Until now, I've tended to copy solos verbatim. Getting to the point where I can do them justice takes forever and is about as enjoyable as root-canal work. I'm now less fussed about getting them identical to the original and more concerned about being able to improvise something reasonably good on the night. I'm finding that my improvised stuff tends to utilise the same patterns - usually pentatonic, and often with an unacceptable number of random bum notes - that I have become quite adept at hiding by incorporating them and making them appear intentional !
I want to get away from trying to copy the style and fingering of umpteen different guitarists and just let fly with what flows from my subconscious.
I don't mind putting the work in. I'd sooner put the hours in practicing something that will improve my overall soloing than spend that time getting one solo spot-on to the original.
What should I be doing with my practice time to achieve this ? Is it just scales ?
Lack of planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on mine.
Chips are "Plant-based" no matter how you cook them
Donald Trump needs kicking out of a helicopter
I'm personally responsible for all global warming
Offset:"A little heavy on the hyperbole"
Comments
The other thing is to work on composing solos first: improvising is what you do when you've gotten the hang of composing without the pressure of keeping up with tempo.
Then get back to your home for the other half and commit your ideas to your fingers; firstly by strumming the chords and singing what you had in mind - to check it works and to make minor corrections - then learning the solo.
In the last 5 minutes you can do some scales. Scales are a technique thing not a compositional thing. Don’t fall into the rut of only playing what your fingers tell you to play!
Supportact said: [my style is] probably more an accumulation of limitations and bad habits than a 'style'.
Decent improv is about melody, and being able to make your hands do what’s in your head, not the other way around.
... but this is what most guitarists do, maybe with a few bends thrown in, and a lot of well known solos were composed this way.
So, for example, in the early days, when I was learning solos by Kossoff (my first guitar hero) Hendrix, and Clapton, I learned to recognise the sounds of major and minor pentatonics and to revamp their lines to create my own ideas. Then I started to learn the sounds of adding other notes. For example, adding a 2nd and 6th to a minor pentatonic (i.e. Dorian) gives things a jazzy minor sound but flattening the 6th (i.e. Aeolian) makes it sound more classical minor. But my basic thinking/hearing is rooted in major and minor pentatonics which are my reference point from which I modify things create other scales.
I also have my own take on the CAGED system which (in my mind at least) unifies hearing and using scales and chord tones.
I was lead by hearing stuff (either externally from others, or in my head) and then trying to work at some theory that allowed me to classify what I heard so that I can reuse it.
Not making any great claims to be an amazing improviser, but thinking chordally and in terms of chord tones -- root, 3, 5, 7 and then colour notes (6, 9, 11, 13) -- really helped me play in a way that wasn't just noodling.
All of which goes along with the advice about trying to hear melodies in your head, too.
Say something over a bar (or two, or whatever works), then kind of answer it. Pause for breath as if you were a saxophonist or trumpeter rather than just blaze away all through the solo. No need for a big gap, or indeed any gap, just think of your next bit as a new line.
Most people in the real world could learn more about soloing from Francis Rossi than Jimi Hendrix.
This is an interesting question. Very many guitarists in rock and blues do mainly use the common pentatonic scales to construct their solos with little attempt to create melodies. Others, Brian May being a primary example, create strong melodies in their solos - often as strong and memorable as the actual song melody whilst not mimicking it. It is a composed solo where the creative mind controls the fingers. It is what I believe @Viz is advocating.
Playing scales and making use of the caged system or similar helps with being fluent across the whole of the fretboard, developing an ear for the notes and exercising the fingers. Playing the modes against a root drone from something like a looper pedal gives a feel for how those different scales sound, again developing an ear for those notes. They are all worthwhile exercises but solos based solely on scales generally don't sound particularly interesting.
Incidentally, just playing straight pentatonic scales makes a pretty awful solo but it is the clever use of string bends to create interest that makes all the difference
Also safe in the knowledge that it will never sound as out as James Bay’s solo in his new song - not sure if any of those notes are in any known western scale.
Pentatonics are more like pure energy, less grounded but great for creating a feel when connecting chordal sections or creating/releasing tension in a flurry of notes.
When it comes to hitting chord tones you need to bear in mind the beats of the bar: just making sure the note in the first beat of the bar is a chord tone will begin to ground a phrase, third beat is good also. Once you get the hang of this you can deliberately avoid chord tones on strong beats for effect.
People often talk about techniques that are specific to the guitar ..... pentonic box, caged system etc and in my view this is the wrong way to do it. A better way to master the art of fluid improv solo'ing is basically
Learn where every single note is on the fretboard .... so you always know what note your playing
Learn the basic major and minor scale .... this means you will always be in key with no bum notes
Learn to recognise the intervals between the notes you hear, both up and down .. this skill allows you to play with your hands what you hear in your head
The knowledge of the scale your in allows you to target notes based on your knowledge of the chord underneath ..... Take the first solo in Comfortably Numb which is superbly melodic. He starts off hitting the major third of the D and then targets the 5th of the next chord when it changes, hitting an E over an A chord and a G over a C chord etc. I don't know if he just jammed around to do this or whether he knew exactly what he was doing but it's a great example of playing notes that fit the chords beneath.
You probably already know in your head common intervals people use all the time .... bending the 4th up to the 5th is probably the most overused start of any solo, starting on the root note and then playing a minor 3rd is another.
Once you have an idea of what notes your gonna use then you embellish them with guitar specific things like bends, slides, hammerons, harmonics etc .... put YOUR style on
Then when you got the basics down you have to learn to lose the fear of going wrong and avoid the temptation to jump back into the pentonic box like so many of us do ... me included sometimes
Like so many things it's just practice, practice and more practice.
I wasn't being facetious - if I can avoid all theory, I will !
...and no, I'm not particularly proud of that - I just know how lazy I am.
Chips are "Plant-based" no matter how you cook them
Donald Trump needs kicking out of a helicopter
I'm personally responsible for all global warming
Offset:"A little heavy on the hyperbole"
Supportact said: [my style is] probably more an accumulation of limitations and bad habits than a 'style'.