Soloing

[The Bard Rocks]

Originally Posted by terryd913

This may expose my ignorance, but I’m still missing something. How does one memorize the melody if one does not have tabs or melody notes? I’m really having trouble filling in this gap in my learning process. What am I missing? Ear training?

Though I prefer notation, an ear and a brain will do the trick. You will have to hear it enough to get it fixed in your mind.

Going back to the larger questions you posed, there seems to be 2 schools of thought. One is to play it "right" (meaning how someone they like played it, usually the first or most poplar rendition). The opposite side of that coin is to make it your own and not pay so much attention to how others have performed it. And there's lots of room in-between. Commonly, the first time through an instrumental, it is played pretty much as written. Then you begin to branch out, usually keeping the chord structure unchanged.