solos

when creating a solo say in the key of e minor do you just play the notes in that scale or what cause i've heard people go crazy on solo's and i dont think they were just playing a scale.

you play whatever sounds good to you.

The most important thing is to play how you feel, by using your ears as a guide as to what sounds right and what sounds wrong, sometimes you just have to be willing to go with whatever emotion and music comes to you. As the years progress, I think its safe to say that most of us have the same intentions when writing a solo,:eek: We all try our best to transport the music we hear inside our head onto the fretboard. A good example of working around changes is Jimmy Pages solo on "Stairway To Heaven", this solo was written very impulsively, (unselfconsciously), but to alot of people its considered to the greatest solo ever written. Page bases his melodic ideas primarily on the A minor scale (ACDEG), but he specifically targets the F note (which is not included.) Theres just something about that one note that makes it work, and I can't think of it sounding any other way. Believe me once you larn this solo in its entirety, theres no turning back and you'll never look at the guitar the same.

In other words, if you hear some out notes in the song (in your head), fit them in, they just might be the magic notes.

-Joseph, :)

I know it's nit picky, but ACDEG isn't the a minor scale. It's the A minor pentatonic scale. A minor is ABCDEFG. The interesting thing is that page sometimes goes for the F# in that solo, to give it a dorian flavor.
As for scales and soloing, play long enough and scales become less relevent. You think more about intervals, and what sounds the notes will create, than what notes are in a certain scale.

Originally posted by LuigiCabrini

As for scales and soloing, play long enough and scales become less relevent. You think more about intervals, and what sounds the notes will create, than what notes are in a certain scale.

A Minor pentatonic I meant say, :). With soloing, its important to follow the rules to the point where its jammed into your head, but once you allow yourself to get past that step its important to know enough to rely on your instincts. You'll know when its time to move on. When writing solos its all about confidence, a record producer might tell you that its out of key or perhaps in the key of z, but if its played from the heart, you really can't go wrong, (but if a part of you feels that it could be better than go with that feeling.) I think for every serious guitarist, its safe to say that we are never quite satisfied, even when it comes to our finished compositions. But thats a good thing, because are always finding new ways to expand our creativity (as well as perfecting our style.) Its just very important to know who you are as a musician and soloist, and its takes sacrifices to get there. To find your sweet spot.

Its important to know how to play over changes (naturally) as well as being able to create your own static, in Stairway to Heaven" Jimmy Page demonstrates a very unique and skillful approach to plying over changes, in other words soloing over eacg chord rather than using one scale to play through the whole progression. [i] Whatever floats your boat, learn enough so you can use your creativity to its fullest extent...

-Joseph, :).

For an example the Slayer guitarists play way they want.No scales, just cool sounding solo.You can solo just how you want.
Hailz to you!!!!!
-Impaler

About the solos, just experiment and try to find the melody that sounds good over the chords. There's no set of rules to follow when composing solos, although it can be helpful to play the correct modal tones and play around with arpeggios. Just give it a try.


@Joseph - Uhhh, I'm not usually a stickler for theory, but F IS in the A minor scale. ACDEG is A minor pentatonic.

Whoops, sorry Joe, I didn't see those other posts up there.