posted somehwere for good, sonce I do not think it will behere forever.

[talldeke]

Thanks for the compliments guys. I can't really give you a link to where I found all that stugg, becasue it comes from so many sources. Some of the stuff is my interpretation and other stuff I just plain forgot where it came from. Plus, there is a lot more stuff that could be included on the topic.

[~SStork~]

I'm gunna copy that down and post it on my wall as a reference for whenever I'm trying to create a good solo:cool: