Solo of the Month (SotM) #68 - Challenge

stratman3142

This is the 68th solo of the Month (SotM) Challenge.

The challenge is now open and ends at midnight 24th March 2021.

You can download backing track from Soundcloud below:

https://soundcloud.com/thefretboard/sotm68-2021-03-bellycaster-mel-and-colin

Record your solo over the top of it and then submit it (ideally in mp3 format) to solos@theFB.co.uk

Also, feel free to comment on how you approached the solo, which will add a bit more interest and maybe we can learn something from each other.

Discussion:

This backing track was kindly provided by @Bellycaster

Title: Mel and Colin

Tempo: 60 bpm.

The chords are:

| Am(add9) / / / | Gm(add9) / / / | Am(add9) / / / | Gm(add9) / / / |

| Cm(add9) / Bb / | Cm(add9) / Bb / | Cm(add9) / Bb / | E7 / A / |

| Dm(add9) Dm Bm7b5 / | Eaug E Am(add9) / | Am(add9) / / / |

end on Am(add9)

The should be headroom to record your solo. Try to set a level without excessive master limiting, because we want to avoid loudness wars.

Voting will start soon after the submission deadline, with each voter selecting their 1st, 2nd and 3rd choice.

First choice gets 5 points - Second choice gets 3 points - Third choice gets 1 point

The order and scores of the top three entries will be announced soon after the voting ends.

No prizes. It's just for fun.

As people submit their entries, I'll post them below to hopefully promote some discussion on approaches used for the solo:

https://soundcloud.com/thefretboard/sets/sotm68-2021-03

Habanero

That's a really nice backing track. I can envisage it being the opening credits of an ITV detective drama.

Bellycaster

Habanero said:

That's a really nice backing track. I can envisage it being the opening credits of an ITV detective drama.

That's the trouble with me. If someone commissioned me to produce a theme for a Detective Drama, it'd probably end up sounding like an advert for Nappies

I'm best not knowing what I've got to come up with.

poopot

One on its way

stratman3142

poopot said:

One on its way

That's the first one in the playlist.

jeroenvanhulsteijn

Incoming!

At first I wanted to do something really ambient. Instead I ended up with just my acoustic recorded through the microphone of the laptop  . No effects added, just the guitar.

Logie

On the way. Same patch from the Pod Go as last time but less gain. Tried to make it flow a bit better than last time

stratman3142

jeroenvanhulsteijn said:

Incoming!

It's in the playlist.

stratman3142

Logie said:

On the way....

...and another one in the playlist. That makes 3 entries, quite early in the proceedings.

jeroenvanhulsteijn

Logie said:

On the way. Same patch from the Pod Go as last time but less gain. Tried to make it flow a bit better than last time

I do think there is a certain flow and I like how the sound kind a screams. But I have the feeling that the chosen notes at the end of the phrases and sometimes at the beginning are out of key and could be chosen better.  I do like to go out of key myself as much as possible, can be really exciting, but somehow it bothers me now.

My personal opinion is that if you start right and end right, it doesn't really matter what you play in between, as long as you maintain some cohesion between start and ending. But that is a trick I don't master myself 

Logie

@jeroenvanhulsteijn ;

I struggled with it to be honest. I'm not a musician so I just listened to the track and hummed it out. I ad libbed last months but I actually tried to work something out this time and I found that harder. Sounds like my ears aren't tuned
I thought I'd enjoy the challenge but I don't have the necessary skills/ ability to play what I hear in my head and I don't have the time to address that so I'm going to stick to playing covers and copy other people. It's easier

poopot

Logie said:

@jeroenvanhulsteijn ;

I struggled with it to be honest. I'm not a musician so I just listened to the track and hummed it out. I ad libbed last months but I actually tried to work something out this time and I found that harder. Sounds like my ears aren't tuned
I thought I'd enjoy the challenge but I don't have the necessary skills/ ability to play what I hear in my head and I don't have the time to address that so I'm going to stick to playing covers and copy other people. It's easier

Nothing wrong with what you’ve done fella... sounds great!!!!

jeroenvanhulsteijn

Yes, don't you dare give up! Your sound is really nice and you have got skills. This is good practice!

digitalkettle

Logie said:

...I'm not a musician so I just listened to the track and hummed it out.

That's what I do when I compose a solo! It's the only way of being honest to what you want to say musically...otherwise, you're letting theory or habit drive the process...or worse: the guitar is actually in control of you Sure, your ear is informed by what you listened to and learned. The challenge is hearing it in your head and making it work on the guitar.

Logie said:

I thought I'd enjoy the challenge but I don't have the necessary skills/ ability to play what I hear in my head and I don't have the time to address that so I'm going to stick to playing covers and copy other people. It's easier

It's not called a challenge for nothing...keep going...everything gets better as a result!

Each month @stratman3142 reposts the competition boilerplate of "Also, feel free to comment on how you approached the solo, which will add a bit more interest and maybe we can learn something from each other". That's the whole point of SotM...besides the self-discovery part of the process. We ask each other a few questions every now and then but we could certainly do more 'show & tell'. I suppose it can feel a bit pretentious sometimes.

Enough of my bullshit...both months I've heard from you, I thought you had more than a fair crack at it.

poopot

Ok in for a penny...

normally (if and when I enter) I’ll hit record with the cycle on in logic and just play... after a couple of takes I start getting a better idea of what I’m playing... after a dozen takes there’s enough to comp a solo... 

this time round I sat the night before just playing the backing track over and over and worked out what I wanted to play.

when it came to record I did one take on the neck pickup of the tele, a second take on the bridge pickup, both panned right and left respectively. Then did a third take with a wah...

not sure which method I prefer tbh... the improvised way or the more structured way...

I guess with the more structured way I at least “know” what I played and could play it again whereas with the first method I’d have to go back and learn the solo!!!!

but... to echo @logie ‘s thoughts... never really happy with what I submit... could always do better...

Habanero

I must confess that I plugged the first few chords into one of these online web tools like ‘what scales work well with these chords?’. It came back with some BeeBop scale that I’d never heard of!

So I’ve been experimenting and may eventually get something to enter. Maybe we could document the key in addition to the bpm?

poopot

Habanero said:

I must confess that I plugged the first few chords into one of these online web tools like ‘what scales work well with these chords?’. It came back with some BeeBop scale that I’d never heard of!

So I’ve been experimenting and may eventually get something to enter. Maybe we could document the key in addition to the bpm?

A for the first bit
C for the middle bit
back to A for the end section 

Mostly minor!!!!

stratman3142

Habanero said:

...Maybe we could document the key in addition to the bpm?

As far as I'm aware there isn't a key/scale that would fit all of  the chords of this one. But happy to stand corrected.

I'd regard the key as Am, as that's the home chord, but I'm not sure how much help that is for the whole track.

Habanero

Thanks to you both. At least I feel justified in not pursuing the BeeBop scale. 

jeroenvanhulsteijn

Each month @stratman3142 reposts the competition boilerplate of "Also, feel free to comment on how you approached the solo, which will add a bit more interest and maybe we can learn something from each other". That's the whole point of SotM...besides the self-discovery part of the process. We ask each other a few questions every now and then but we could certainly do more 'show & tell'. I suppose it can feel a bit pretentious sometimes.

Usually when in need of a solo, I listen to the track many many times to give me some ideas. I try to look for a short theme and then make variations to that theme. 
If the song changes key I try different positions where I find it easy to change key.

I then have the track played repeatedly and try out the themes and key turnarounds and I'll look for ways to connect them. 

If I don't have any melodic ideas, I try to find patterns to play. As long as your start and finish of the pattern are somewhat in key you can play almost anything you like. 

For some tracks I just grab the guitar and start noodling to get me some ideas.

stratman3142

For what it's worth, here are my thoughts. Feel free to comment, shoot this down and throw stones.

This backing track is a tricky one for me because it doesn't fit with my simple country/blues/rock type vocabulary where I can improvise and come up with ideas more freely.

One could think 'on the chord tones' or, to open things up, think of scales that fit groups of chords. It's a mixture of hearing things in my head plus some theory to help me navigate the tricky changes. When I use the term 'scales' I really mean a palette of notes from which to find melodic phrases. I stole the term 'palette' from @viz, who's much more knowledgeable about these things.

As I'm no jazzer and a bit of a cowboy, I approach things from a simple country/blues/rock perspective and usually think in terms of a major pentatonic or a minor pentatonic framework which I adapt to fit. It sounds more complicated than it is when it's written down because I'm really just bending/adapting major pentatonic or minor pentatonic scales to fit.

Here is how I might approach this one. I'm not saying it's for everyone but it works for me.

For the Am(add9) to Gm(add9): my framework is Am pentatonic. 

Over the Am(add9) I might add a 2 (which is equivalent to the 9th) and a b6. So the scale is effectively A Aeolian.

Over the Gm(add9) I'm still thinking in terms of Am pentatonic. I might flatten the 2 (i.e. change the B to a Bb) to fit the chord. So the scale is effectively A Phrygian.

For the Cm(add 9) to Bb: my framework is Cm pentatonic. Plus I might add the 2 and 6. So the scale is effectively C Dorian.

For the E7 to A: my framework is E major pentatonic, plus I might add the 4 and the b7, so it's effectively E Mixolydian. Or I suppose you could also think of it as simply an A major scale.

For the Dm(add9), Dm to Bm7b5: my framework is D minor pentatonic. Plus I might add the 2 and 6, so it's effectively D Dorian.

For the Eaug, E to Am(add9): my framework is a 'bent' version Am pentatonic with a major 7 (a G#) instead of a b7 (G). Plus I might add the 2 and b6, so the scale is effectively A harmonic minor. I always think of the harmonic minor as like an Aeolian scale but with a major 7.

 Of course this is all as a result of such tricky chords. I blame @Bellycaster ;

Kidding: It's actually is a great chord sequence.