Hello Again!
In today’s Free Guitar Lessons post I will share with you some of my favorite tricks & techniques that can almost instantly make your solos more interesting & professional sounding. What most guitar players would probably come up with when asked for advice on expanding one’s soloing vocabulary is learning new scales. There’s nothing wrong with that, given that you already are making the most of your current knowledge and abilities. Most of us don’t. There are many other ways to immediately jump start your soloing apart from scales. Enough talking, let’s get down to bussines:
1) Soloing using fourths or fifths is probably one of my favourites. The sound is instantly recognizable and adds a lot of depth to your playing. The way you do it is simply play every note a fifth (or fourth) higher or lower than the previous one. You can also try playing it as double stops. It works great played either clean or distorted - you can use it to make your solo sound “jazzier” or as a flavor in a metal/rock lead line. Try combining both intervals - play a short fifths run then switch to fourths and so on. Experiment, this technique offers huge possibilities!
2) Adding chromatics to your scales is another cool way of giving your solos a breath of fresh air. Imagine a minor pentatonic scale box and simply fill the “holes” with chromatic notes. It works best played over seventh or altered chords and adds an instant jazz vibe. If your not big on jazz you can actually pretend you know a lot more than you really do with this little trick. You can try it with different scale patterns as well.
3) Playing octaves is commonly associated to jazz, but it can be a useful tool in any other music style, too. If you need a jazzier sound, even a simple octave lick can do the trick. Dial up the gain on your amp and you are instantly transferred into the realm of rock’n’roll. Playing octaves can add a lot to your rhythm riffs as well.
4) Another neat way to add a different, more melodic flavor to your playing is focusing on chord tones rather than scales. Marty Friedman created even a whole instructional video on it. Sticking to chord tones is also a safe way of soloing when nothing really comes to your mind - it is much easier to create melodies this way than with a typical scalar approach.
5) Sliding into a note can help you sound more unique and interesting. Try playing one of your licks the usual way, then incorporate slides into it. Notice the difference? Use a combination of slides and bends for even more unusual results. Steve Vai is a true master of this technique - check out “For The Love Of God” as an example.
Remember not to stick to only one approach when soloing. Use a combination of differnet techniques for best results. As always, the only way to improve is through practice and experimentation, although some of the above mentioned approaches can really boost your playing almost instantly…
More Free Guitar Lessons to hopefully come soon…
Take care!
StanB is a rock guitar player, composer and guitar instructor. He is also a proud webmaster of www.guitardivinity.com - THE blog for Free Guitar Lessons!
by StanB
