TOTAL beginner Learning how to solo. HELP!!
- Thread starter vejichan
- Start date
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^This.
If you can’t play guitar well then there’s zero point in trying to solo.
You should quit and make more productive use of your time.
jaxadam
Well-Known Member
^This.
100% except that i enjoy making music?
MetalDestroyer
Heaven's Football Bat
cindarkness
SS.org Regular
Back to square one.
Does someone have a Vejichan thread bingo? I think I've hit the jackpot a handful of times already..
Now just go and practice!
Does someone have a Vejichan thread bingo? I think I've hit the jackpot a handful of times already..
I like the way you think though. You think a preschooler shouldn't learn to read because they don't understand the letters? Looking at your first post in this thread, you obviously understand the letters - heck you probably understand more than 50% of us here doing chugga-chugga riffs combined with the occasional one-three-five and running powerchords up to the 24th fret.
Now just go and practice!
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jaxadam
Well-Known Member
Well then there you go.
Pietjepieter
Contributor
this is the way
jaxadam
Well-Known Member
You already wrote a dissertation on how to play lead. So do it.
Learn the major and minor scales in all 5 positions, all over the fretboard. Play full scale, pentatonic, and arpeggio. Aim for target tones (knowing arpeggio shapes helps because that’s what they’re built on). Play over a drone so you can learn to recognize the intervals.
The only thing you’re missing is once you have the fingerings down, try to “make music”. Write phrases that “say something”. Then you can call back to this as a motif, or do call and response, and you can repeat these phrases an octave higher or repeat ascending / descending. The best solos say something to the listener. (Even if it’s just Kerry King wanking on the trem and “screaming at the audience” lol.)
Learn the major and minor scales in all 5 positions, all over the fretboard. Play full scale, pentatonic, and arpeggio. Aim for target tones (knowing arpeggio shapes helps because that’s what they’re built on). Play over a drone so you can learn to recognize the intervals.
The only thing you’re missing is once you have the fingerings down, try to “make music”. Write phrases that “say something”. Then you can call back to this as a motif, or do call and response, and you can repeat these phrases an octave higher or repeat ascending / descending. The best solos say something to the listener. (Even if it’s just Kerry King wanking on the trem and “screaming at the audience” lol.)
High Plains Drifter
... drifting...
^^^ But he doesn't want to actually learn anything or put in the effort and he has literally no time. There are dozens of vej-threads just like this one "seeking help". Zero to no interaction on multiple vej-threads where people try to help or engage and he just shoots em the ghost. I've said it before.. He's a troll or in need of serious validation that he's not getting irl.. maybe both. I don't really believe much of anything he says. I listen to exactly 5 albums, have 10 spare minutes, commute 2-3 hours, suck at guitar, make pop-country- hip hop- jazz whatever, and spend shit-tons of money on midi/ plug-ins, etc and although I'm miserable making music, I enjoy it... blah blah ad nauseam.
EDIT> The 'validation' thing is understandable and I prob shouldn't even mention it. Most of us are here seeking some kind of acceptance or affirmation or whatever.. our new gear, our music, etc.. That's what a community of enthusiasts should be about. But the way that vej goes about it is truly unique.
EDIT> The 'validation' thing is understandable and I prob shouldn't even mention it. Most of us are here seeking some kind of acceptance or affirmation or whatever.. our new gear, our music, etc.. That's what a community of enthusiasts should be about. But the way that vej goes about it is truly unique.
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wheresthefbomb
Well-Known Member
You can give a person a drone and watch them suffer under the weight of mediocrity.
Teach a person to drone, they'll never shred a day in their lives and they will know true happiness.
Drew
Forum MVP
You know, this thread is going to be a trainwreck anyway...
It's probably worth at least noting how much of a watershed moment "Kind of Blue" was for improvised soloing, and how much of what you consider the framework today really takes root from that. The idea that you build a solo from a scale, for one, rather than from chord tones and extensions of the chord you're playing over at that moment.
I guess I only mention this becase, well, why not throw a little more gasoline on the fire, but also because this is a perfectly valid OTHER way of thinking about soloing - start on a chord tone, build a melody from other chord tones or potential extensions of that chord, and find ways to connect them to the next chord tone in musically interesting ways.
And then there's the fact that all music, solos or otherwise, can essentially be distilled to creating tension and then resolving it. Think about building a sense of movement in a solo by adding or removing speed, going from "tense" notes to consonant notes or vice versa, high notes to low notes, etc. It's like Kurt Vonnegut's quip, "all characters should want something, even if only a glass of water." Every solo should start somewhere, and then go somewhere else. If there's no movement, no sense of going from one place to another, you haven't done anything.
But, like, SO much of "how do you play a solo" is just a microcosm of "how do you write a song." It's really the same problem but in miniature.
It's probably worth at least noting how much of a watershed moment "Kind of Blue" was for improvised soloing, and how much of what you consider the framework today really takes root from that. The idea that you build a solo from a scale, for one, rather than from chord tones and extensions of the chord you're playing over at that moment.
I guess I only mention this becase, well, why not throw a little more gasoline on the fire, but also because this is a perfectly valid OTHER way of thinking about soloing - start on a chord tone, build a melody from other chord tones or potential extensions of that chord, and find ways to connect them to the next chord tone in musically interesting ways.
And then there's the fact that all music, solos or otherwise, can essentially be distilled to creating tension and then resolving it. Think about building a sense of movement in a solo by adding or removing speed, going from "tense" notes to consonant notes or vice versa, high notes to low notes, etc. It's like Kurt Vonnegut's quip, "all characters should want something, even if only a glass of water." Every solo should start somewhere, and then go somewhere else. If there's no movement, no sense of going from one place to another, you haven't done anything.
But, like, SO much of "how do you play a solo" is just a microcosm of "how do you write a song." It's really the same problem but in miniature.
G
Please go back to thiz post and read it again...let me know how thats not someone actually trying to learn and apply theory. It maybe helpful for other people..for the longest time i learned scales as picking excercises. Nobody ever told me how , when, why we can apply theory and use it to compose music.
Sorry but this response just went over my head. I wish there was way to explain theory in a simpler way..modes, 3rds, circle of 5th etc...i read and heard it all before.. i am more about how do i use and apply this info to make my own music. Hence the way i put in my post. Solos..how to compose ...knowing the chord tones of the chords you are soloing over...arrange/phrase the notes etc.
So you're a total beginner with a decade of experience, and you'd like to improve your soloing skills while sitting on a train writing threads about how you have no time to actually pick up a guitar and play. Except no you wouldn't, because everyone on the internet is a big ol' meanie and you should just quit playing guitar, which you don't do to begin with, except you love music too much to quit. You are an exhausting individual.
I recommend rigorous counselling for your self esteem issues, a time management seminar, and guitar lessons - in that order.
I recommend rigorous counselling for your self esteem issues, a time management seminar, and guitar lessons - in that order.
jaxadam
Well-Known Member
Did this guy ever end up getting the help he needs? You know, sweep tapping.
wheresthefbomb
Well-Known Member
I worked as a janitor for a couple of years in my early 20s, and when I got done with my daily work too quickly they'd send me to go sweep the stairwells in an 8 story dorm. I'd go sit at the top of the stairwell and read until 20 minutes to clock-out, then real quick sweep my way down just in time for the building inspector lady to come by and tell me what a great job I'd done. I burned through some very heavy literature in those two years. I guess what I'm trying to say is that if you're really dedicated, you can spend all of your time reading, and still become a master sweeper.
High Plains Drifter
... drifting...
Dude, I'm not even understanding exactly what you're saying here which is cool... I don't care.
You've received SO many recommendations in regards to your various inquiries about theory, cord progression, plug-ins, etc, etc. There have been hardly any instances of you actually applying people's suggestions in a real-life application. At least rarely have you indicated otherwise. And so many times, you either ignore the advice, or give up and then start with the self-deprecating statements which at least in my most recent recollection, is where the threads begin to devolve. Your defensiveness and sticking your head in the sand only further exacerbates your threads demise.
I dunno.. I could go on but why? If you're for real ( and again... I just don't think so) then why wouldn't you apply the recommendations offered? or practice ( I know... no time)? or come back to update with your progress? It leaves people feeling like you don't listen and don't genuinely care about any of the stuff that you initially inquire about.
And like, this isn't really here or there regarding all of this but for example: the "purple guitar" thread... Fuck dude, who starts a thread ( a cool thread, respectively) and never once comes back in to comment or post pics or even throw out some likes? You abandon threads like you simply forget or don't care. People have been awfully gracious towards you... even the folks that you say are being mean and that you tell to stay away cause they're not helping. But that support diminishes when you veg-out. You can't blame em, dude.
