Any ideas on this? When soloing in my band as I switch from rhythm to lead, it always feels like the bottom has dropped out of the band. Net result is almost like there's no backing apart from drums. Is there a way to deal with this? Obviously not an issue with a 4 piece with a second rhythm instrument like another guitar, and the bass always seems adequate when not soloing. Should I just get my bass guy to turn up the volume, play more notes? Just feels very 'exposed' to me. Anyone else have the same thing? It could be I'm just crap, but somehow in the 4 piece setting it all feels much more comfortable and meshed together!
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"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
When I went to a two guitar band I had to cut it all out as I was completely overplaying.
I have some big solo sections. My pedalboard has chorus, delay and reverb on, fairly mild but enough to give a thickening sound and sense of depth, but during solos my bassist simply digs in deeper with his fingers getting more intensity that way, the drummer also tends to work the ride cymbal. It works well as I've never felt exposed and also I use a clean boost pedal which projects me to the forefront of the mix so I've no where to hide. Sounds awesome.
I think it’s most effective when the solo is really well written with great melody and lots of implied harmony. You can perfect this approach by creating and practising your solos without any accompaniment, and making sure they make enough sense on their own. Then in the live environment make sure you have enough boost for your solo. Van Halen and Hendrix were great at it. Also jazz trios. Wes Montgomery for instance.
I was asked to dep in a jazz band the other day - the guitarist, drummer and keyboard player were all absent so during the solos it was just me and the bassist! It just meant I had to try to improvise extra-musical solos. It was fun but a bit hair raising.
Supportact said: [my style is] probably more an accumulation of limitations and bad habits than a 'style'.
So the main thing is to keep going - it gets easier and better the more you do.
The second thing is for you (and the band!) to focus on keeping you time sense good as you ease into your solo. It only takes s subtle loss of confidence for your timing to get a bit weak - then you soon sound unconvincing. I don’t mean falling-apart weak - just a subtle loss of momentum. It may help you remind yourself that it really doesn’t matter if things get quieter/emptier as long as the feeling of the music keeps going. As someone above said, think of how jazz bands sound when transitioning between a strident horn solo and a weak and watery archtop guitar solo - drastic drop in volume/fulness, but (ideally!) no drop at all in musical intensity.
If it's originals or covers where you don't need to to copy whats there then you can write solo's that imply the chord changes themselves, use drone strings, octaves ... all kinds of tricks
Im currently playing in a rock band playing originals and have a couple of tricks I use. Delay is your friend here, but not too much as has been mentioned.
Our bass player usually kicks in a micro pog to double the guitar at a lower volume as well (he runs a guitar amp as well for times like this), which can help fill the sound out.
I prefer a three piece band for clarity purposes actually, you can hear everything the guitar does, which can be a blessing and a curse!
*An Official Foo-Approved guitarist since Sept 2023.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
I don’t play lead with a million notes in though, so tend to be able to avoid any notes running into each other.