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This is quite a tricky lesson for anyone to learn. You see a lot of the time when I hear a guitarist that I find very interesting, it’s often because he/she has spontaneity about him/herself. I find that guitarists that can improvise at a moment’s notice are much more listenable because they can play the same song every night of the tour but play it differently each night. The reason for this is that even though the same structure is being followed, it doesn’t feel repetitive because of the differences they’re working into it at the right moment. Guitarists like Jeff Beck, Joe Satriani and Guthrie Govan are well known for their spontaneous styles of playing and their ability to improvise.
Most people who start out learn licks and some phrases, but they don’t know how to break away from them. This is very important to learn as if the same lick is repeated endlessly it is very likely to turn off an audience rather than excite them. Learning the theory behind what is being played is the first part of breaking out of the pattern of licks, but the second part is learning what I like to call the musical version of Hess’s law (a science law that I learnt at A level). Essentially, you can find your way to the same destination by a different route but it will still fit if you’re careful.
Let’s say you have a basic Johnny B Goode type of thing (12 bar blues) going and you want to solo over it. Johnny be Goode is written in A and uses a lot of blues tricks to get its characteristic tone. One way of getting the tone of the solo would be to play it note for note; however this would sound too familiar to an audience, and the guitarist had to come up with the solo in the first place using what theory he knew, and that’s what made the solo what it was. By using the same building blocks you can come up with a solo with the same ‘life’ as the original but that sounds fresh, or if you want you can use influences other than the ones the original writer, Chuck Berry, used. You could make it more funky, more rocky, more metallic, but the important part of spontaneity is that you realise that you don’t have to do things note for note all the time.
Tab key:-
--4-- = pluck the string shown while fretting the string on the fret numbered
--h6- = hammer-on your finger onto the string on the fret numbered, doesn't require the string to be plucked
--p2- = pull-off your finger from the string shown to sound a note while fretting the string on the fret numbered
-8b9- = luck the string shown while fretting the string on the fret numbered, then bend the string until the note sounded becomes the same as the note sounded on the fret shown to the right of the b. E.g., 8b9 means pluck the string while fretting the string on the 8th fret, then bend the string one semitone/one fret higher in pitch.
-8b9r8- = same a regular bend but allow string to return to regular position on fret numbered; think of b as meaning bend, and r as meaning relax
--t12- = tap on the fret numbered firmly with one of the fingers in your plucking hand
-t9r5- = tap on the fret numbered firmly with one of the fingers in your plucking hand then release your finger from the string either by simply pulling it off or twanging it, but fret the string on the fret numbered to sound that note after the finger tapping the string has been removed
-mb7- = bend the string slightly after plucking the string number shown, but don't bend it so that raises the note in pitch by a fret.
/ = Slide finger(s) up the fret-board to the fret shown
\ = Slide finger(s) down the fret-board to the fret shown
--9v- = use vibrato by wavering the string up and down by bending it to get a sort of wavy sound
E||------------------|------------------||----------------------------------|
B||------------------|------------------||----------------------------------|
G||------------------|------------------||-----------7----------------------|
D||----------------9-|-----5----7---/9--||---------------9----7-------------|
A||-7---10--/12------|-7----------------||-7---10-----------------5--/10--\7|
E||------------------|------------------||----------------------------------|
All of these phrases start on the same note, and the first two phrases are actually using the exact same notes all the way through, but they don’t sound exactly the same. This is because there are different overtones to each string, so playing the same notes on different strings can get a different flavour out of what you’re playing. It is a good idea to be aware of how modes and scales repeat themselves all over the fret-board; so that you can get the precise sound you’re after.
Remember that most of the time the only thing that’s limiting your playing will be your imagination, so don’t be afraid to experiment. If it doesn’t work, then you know that it wasn’t the right time for that phrase, but then you can look about for all of these things during practice. Each day can bring new light to the way that you play.
Another way you can help a solo to blend into a song is to shadow the chords being played.
Here is two bars of music for you. It doesn’t matter what rhythm you use as long as it’s the same for the top and bottom bar. And when you feel the chords should be played if there was a second guitarist continually playing the first bar, that is when you should be playing the root note of the chords. Don’t worry if this is confusing as you don’t have to do this; just try and play the chords and then see if you can tell how the mini solo underneath would fit over them.
E||------------------|------------------||----------------------------------|
B||------------------|------------------||--3-------------------------------|
G||---9--------------|---12-------------||--0----------------0--------------|
D||---9--------------|---12-------------||--2----------------0--------------|
A||---7--------------|---10-------------||--3----------------2--------------|
E||------------------|------------------||-------------------3--------------|
E||------------------|------------------||----------------------------------|
B||------------------|------------------||----------------------------------|
G||------------------|------------------||----------------------------------|
D||-----------9--/12-|---5-------7-8-9--||--10---7—p5-----------------------|
A||---7--10----------|------------------||------------7-p5---3----2v--------|
E||------------------|------------------||----------------------------------|
Apart from this there’s only one question left for me to answer this time around, and that’s ”if I know what phrase is best then why should I vary”, simply because it gets boring. Making sure that you play different variations of similar phrases makes sure that you keep your playing interesting to the audience while maintaining your style. Just putting the slightest difference in a solo can make it that much more interesting to the audience.
This is why solos that are performed on the spot live are often much more exciting than ones that have been planned out note for note being performed live. Also, if you hear a lick and think it sounds good then don’t be afraid to learn it; just remember that you have every right to change the lick if you think it sounds better a certain way, and be sure to look around different guitarist for ideas. In the words of Guthrie Govan: “if you steal ideas from one person it’s theft, but if you steal ideas from a thousand people then it’s research”, don’t steal ideas but learn from everyone as it’s unfair to expect one person to know everything.
That’s all for this lesson, but again if you have any problems or questions then let me know. I hope I’ve helped some of you and I’ll see you next time!
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