How Do Guitarists Create Guitar Solos??

Cafe Society
1

It’s funny I should ask this because I’ve been a guitarist for over 20 years, but the art of the guitar solo remains a mystery to me. I write music myself, but it’s always a pattern or a riff idea. I’ve never been able to string a series of notes and techniques together into a memorable unique solo.

With a guitar solo, it’s more than just the notes. It’s the sustain of the note, or techniques like string bends, tapping or finger slides.

How does a guitarist put all this together into something that perfectly fits a song? Is the song structure built first, and the guitarist just fools around with scales until something sounds cool? Or is it something deeper or emotional that someone just pulls out of them like Jim Hendrix?

2

Moved to Cafe Society from General Questions. I know you’re asking a technical question, GEEPERS, but there’s no one answer to how a guitarist improvises or composes a guitar solo.

3

It’s all part of jazz improvising, and practice makes it perf…better.

Or as Martin Mull admits,

4

Prior thread on the topic.

5

I am not a guitarist, so I can’t speak to guitar specific techniques, but I am a musician and a pianist, so I think I can speak to a general process of how I approach them. First, you have to figure out where it fits in the song and what it’s doing. You can have all the theory on scales and fantastic technique you want, but if it doesn’t add something to the song, it’s taking something away. Usually, I like to pick up on a theme that needs some sort of emphasis and elaborate on it, like taking the melody of the chorus and running with that, and in a situation like that I’ll often start with something pretty close to it, expand on variations of a particular part of it, and tie it back together. Sometimes a solo is used as a contrast at which point one might change scales, like major to minor or even have an entirely different accompaniment than the rest of the song. One of my favorite uses is as a seque, find a way to work from one scale into another or different tempos or whatever.

As for when I am composing, it’s usually fairly structured and I have a general flow to the song and will essentially think “solo goes here” as I’m working on that aspect. So when I start writing it, I’ll know where I pick up and where I want to leave off and I just have to musically transcribe the journey between those two points. From there, a lot of it is really just trying an idea and seeing if I’m getting the same feel from the music that I’m seeking. One of the best things I’ve actually found is to get feedback from others, see what they get out of it and if it’s close to what you’re trying to illustrate, you’re on the right track, and if it’s not, you may need to backtrack.

As far as what kind of phrasing to use and all that, well, it’s much more just a feel thing. I often use other pieces that have a similar feel as inspiration. Do particular techniques or patterns show up over and over? But really, like you kind of say in the OP, I really feel like a lot of it is just reaching into that imaginative, emotional, creative part and just kind of… letting it flow.

6

I think I speak for the majority here.

I don’t plan solos. Everything is improvised on the spot, though often it’s just a bunch of very small phrases that I string together in various patterns. I try to give it some structure, like starting kind of slow and simple, and building to a climax with lots of crazy impressive crap.

Having said that, if I work with a song for long enough, I’ll stumble on a few phrases that I really like, so I’ll try to work those in.

7

Wordman’s response in the link he provides is alot like how I approach things as well. You can go here to hear some samples of my playing.

On songs like “Dumb For You” and “Unfitting” I tried to incorporate a form of the vocal melody from the verse into the beginning phrases of the solos before going off and getting more adventurous. While on a song like “Flatter Me”, the solo really doesn’t have any pure melody to it - it’s just me going off on the blues scale in the key of E. But it does still have a structure, starting in the open position and each phrase getting progressively higher up the fretboard, climaxing with a slow string bend on the high E string at the 17th fret.

I think what’s most important for a solo is that it has a certain recognizable concept to it, whether it be melodic or structural.

8

I’m not much of a soloist, but I give it my best shot when we’re jamming.

It’s the licks. The phrases. The rare burst of accidental creative genius. My problem is that the creative genius only goes so far (I’ll be the first to admit my skill barely reaches mediocre). I tend to fall back on scales – and, being self taught and mediocre – I only know a couple.

What usually happens to me is I try to improvise over a song that’s not in A or E and I clank all over the place. Sometimes do get that ‘creative genius’ shit together and I shift into a scale I’m not quite sure of, but it works.

9

I think it depends on what you’re doing. If I’m recording an original song, then I plan/figure something out, partially through doodling and partially through careful thought. I just whittle something out that I think sounds good and fits the song.

If I’m just jamming with my band, it depends on what the song is. But, I don’t usually plan those out very carefully. And they can vary a lot between performances depending on any number of things. And I usually stick with a pentatonic or blues scale.

And I think Hendrix just fooled around till something sounded cool. . . and he did it a lot and got really good at it.

10

I string various guitars with unusual tunings and then improvise and goof around plugged into two or three amps with different settings to achieve unique solos. On rare occasion, I’ll go back to standard EADGBE tuning for some pentatonic wankery, but it rarely sounds original to my ears.

Hendrix sometimes played pentatonic blues licks that followed the chord pattern or bass line, or wildly experimented, or a mix of both. Screaming loud amps with saturated vacuum tubes and effects pedals (fuzz, octave, wah wah, etc) were vital to many of his tones.

11

My method changes from song to song but there are a couple different methods that I use.

If the song has a strong vocal hook I mimic it and expand on it.

If the song doesn’t have a strong vocal melody, and considering the fact I do instrumental stuff the most these days this is what I usually do, I try and find a melody that I can noodle around. A strong melody with space can allow you to get a good hook and at the same time allow you to stretch out a bit. Melodies are a blast but sometimes just wailing away is fun.

Then there are the shred tunes. Sometimes a song calls for full on wailing. Just hit record and go.

The actual writing varies a bit. Some solos just pop out. That happens about 20% of the time. Most of the time I loop the song and try out a bunch of ideas. I tend to look for intro notes, find a starting place. Then I find breaks/bend spots. I’ll look at the chord progression and look for notes that fit the progression. Then, once I find the intros and exits I play around with linking the ideas together.

Then again, sometimes I find the phrase that defines the solo and build the rest around it.

I used to be much better at improv and I used to just wing it all the time. I tend to like more structured and a bit more complex ideas these days and it is harder to improv that stuff.

Everyone has licks that they can pull out and fit in a lot of places. I try and stay away from doing that most of the time these days. I am more melody oriented these days and look for unique ideas.

If you have issues with soloing I’d suggest three things. First, learn the modes well. Second learn some theory if you do not know it already. Third learn a bunch of solos that you like and that push your abilities.

The modes allow you to play anywhere on the neck in key. The theory will let you know which notes work and which won’t (more on this later). Learning solos that push you help your technique and also make you think in a different way,

As an example of the last two points there is Steve Morse. Or at least for me. When I learn his songs I almost always find something that I would never think of doing. If I look at the music I’ll say to myself ‘Self, that note will never work’. Then I listen to the song and it works. Then I play it and it works even though it is something I would have never thought of playing. Of course, that is why he is Steve Morse and I am not.

The last, and most important thing, is to have fun. If I stress too much about a solo I go on to something else. My best writing happens when I am having fun with the ideas.

Also, as a side note, if I am really stuck on a solo I’ll try something totally outside of what should fit the song. If it is a ballad, I’ll blaze away for a while. If it is a fast song I’ll go for the long bends and lots of rests. It clears out the clutter of what isn’t working and usually opens me up to something that will fit.

Slee

12

In a previous life, I was the sound man for a garage band. We did record a couple of songs at a local studio. On one, we brought in a friend guitarist for the solo. He had heard the song maybe twice, but had never played it.

When it came time to record the solo, he was in the studio alone, with all of us in the control room. His cue came and all of a sudden we heard this soaring, incredibly dense Robert Fripp-ish wall of sound. It was one of those rare moments when everyone in the room knew that magic was happening. When the solo ended, the control room erupted with yelling and screaming, with all of us rushing to get into the studio to congratulate him and rave about how fantastic that was.

And this solo was completely improvised. While it was colored by this guitarists style, it was made up on the spot.

J.

13

Some do it very deliberately. They’ll record multiple takes of a solo or multiple takes of phrases and then cobble the ‘solo’ together phrase by phrase, picking the best take of each phrase. The key is deft engineering and doing the playing in ideally one sitting so the tone is consistent. For instance you don’t want to record some of the solo, come back a few days later with new strings and/or different amp settings and record the rest. Unless, of course, that’s the sound you’re going for :cool:.