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  #31  
Old 12-04-2017, 09:02 PM
Davis Webb Davis Webb is offline
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Lots of good info here. Here are some tidbits.

a. decide on which emotion you want to create
b. build the solo, starting simple and taking it to a crescendo, too many newbs just pointlessly noodle
c. finish it with an unpredictable riff that is better then every other part of it

d. remember, minor scales make sad, pensive, major scales make happy, strong, dim scales leave uncertainty

e. no need to learn every scale, just the few you use most often

f. get a looper and practice over progressions for hours

Have fun...when it kicks in, it is very satisfying.

Best guitar solo tips and inspiration...Johnny Hiland

Here is just a taste, ignore the title of the vid..just get to know him.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kyndKLMTRsE
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  #32  
Old 12-05-2017, 12:25 PM
DaveKell DaveKell is offline
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Originally Posted by Davis Webb View Post
Lots of good info here. Here are some tidbits.

a. decide on which emotion you want to create
b. build the solo, starting simple and taking it to a crescendo, too many newbs just pointlessly noodle
c. finish it with an unpredictable riff that is better then every other part of it

d. remember, minor scales make sad, pensive, major scales make happy, strong, dim scales leave uncertainty

e. no need to learn every scale, just the few you use most often

f. get a looper and practice over progressions for hours

Have fun...when it kicks in, it is very satisfying.

Best guitar solo tips and inspiration...Johnny Hiland

Here is just a taste, ignore the title of the vid..just get to know him.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kyndKLMTRsE
Thanks for the Hiland info. The guy is awesome. I guess he's another example of a handicapped person who excels in other areas. I know a local guy who is my age. I swear he's one of the most goofy men I know. It's terrorizing to ride in a vehicle with him driving because he lives in a constant state of daydreaming. Doesn't have the common sense to attend to personal hygiene. Put a guitar in his hands though and the guy can play back anything he listens to almost perfectly on first try. I guess I'm too smart to get it! You are right though about the satisfaction when it kicks in. It's starting to happen here and there.
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  #33  
Old 12-05-2017, 03:23 PM
1neeto 1neeto is offline
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Originally Posted by Bob Womack View Post
I work a paper called "The Art of Soloing" and have posted it on my website, HERE. There might something there that you could use.

Bob

Gonna read this when I get home from work. Thanks!
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  #34  
Old 12-08-2017, 10:22 AM
DaveKell DaveKell is offline
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I've written 3 original songs I played at the regular Friday jam I attend. I recorded two of them and sent them to a friend of over 40 years who is a somewhat well known Nashville songwriter. He had the distinction of writing the only song on a Garth Brooks cd Garth recorded where he wrote all the rest of them. My friend heaped tons of praise on my songs, only suggesting the change of two words on one of them. I was amazed at how much he liked them and was very encouraged.

I have another new one I'll play tonight. I began working on my own solo for it rather than springing a song on our phenomenal old guy who is entirely capable of spontaneous improvisation. I'm finding that all I have to do is hear the solo in my head and find the notes on the neck. I know some of you are saying "well, duh!" about now. I have to add that now , something is clicking for me. I have two books on soloing I've been learning scales from and also have a few videos on Youtube I refer to. It's getting exciting to say the least. I'm still light years away from ever improvising on the fly, but I'm beginning to "feel" where correct and applicable notes are.

I'll only add that the guitar I inherited from a recently deceased friend is a big part of my motivation. It's a beautifully opened up 36 year old dred I find a real joy to play. The guitar itself seems to be encouraging me to come to her and play things on her I've never explored before. My friend's guitar seems to love me as much as I love her and she is giving me her all. I guess I now fully understand the concept of a guitar that speaks to you and feel very fortunate my friend left her to me. He had a couple limited edition Taylors I thought I wanted more but obviously I would have been wrong. An old guy at the jam owns one of them I got for him from my friend's brother at nearly half price of its true value. He mentioned he thought he'd have rather been able to buy my guitar now. I told him I wouldn't trade her for the 2 Taylors he now owns. He seemed a bit offended slightly, but it's the absolute truth. I'm dancing with the one who brought me and she just keeps on giving! Does that sound weird?
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  #35  
Old 12-09-2017, 04:01 PM
tonyo tonyo is offline
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Originally Posted by DaveKell View Post
...

I have another new one I'll play tonight. I began working on my own solo for it rather than springing a song on our phenomenal old guy who is entirely capable of spontaneous improvisation. I'm finding that all I have to do is hear the solo in my head and find the notes on the neck. I know some of you are saying "well, duh!" about now. I have to add that now , something is clicking for me. I have two books on soloing I've been learning scales from and also have a few videos on Youtube I refer to. It's getting exciting to say the least. I'm still light years away from ever improvising on the fly, but I'm beginning to "feel" where correct and applicable notes are.

...
Thanks. I've come up with some melodies in my head, sang them, tried them on the guitar (strumming chords) and it sounded ghastly. I know I've got to do what you said, "hear the solo and find the notes on the neck". Thanks for the reinforcement.
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  #36  
Old 12-10-2017, 12:37 PM
jessupe jessupe is offline
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Originally Posted by DaveKell View Post
I haven't posted much in a while so I thought I'd bring up a few things about my playing lately. The best I ever got with any kind of soloing was about 35 years ago when I was heavily into bluegrass and had a custom Martin D28. I stopped into a small local music store a few times to check out a bluegrass jam they had every Saturday morning. I picked on the tunes I knew and had rehearsed, never trying once to improvise a solo.

Skip ahead to the past 6 months. I inherited a Yairi DY90 super abalone from a wealthy friend who had traveled to Japan to commission K. Yairi to be very hands on with the building of this guitar. My friend was a collector with a basically unlimited budget so a lot of awesome guitars came and went in his collection. This 36 year old Yairi from 1982 was the one guitar that stayed in his collection. He maintained it in near mint condition. Since it was his favorite, he wanted me to have it.

I've been going to a jam every Friday where country music is played every Friday night for over 6 months. There are a lot of older guys there with awesome old Martins, ancient Gibsons and some high dollar Taylors. Since showing up with the Yairi, I can be heard above all of them and most eyes are usually on me. An old Texas music legend who plays breaks on all the songs with the only electric there has been prodding me to do my own leads on the Yairi since I embellish my chord phrasings a lot.

At first I was terrified of the idea since he is always spot on with an appropriate solo for every song played. The first few I did were disasters, mainly because everybody else faltered on the progressions while following me. My solos were totally melody based so I never understood the problem. I got out my Toby Walker Take a Solo cd a few times and went through every exercise. I have started recording myself singing new songs with chord accompaniment to practice lead breaks. So far I have to learn each solo by rote practice in hopes the guys chording along will follow perfectly. I record two or three runs throughs of the progression to practice with.

I'm having a somewhat hard time jumping in on the right note. Actually, I'm having to look down the neck in anticipation of when and where to start. I'm nowhere near being able to improvise solos on the fly and am getting discouraged because of that. At least I can't improvise anything that isn't tied closely to a scale yet. I intend to get there though since the Yairi is a very motivating guitar to play.

Anybody got any suggestions on how to turbocharge my soloing and become more adept at it? Seriously, no suggestion could possibly be too basic. I'm devoted to accomplishing this. It's where I should be by now.
Good soloing is all aout knowing when to speak....a bad solisit will be like a person who "hogs" a conversation and never lets anyone else ever speak....the "timing" thing your referring to can be go hand on hand with other aspects of the "song" and fortunately for you there is a "trick" that can 1. help you with the timing and 2. help you with "what am I supposed to do when I'm not soloing, sit here with finger in my ear? ....

So what thois comes down to is that yopu have to have some basic knowledge, I will assume you have that...

1. know a penatonic scale
2. know how to find what key you are in to be able to play over the song

assuming you have that in place take a song, a simple blues song, and use that to "jam" over

what you are trying to do is 1. HEAR the music,as a conversation, try to get a good idea of when its a good time to say something....these will be the "areas" of "bursts" of solos, this is when you are talking....BUT WHAT TO DO WHEN IT'S NOT YOUR TURN TO SPEAK?....what you do is the "but,but,um,um,hmm.hmm,oh,oh,ah,ah" while listening to the other guy talk....

what this translates to in solo land, is that during the periods of time of the song when you are not speaking/soloing, not being the forefront of the conversation, while others are "speaking" ie other parts of the music are being more in front, say the vocals, you will be doing in essence what would be in a speaking conversation..."yes,yes, I see, I see, what? what? ,ok ,ok...or you are opening ypur mouth saying little things, but the other guy is still talking....

or in times when you are not soloing, within the key, same scale you are soling in, you just play some simple one note'r lines, something that goes with the rythm, something that mimic the bass line for a sec, something that is in unison with the vocals , for example....

WHY THIS HELPS is because if you do this,1. you are never really stopping, you are in flow with the song and rhythm, like pedaling a bike slowly, its much easier to start pedaling faster if you are already pedaling vs starting from a dead stop

2. this help you really understand the song, gets it so you know the other guys parts too, as you may be tracing their moves every once in awhile...

quite simply you are trying to keep soloing during the entire song, BUT when it is not your turn to speak/solo, you want your little conversation interjections, "the ah yes, I see, ah,um's" to be virtually invisible in the sound scape, so they just blend into the background...

just like in a real conversation, if someone else is speaking and you are saying, "yes,yes, hmm,ok, I see" even though you are uttering words, you are not being rude and cutting the guy off, you little utterances actually invisibly disappear into the conversation and seem "normal"

whereas if someone starts to say something and you just jump in, not only is there that weird pause {your stumbling with coming in at the right time}but its just rude and sounds like crap....ie see half of the guitar players from the 80's/90's who would take every opportunity to "say something"

Put on ZZ tops "pincushion" G penatonic blues scale, easy to play with, because the scale goes over it well and because the song is not really "bluesy and has some strange arrangements its a good song to try the conversation approach, try to do a dual solo with Billy, speak at the same time, but let him lead, when he's singing, put in some "uhhuh's, aha', ok's....

I think it will help if you understand what I'm saying
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  #37  
Old 12-11-2017, 09:58 AM
DaveKell DaveKell is offline
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Originally Posted by jessupe View Post
quite simply you are trying to keep soloing during the entire song
This is along the lines of something I've been trying at the jam. I work the scale of the key we're playing quietly in the background. Since doing this I've discovered it's the key to playing in the style of a guy I've heard playing with other artists on a few cd's I have. His name is Bill Shute but I can't find much about him online. I like his style, somewhat reminiscent of bluegrass, but he is seemingly constantly soloing over the chords of songs he accompanies on. I'm slowly getting there. It's a fantastic breakthrough in my playing to be moving into soloing after a lifetime of chord strumming only. To be sure, I'm one of only a few at a well attended jam who have no issues with solid, on the beat strumming. My timing was perfected after a 14 year stint on electric bass in an orchestra. Soloing is more like stepping out in front as opposed to providing the foundation steadily I did on bass. I'm fully committed to getting there. The biggest impetus is the Toby Walker Take a Solo cd I have. My man Toby boiled it down to its essence and got me going!
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  #38  
Old 12-11-2017, 11:56 PM
tonyo tonyo is offline
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The biggest impetus is the Toby Walker Take a Solo cd I have. My man Toby boiled it down to its essence and got me going!
Interested in other's reviews of the Take a solo cd lesson by Toby Walker. I'm thinking of getting it.
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  #39  
Old 12-13-2017, 07:39 AM
mattbn73 mattbn73 is offline
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Hey Dave . Bluegrass can be beastly. Those folks can play straight diatonic scales, but with the notes sequenced in such a way as to basically imply chord tone soloing feels like jazzers get with arpeggios.

I'm not a "real" bluegrass player, but I play AT it occasionally. An approach I like - to really get my ears tuned up for playing those diatonic runs over chords in a way which spells out the changes little more - is to kind of warm up my ears by playing pentatonic scales for the chord of the moment over the tune's changes. So, for three chords in G, it would be G pentatonic C pentatonic and D pentatonic over their corresponding chords.

If I do this for a few minutes, it really helps the ears/fingers get into a little more of that style of playing.
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  #40  
Old 01-03-2018, 11:44 AM
DaveKell DaveKell is offline
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When I picked up the Yairi DY90 my wealthy friend directly commissioned Kazuo Yairi to build on a trip to Japan in 1982, his brother gave me a box of music books my friend collected over the years. There was a book in there on scales instruction for blues, jazz, rock and country guitar styles. Each scale has solos diagrammed that pertain to it. It also has extensive arpeggios covered immensely. Aside from his friendship and the Yairi, this is one of the best things he left me. I intend to learn every page of the book throughout the rest of the winter. I already sat down with a few of my 70's lp's and soloed along with several songs on them. I'll never know why I didn't pursue this sooner but I have a whole new world opening up to me now. It's all beginning to click.

I'm adding the book is called Styles for the Studio by Leon White.

Last edited by DaveKell; 01-03-2018 at 01:10 PM. Reason: more info
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  #41  
Old 01-03-2018, 01:14 PM
DaveKell DaveKell is offline
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OMG! I just looked this book up on Amazon, only 6 used available ranging from $200 to over $800!

Good news though. A 40th anniversary reprint is available with backing tracks at stylesforthestudio.com for $29.95.

Last edited by DaveKell; 01-03-2018 at 01:25 PM.
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  #42  
Old 01-09-2018, 09:19 AM
DaveKell DaveKell is offline
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I am continuing to amaze myself at how soloing is progressing for me. I watched Toby Walker's Take a Solo cd again a few days ago and was much closer to repeating everything he demonstrated on it. The combination of Toby's cd and the book I mentioned is unlocking the concepts of soloing for me. In zen philosophy there is a concept called being blocked. It pertains to anything you are trying to accomplish and how you have to unblock the obstacles in yourself to get there. I had to become unblocked again in pinstriping motorcycles by hand after a 12 year period where I had stopped doing it. The same for resuming my old career as a master signpainter after almost 20 years away from it. Now it's soloing on the guitar. I'm learning a few new songs for the weekly jam I attend and I'm doing my own solos instead of relying on the 83 year old Texas music legend to play them on his Tele for me. Improvising solos is coming for me with greatly decreased effort as I learn more and more from the Styles for the Studio book and review Toby's cd. As I've said before (and I was quoting another reply to this thread), it's beginning to click for me. Unblocking the flow of sounds available to me is getting easier every day. I'm learning quickly the notes and patterns that don't apply correctly and immediately figuring out the ones that do work. I haven't been this excited about guitar since my dad bought me a single pickup Gibson Melody Maker guitar right after the Beatles first American tv appearance. I'm fortunate to have the Yairi a wealthy friend who recently passed left me that he went to Japan in 1982 and commissioned Kazuo Yairi to build. The 36 year old dred has connected intimately with my soul and together we are entering exciting mew territory every day I play it. I'm still aways from jumping into a song with a spontaneous improvised solo, but that day is coming soon. I can feel it!
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  #43  
Old 01-12-2018, 08:29 AM
DaveKell DaveKell is offline
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Originally Posted by DaveKell View Post
OMG! I just looked this book up on Amazon, only 6 used available ranging from $200 to over $800!

Good news though. A 40th anniversary reprint is available with backing tracks at stylesforthestudio.com for $29.95.
I was told on another forum you can use the code 4styles20 for a discount when ordering this book with video and backing tracks. The discount saved me almost 7 dollars in shipping cost. This is apparently a limited edition reprint of this 40 year old book.
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  #44  
Old 01-13-2018, 08:13 AM
mattbn73 mattbn73 is offline
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Originally Posted by DaveKell View Post
I was told on another forum you can use the code 4styles20 for a discount when ordering this book with video and backing tracks. The discount saved me almost 7 dollars in shipping cost. This is apparently a limited edition reprint of this 40 year old book.
Are you talking about this one? https://stylesforthestudio.com
Looks like it has digital version as well?
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  #45  
Old 01-13-2018, 12:15 PM
love the guitar love the guitar is offline
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I could always whistle solos. I eventually got to where I could play what was in my head a fraction of a second after I thought it. Whistle or hum what you think then find it on your guitar. 6-9 note motifs are a great place to start. This will free you from sounding mechanical from playing patterns etc. Have Fun!
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