Improving Your Improvisation and Soloing skills through Reflection
I’d like you to think back to a time when you’ve tried to sit down and create your own solo.
If you’re like most people, the end result probably wasn’t the next best guitar solo. Maybe you ran out of ideas, you weren’t happy with what you created and nothing sounded like music you would enjoy, either way it can be tough.
I understand how this feels because I’ve been through this in the past, however there are ways to improve in this skill so that you can sit down with your guitar and with zero preparation, create nice sounding music that you’re proud of, and that impresses other people when they listen to it too.
“How do you make you soloing sound better?”
How? You take the last note of your current idea and swap it out for another note in your scale near-by. As a general rule, put this note on the string just above or below the string you’re currently playing.
3. Once you have your ideas, we need to hear how they sound in music. Try putting on a backing track and listening to how you new ideas sound.
What you’ll find is that your soloing should sound more like thought out ideas and less like a random stream of notes.
Next steps
This is the first step. To continue applying this, take a different pair of strings from your scale and go through all the steps again.
The next step is to experiment by adding different phrasing elements to your solos.
For any long-held notes, add different type of vibrators, and add in slides when you are moving to adjacent strings.
You can even experiment for certain repetition of your solos to be an octave higher. Or try playing the same notes somewhere else on your guitar, and see that may affect which notes you choose to substitute in to create variations that we spoke about in point 2.
Every time you create something cool, take a video of it so you’ve got it on record. And you can collect these little ideas you have to revisit them in the future.
You may be able to develop them further in the future when your technique or ear training or musical understanding improves.
About Guitar Tuition East London
A guitar school helping both beginner guitar players in London and more advanced guitar players to realise their childhood dreams of playing the guitar. Giving them both feedback and directions tailored to each individual, they are able to help them accomplish more in lessons than they would on their own in a friendly, supportive environment.
If you’re like most people, the end result probably wasn’t the next best guitar solo. Maybe you ran out of ideas, you weren’t happy with what you created and nothing sounded like music you would enjoy, either way it can be tough.
I understand how this feels because I’ve been through this in the past, however there are ways to improve in this skill so that you can sit down with your guitar and with zero preparation, create nice sounding music that you’re proud of, and that impresses other people when they listen to it too.
“How do you make you soloing sound better?”
- First, take a scale that you know and instead of playing up and down the scale as you usually do, we’re going to take pairs of adjacent strings (e.g. string 4 and 3). Next create an idea that’s between 3 – 6 notes long.
- Once you’ve made your idea, you’re going to make some variations.
How? You take the last note of your current idea and swap it out for another note in your scale near-by. As a general rule, put this note on the string just above or below the string you’re currently playing.
3. Once you have your ideas, we need to hear how they sound in music. Try putting on a backing track and listening to how you new ideas sound.
What you’ll find is that your soloing should sound more like thought out ideas and less like a random stream of notes.
Next steps
This is the first step. To continue applying this, take a different pair of strings from your scale and go through all the steps again.
The next step is to experiment by adding different phrasing elements to your solos.
For any long-held notes, add different type of vibrators, and add in slides when you are moving to adjacent strings.
You can even experiment for certain repetition of your solos to be an octave higher. Or try playing the same notes somewhere else on your guitar, and see that may affect which notes you choose to substitute in to create variations that we spoke about in point 2.
Every time you create something cool, take a video of it so you’ve got it on record. And you can collect these little ideas you have to revisit them in the future.
You may be able to develop them further in the future when your technique or ear training or musical understanding improves.
About Guitar Tuition East London
A guitar school helping both beginner guitar players in London and more advanced guitar players to realise their childhood dreams of playing the guitar. Giving them both feedback and directions tailored to each individual, they are able to help them accomplish more in lessons than they would on their own in a friendly, supportive environment.