Monday, March 28, 2011

Learn Guitar Scales For Soloing

By Jonathan Hart


Solos in music might be performances of memorized notes that are rehearsed ahead of time. Alternatively, solos can be improvised. In rock and jazz, which use a lot of guitar, solos are commonly improvised. To perform a good solo, it is important to learn guitar scales.



Improvised solos sound more inspired, so it is easy to make then sound good. Also, each improvised solo is new. Whereas rehearsed solos are simply a repetition of something that was heard before.

When it comes to playing scales, guitar is an easy instrument to become masterful on. One reason for this is that changing keys, or transposing, is achieved by simply playing the same thing up and down the neck.

A great beginning is to practice playing the major scale using a finger pattern that is easily done at any neck position. This makes it easy to play in any key. It is also easy to play all the minor keys by simply playing the relative minor to any major key you have learned. All this variation increases the potential for musical expression during solo improvisation.

Furthermore, this same finger pattern can be adapted to play a blues scale, or to play in any of the musical modes. Learning other finger patterns for the major scale allows versatility. After this, additional patterns, such as whole tones, can be added to the mix.

More knowledge of scales means more ability to experiment while improvising. Playing two notes on the scale makes for adding chords, and playing single notes of chords you know adds flavor to solos as well.

More musical expression is the ultimate result of experimenting during solos. It is also helpful to imitate favorite recorded solos to learn both traditional and new phrases. It all adds up to developing a personal style as a performer. It also means more enjoyment for both the listener and the performer.




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