Guide to getting and playing better gigs

Improvise Your Solos

Strange as it may sound, the hardest thing of all is improvising a nice melody over a simple, un-adorned chord progression. For example,a C, Am, F to G type of chord progression.

Lots of players tend to rely on their licks for playing lines. Licks are harder to do slowly and still have them sound musical. Plus of course, they may not really fit against the chords. Think melody when improvising, don't think licks. Licks are what you use in the gaps between the lyrics, or during the ending crescendo, but not where a solo or a theme is required.

The other reason it's harder is because when the chords are very straightforward, just plain old major or minor -- maybe a 7th thrown in -- you have fewer notes to choose from. To play a nice sounding melody with so few "home notes" is obviously more difficult than if your chords are so extended that just about any note will fit.

Like everything else about playing an instrument, practice is the key. Most players practice fast. Why not? We all want to be the fastest that ever was. But practice the slow stuff too. Put time into playing slow simple melodies. Use well known melodies if you can't yet invent them. Any melody will do. Milk each note. Listen. Squeeze the music out.

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Let's say that your jammin' on a simple three chord progression, Dm-C-Bb-C. Based on the chord progression, we'll pick D minor as our soloing key of choice. I have always had luck memorizing a particular pattern and moving it around depending on the key. Here is the one that I use most and can use in any key major or minor. Here it is in our Dm position:

Pattern 1
E---l---l---l---l-x-l-x-l---l-x-l---l-r-l
B---l---l---l---l-x-l-R-l---l-x-l---l---l
G---l---l---l---l-x-l---l-r-l---l---l---l
D---l---l---l---l-x-l---l-x-l-x-l---l---l
A---l---l---l---l-r-l---l-x-l-R-l---l---l
E---l---l---l---l-x-l-x-l---l-x-l---l---l
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

The RR'sS represent the root of the major key (F) and the Rr'sS represent the root in the minor key (D).

Technically I suppose you could call this an F major scale in phrygian mode (beginning on the third, A). But I really don't. It's just a particular set of finger placements that are comfortable and reliable for soloing. Since when I solo I will be stressing the notes of the major and minor, the A phrygian is just a coincidence.

OK. Now we've got a scale to use. Notice that this scale contains all the notes of the chords being played. Like so:

D minor scale D-E-F-G-A-Bb-C
Dm chord D-F-A
C chord C-E-G
Bb chord Bb-D-F

Now when we solo (which you will remember is supposed to be a story within a story, not just a bunch of licks) we can really play any note in the scale and it will fit. It won't always sound good, but it will fit in some way.

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Here are two more positions of the same scale.

Pattern 2 (F major scale)
E---l---l-x-l---l-x-l-x-l---l---l---l---l
B---l---l-r-l---l-x-l-R-l---l---l---l---l
G---l-x-l-x-l---l-x-l---l---l---l---l---l
D---l-x-l-R-l---l-x-l---l---l---l---l---l
A-x-l---l-x-l---l-r-l---l---l---l---l---l
E-R-l---l-x-l---l-x-l---l---l---l---l---l
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Pattern 3 (D minor scale)
E---l---l---l(x)l---l-x-l-R-l---l-x-l---l
B---l---l---l(x)l-x-l---l-x-l---l-r-l---l
G---l---l---l-R-l---l-x-l---l-x-l---l---l
D---l---l---l-x-l---l-r-l---l-x-l---l---l
A---l---l---l-x-l---l-x-l-x-l---l---l---l
E---l---l---l-r-l---l-x-l-R-l---l---l---l
7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16

(x) alternative fingerings to use if you want to stay in one position. Notice that this is the D minor scale and that the D minor pentatonic scale is contained within this scale. Where did you think the pentatonic it came from? If you link patterns 1, 2 and 3 together starting with the F on the E string 1st fret (pattern 2) you can move up and down the fretboard all the way to the 24th fret (if you have one) without leaving the patterns. Like this: (In TAB form)

E------------------------------------8-10-12--l
B---------------------------5-6-8/10----------l
G-------------------2/3-5-7-------------------l
D-------------2-3-5---------------------------l
A-------1-3-5---------------------------------l
E-1-3-5---------------------------------------l

E-13-12-10----------------------------13-15-17/18-l
B----------13-11-10----------13-15-17-------------l
G-------------------10-12-14----------------------l
D-------------------------------------------------l
A-------------------------------------------------l
E-------------------------------------------------l

E--20-18-17----------------------------18-20-22/24l
B-----------20-18-17----------18-20-22------------l
G--------------------19-17-19---------------------l
D-------------------------------------------------l
A-------------------------------------------------l
E-------------------------------------------------l

Try playing this slowly and smoothly hammering-on each ascending note, pulling-off each descending note, and sliding where notated. Stop at 20 if you don't have the upper frets, or if you get tired. Now, the nice thing about remembering patterns is that the pattern works for any key; just change the position. Pattern 1 above starts on the third of the major scale. (remember it's only a pattern, not a phrygian scale). So the starting points on the low E string that I remember are:

C major/A minor open
D major/B minor 2nd fret
E major/C# minor 4th fret
F major/D minor 5th fret (as above)
G major/E minor 7th fret
A major/F# minor 9th fret

We can find a few licks within each pattern that we can use to augment our solos. Like these:

Dm
E-----5-6-8-6-5---5-------l-8-----5--8-----5-8-10-l
B----6---------8-6--8-6-5-l--6---6----6---6-------l
G---7---------------------l---5-7------5-7--------l
D-------------------------l-----------------------l
A-------------------------l-----------------------l
E-------------------------l-----------------------l

E---------------------------5---5-6-5-6-8-6-8/10--l
B----------5--5-6-5-6-8-6-8---8-------------------l
G----7-5-7--7-------------------------------------l
D-------------------------------------------------l
A-------------------------------------------------l
E-------------------------------------------------l

Also notice as we put the patterns together and complete the major scale up the neck that the chords for the tune we're playing become available for licks. Like this:

Dm
E-5--------13-10-----l
B--6-------------10--l
G---7----------------l
D----7---------------l
A-----5--------------l
E--------------------l

C
E-8--------15-12-----l
B--8-------------13--l
G---9----------------l
D----10--------------l
A-----10-------------l
E-------8------------l

Bb
E-10-------13-10-----l
B--11------------11--l
G---10---------------l
D-----8--------------l
A--------------------l
E--------------------l

We can use these triads in our solos to really accentuate the chords and pull-off the triads in kind of a "Hotel California" "Sultans of Swing" solo kind of thing.

Find a pattern that you like and that feels comfortable for your fingers and playing style. Then play it a thousand times. Have a friend play the chords over and over and try it out. Or play along with a tune in each key. Well, this should get you started on soloing in the major and minor keys.

Good Luck!

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