[Laughingboy68]

I do all of the following:

1. Sing the part (I do this in Sister Golden Hair and Drive by Incubus)
2. Play a part that has enough harmonic information that the chords are implied (The Beatles’ All My Loving, Big Star’s Thirteen and Guy Clark’s Boats to Build and The Guitar - gotta love Verlon Thompson; I take great inspiration from this man).
3. Use a looper. I do this for Wish You Were Here, Wichita Lineman and Raul Malo’s Every Little Thing About You. The key is to make sure that the building of the loop isn’t tedious for the audience - it works well and seamlessly on these songs.
4. Play the solo on harp. For Running on Empty and Bowie’s China Girl I use this crutch
5. Skip the solo. It helps if the rest of the song is impressive enough that no one misses the solo too much. This is especially essential if the solo is played on another instrument like saxophone or trumpet.
6. Keep practicing and use Verlon Thompson, Joe Pass, Tuck Andress, Michael Hedges, Monte Montgomery and so many others as inspiration.