Climax in a Solo Lesson

Climax in a Solo

Post your take

now playing:

  • Lesson
  • My notes

  • Hi

    This time I would like to introduce you my favorite approach when composing a solo. The principle is very simple. You start slowly and building up the atmosphere bar by bar. What is interesting here is that I like to "shock" the listener with some unexpected part. Half way through the solo I switch to an "explosion" of lick and fast lines played really agressively. That part can be treated like a whole separate section where again I start with longer notes and towards the end I have a very fast line which I call "climax in a solo". The whole solo is like one story that has 2 different sections. To me every solo is like a singing on the guitar. I always tend to make melodies like it was done by a singer. That way I am trying not sound boring with some usual and repetitive patterns but rather creating something which is nice for the ear and always keeping the listener interested in what's coming next.


    Technically you should be able to control long notes very carefuly with a wide and long vibrato. There are a couple of moments where I use pickup switch to color the sound acording to the song atmosphere. I start the song with the neck pickup position. When I start the 2nd section I play on the bridge position and just before the fastest run I switch back to neck position to get the smoother and warmer sound instead of keeping it agressive all the time. Many things to think of in just 1 minute of soloing but that's what makes a real challenge.

    This solo is mainly in D minor (aeolian) scale. A couple of times I have E7 diminished notes and once D dorian #4 and A phrygian dominat note. These are played just once for less than a second so I didn't include the scale chart for that. D minor is your base and you should only think that mode throughout the whole piece.

    I hope you can get some useful licks from here and see you soon with some different style.

    Emir

  • Login to use my notes. No GMC account? Register here.
Scrubbing / forward / rewind: arrow right, arrow left keys
Jump to start: Home or `s` , you can also click/tap the lesson part again (the numbers above player)
Go to next part: PageUP or End.
Volume: ArrowUp / ArrowDown keys
Go to any part: Number keys (combinations also possible)
Pause or play: `k` or space key
Fullscreen: `f`, esc to close
Increase / decrease speed : `+` or `-`