Knowledgeable guitarist with no knowledge

[Dimitrivich]

Hey...I've been playing for about a year and I can play complicated rhythms easily and I can create my own riffs. I have no trouble playing fast rhythms like "Battery" by Metallica in time. My problem comes with arranging my own songs and trying to come up with solos. I know the basic scales that every guitarist should know and I know the Harmonic Minor and the Phrygian Mode, but I can't really come up with any thing good. I don't know any cool licks so my solos end up being one long long idea that doesn't really sound good. I've already checked out the Improv. section here and I have spent numerous hours at Guitartricks.com scouring their page, but I have yet to see some good licks that would be usefull to me. I want to be able to write solos that just seem to grab you by the balls like the last little bit of "...And Justice for All" when Hammett is bending the strings like so:
--------------------------
-10-10-10-8-----------
-11-11-11-9-11-11-9
--------------------------
--------------------------
--------------------------
*the 10's are being bent up one full step
while the 11's are being bent up 1/2 step

My soloing inspiration is Hammett and any tips on his style and some licks of his would be appreciated. Also, any tips on arranging songs would be much appreciated.

---thanx

[smfulla]

well dude, what hammett likes to do (as I've noticed) is sort of... seperate/divide his solos up.
he usually does this by taking a lick, repeating it, then using a scale fingering pattern or whateva, goes up and down a scale, then reverts back to a lick and repeats or modifys it. Thats the basic style of his solo's and they seem to work well.

Take for example "The Struggle Within". Now dude, even if you're and old skool metallica fan, you have to love this solo. It sorta takes you back to the ride/master days. Anyway, hammett starts off bending hard, then after that goes into a lick. Which actually goes down the scale, then he changes to another sort of lick, then goes down the scale (a little bit). Then another lick, then another lick, then another lick, then the largest scale run in the solo, then another small lick.

What I suggest is.... Record the chord progression(s) you're soloing over, and jsut listen to them, and see if anythign pops up in your mind. Then take the time to find out how to play it, and play over your chord prog.

[jazzman15]

Go to the Jam Central Station at visionmusic.com and just practice soloing with the charts and midi files that are there. You will get better. Don't concentrate on learning licks; you won't sound like yourself and your solos will be monotonous.

As for arranging, listen to some Pink Floyd and try to pick out each individual part and play it. You'll soon see how everything starts to fit together.

Have fun with it! :cool:

[Dimitrivich]

Thank you...I will take a look at the site...