What is a pro thinking when they build a solo on guitar? They are looking at #1 What are the chords and what Key they are in? #2 What scale[s] will fit over those chords? #3 What are the notes in the chords? and target those chord tones. #4 Create a sense of melody and phrasing, from the information of the first 3 steps! A professional will work through these steps almost instantly but if we take a few minutes we can be confident in the notes we choose in our solos. As we work through these steps our solos will start to sound more melodic and confident! This technique will work over any blues rock chord progression. Don't just play through the pentatonic scale hoping to hit good sounding notes in your guitar solo. This is a simple concept but takes some planning and focus. But well worth the effort! Over the A - G and D chords we can use the D major scale, A major pentatonic scale and the A minor pentatonic scale. Also using the major third of each chord is another way to sound melodic in your solos. Using the D major scale on one string in a great way to move up and down the fretboard. Here is a link for the backing track that I used in the demo solo • Tasty Blues Rock in A ... . Great backing track to improvise your solos over.
Video Content
0:00 How do the pro's build a solo on guitar lesson intro.
0:28 Step #1 Identify the chords and what key the chords are in.
1:52 Step #2 What scale[s] will fit over those chords.
3:18 Step #3 What are the notes in the chords and target those chord tones.
5:21 Step #4 Create a sense of melody and phrasing. Using the information from the first 3 steps.
6:34 How to target the major thirds of the chords that you are using when you improvise a solo.
9:37 Demo solo using the 4 steps for the framework in this improvising.
11:11 Last words of wisdom. Confidence when you improvise a guitar solo!