Pentatonic soloing

[dmb_josh]

Having real trouble making any progress with my soloing, I have come here to get some ideas and suggestions on how I can better my guitar playing. I am working on playing pentatonic scales, starting on either the G or A on the low E string. I can play the scale straight up and down with no problem, however, when it is my turn to solo within that scale, I really have had no luck coming up with anything that sounds good or follows much of a rhythm. I have tried using hammer-ons and pull-offs, but I just can't seem to put anything decent together.

I would sincerely appreciate if someone could help me out - I am hoping my own creative spark will come alive, but so far its been pretty slow going. Any specific examples would be great, along with any soloing tips in general.

Thanks!

Josh

[Appfro]

go learn some moderately easy solos that are in songs that you like. that wil help you a lot. one of the first ones i learned was the little solo in wish you were here by pink floyd. pretty easy once you get it, and it gives you little cool licks. also the lead part in you look wonderful tonight by clapton is mostly pentatonic first position. so that'll help too. the more solos you learn that other people have done, the more you'll get the feel for how it works and the better you'll be at improving cause you just use some of the licks you've learned from other songs.

[jaroben]

I'm in the same boat dmb_josh. Exactly, matter of fact. Thanks for the tip appbro.

[dmb_josh]

Thanks for the quick reply, I will try what you have suggested!

Josh

[jellyfish]

Always been a demon of mine. "I know where to go but dont know how to make it flow." To better myself I usaully make up a 3 or 4 chord rythym jam and record it. Using Cool Edit Pro, I layer a lead track over it which consists of the main melody of the song. I do it backwards, whereas most people use the rythym as the foundation of the melody, I use the lead as the backbone of the song.

It helps me.

[skoal]

arpeggios, double stops, vibrato, and just be creative, mess around

[brian_ok]

First, the pentatonic scale is pretty limited...after all, it only has 5 tones. (hence the penta-). Modal soloing is where the action is at.

Experiment with passing tones, ie tones outside of the scale. These can really liven a song up, and will make your soloing much less forumlaic.

[GSR]

First, the pentatonic scale is pretty limited...after all, it only has 5 tones. (hence the penta-). Modal soloing is where the action is at.

Experiment with passing tones, ie tones outside of the scale. These can really liven a song up, and will make your soloing much less forumlaic.

Aren't you the same guy who spams nDMB?

[brian_ok]

First, the pentatonic scale is pretty limited...after all, it only has 5 tones. (hence the penta-). Modal soloing is where the action is at.

Experiment with passing tones, ie tones outside of the scale. These can really liven a song up, and will make your soloing much less forumlaic.

Aren't you the same guy who spams nDMB?

you say spams, i say brings happiness to... I've stopped that by the way.

Why do you ask?

[i am sam2]

i dont play lead guitar. i hardly even play regular guitar. but id say dont tell yourself "ok this solo has to be pentatonic" just play it. just screw around till you get an idea. and learn some other solos. or just WATCH someone do a solo and just make similar motions with your hands youd be suprised how it actually sounds alright

[mlb1399]

First, the pentatonic scale is pretty limited...after all, it only has 5 tones. (hence the penta-). Modal soloing is where the action is at.

Experiment with passing tones, ie tones outside of the scale. These can really liven a song up, and will make your soloing much less forumlaic.

That's great advice.

Just playing the notes has no flavor. Throw in slides, rolls, bends, hammer ons, pull offs, roll offs, etc to liven up the song and give it some flavor. Just mess around with stuff. I don't know why but it seems like I do a lot of stuff with the D, G, and B strings.

Here is a Pentatonic(minor) solo that my teacher showed me when I first started taking lessons. Kind of gives you an idea of some of the stuff you can do to liven it up a little bit. I am going completely from memory here as I don't have my guitar at work.

Code: Select all

|--------------------------------
|-----------------------7—5--
|-------------------5-7-7—5--
|----------5h6h7--------7—5--
|-5h6h7------------------------
|--------------------------------

a slight alteration

Code: Select all

|----------------------------------
|---------------------------7--5--
|--------------------5--5-7-7--5--
|----------5-5h6h7----------7--5--
|-5h6h7-------------------------
|----------------------------------

Do 1 of these 1 time through then do this

Code: Select all

|---------------------------------------------------------------
|------------------------—-------------------------------------
|-------------------5-7/8/7------------------------------------
|----------5h6h7-------—-----7-5-7-5-7------------------------
|-5h6h7---------------------------------7-5-7-5 7p6p5-----
|------------------------------------------------------------8-5

[mlb1399]

double post

[Dutch]

see, when i noodle around trying to solo, it all sounds good and in step with eeverything, but it has no flavor, its llike i repeat the same shit all the time. it all sounds the same, i have no musical identity. I start to hate myself

[Appfro]

see, when i noodle around trying to solo, it all sounds good and in step with eeverything, but it has no flavor, its llike i repeat the same shit all the time. it all sounds the same, i have no musical identity. I start to hate myself

learn some bb king. the man can add flavor to one note. i had a huge problem when i started w/ trying to fit as many notes in as i could like tim reynolds. no disrespect to tim reynolds, but the flow is so much more important than the note that you hit. check out warren haynes' solo in cortez the killer on the central park dvd. that's perfect. he knows when to be fast and when to chill on one note. and learning any blues licks will help cause blues players tend to rest on three notes and make them sound amazing.