This lesson is an example of how to create interesting solos without shredding 1000 miles per hour. What will helpe you here is - practicing chord shapes and creating small licks.
Also this lesson will show you how to sound "big" with only one guitar in the band. Often, when the lead guitarist plays a solo it sounds empty because there is not enough backings. Well - it can be improved! How?? Check this lesson out!
If you are the only guitarist in the band then your solo must fill in all the holes the rythm guitar would fill. In this case we use a combination of chords and licks to create a solo.
In this part we use 3 shapes of A-Major,Shape 1:
E||-----|
B||-----|
G||--6--|
D||--7--|
A||--0--|
E||-----|
This is not a full shape but still pretty usefull when playing chords with open strings. Shape 2:
E||-----|
B||-----|
G||--9--|
D||--7--|
A||--0--|
E||-----|
Another shape of A-Major containing root note and 5th step. Shape 3:
E||------|
B||--10--|
G||---9--|
D||---7--|
A||---0--|
E||------|
This is also an A-Major shape but it doesn't have the major or minor 3rd.
The open string is there but you don't have to play it. If you play it the chord sounds more powerfull but it is no mistake if you don't play it because there are other 2 A notes in there.
This is a bit triky because you have to slide it with your pinky barred across 2 strings.
Here we use one simple shape and it also doesn't contain major/minor 3rd so we can use it
anywhere. The first chord is D, later we slide it to E than to F# but we use the same chord
shape and it is very usefull to learn the shapes. Later you just start to play the shape from
a different root note and you get the chord you want.
In this part we meet two huge jumps across the neck. We play the first one with a slide down and we can play the second one with a slide up over the 2nd string but we can also simply jump to the 17th fret without the slide.
This part involves a bit of sweeping - but it is pretty slow so even if you didn't practice sweeping by now you should be able to play it. The last note on the 14th fret can be played with both upstroke or donwstroke. If you watched the video carefully you can see that i played it both ways.
In this part we use the small shapes of chords again. Using the lowest note of chord
you can create rythm patterns that's why we'll play the A on the 5th string 12th fret
with different duration and accentuation.
The chord lick resolves with a small A-Major scale run. Learning to combine and use
chors and licks is vital for your future improvisation so try to add more chords and
scale runs to your practice sessions. At the beginning it can be a bit difficult but once you learn to use this stuff you'll open the whole new world of possibilities in your improvisation.
We finish this solo with a cool trick - and that is - playing kind of rythm
with an open sting as a bass line. After this we slide down to basic A-Major shape
and finish with a small lick.
In this Solo Lesson you could see that even with no shredding skills you are able to
create interesting solos - the only thing you should do is practice combining chords
and licks into solos. Enjoy it!