How To Solo

Guitar players just starting out and those who have played for a while alike are often nervous about improvising a solo. As in “Free Bird,” the idea of a long solo is normally associated with a veteran player jamming on a stage in front of thousands of people. But then those people onstage started out much like you are now. If you stay with it, any guitar player can play a solo as well as anyone else.

The first step is to define the map for your solo. For our purposes here, we will use the A minor Pentatonic scale. See example 1 for a diagram. While the name sounds daunting, it is a very useful scale to know. Taking it in parts, ‘penta’ means ‘five’ and tonic is in reference to tone. Simply put, it is a five tone minor scale. Looking at it this way doesn’t sound as difficult.

Now that you have the map you need to learn to play it without thinking too hard about the finger positions. Thinking too much about the notes themselves will make it harder for you to play the solo, as you are distracted and cannot think creatively. So play the scale enough times so you feel confident playing it. The key is to get to a point where you can play the scale while your attention is elsewhere. Practice by having a conversation or watching TV while playing.

The second step is not necessary, but it can help to get a good rhythm in mind before you start the solo. You have the notes of the A minor Pentatonic scale known now, so you need to get a background rhythm to play over. Either record or have a friend play a cord within the scale and repeat it in a simple pattern as you practice your solo. This creates a good beat for you to work from and will help in grounding the solo in the song while playing with a band.

Now that you have the map and the rhythm, you can start playing. First play the scale in order up and down. Keep an ear out for the sound in relation to the chord being played in the background. Since the band does not stop playing entirely during a solo, this will help you get a feel for how you will sound onstage. Now repeat the scale, but hold some notes and cut some off. Experiment with the length of notes you are playing. Do that again, but now play the same notes a few times before going up or down the scale. Now that you have that mastered, change the order of notes. Start high then drop down and follow back up. Make up your own pattern and run with it. A simple up and down scale will not impress most audiences. Now get really creative and throw in things like bends, slides, pull offs and hammer ons. These are the things that will make your solo stand out and be noticed. For more examples and ideas see example 2.

So you see? Playing solos is not hard when you take it one step at a time. Let’s look back and see what was accomplished. First the scale was studied in simple up and down pattern. Once the scale was mastered, it was twisted into rhythms and melodies. Since you want to play music and not scales, you have to know what to do with a scale. Playing one well will not get you anywhere if you can’t pull anything out of it. The above steps will help a starting player solo among the best.