need advice

[musicman007]

i am pretty experienced guitar player, but mostly acoustic rhythm guitar. iwant to get more into electric lead. can you guys/girls suggest some medium ability guitar solos. But i don't like metallica or any metal, i like more of blues stuff or like zeppelin,

thanks

[Matty Boom]

personally, i have never been a fan of learning solos note for note... if you want to get started, my advice is to learn some scales, then look at some solos and steal some licks and probably pick up a book of blues licks or something like that

but, some people bust a nut over learning solos perfectly

[Thomas]

yeah i would lean against learning tabs note for note. it's pretty cool to be able to play that stuff but learning like that can be VERY limiting. you'll be able to play all these cool songs but you'll have no idea what you're doing and won't be able to play anything except that.

learn some music theory, focus on scales and memorizing the fretboard. once you have some pretty good knowledge of that THEN go on to learning solos from the songs you like because you'll be able to recognize what they are doing and even add some stuff of your own to it.

[Snyder]

personally, i have never been a fan of learning solos note for note... if you want to get started, my advice is to learn some scales, then look at some solos and steal some licks and probably pick up a book of blues licks or something like that

but, some people bust a nut over learning solos perfectly

Matty, or anyone else up to answering, what would be the best and most benificial way of "learning" the fret board. To the point that it is second nature, that I could randomly point to a string and fret and say this is a "G" and this is a "A" and so on.... Would it be through continuing to play scales or just straight studing the notes from fret to fret string to string.

[ericwormann]

While it is important to learn the fretboard, when you are first learning that is intimidating and boring. Learning other people's solos helps you develop a style of your own by picking up little licks and gimmicks that other people use. For example, this little SRV lick:

Code: Select all

e-------2-----
b-----2---5b7-
g-4b6---------
d-------------
a-------------
e-------------

is used in a LOT of blues solos and is a cool gimick to learn, but you won't learn it from studying the fretboard.

If you're looking for medium-ish solos to learn, I would suggest some early Lenny Kravitz stuff (Are You Gonna Go My Way is a good album to start). He has some cool recognizable mainstream rock solo licks that aren't too intimidating.

[Matty Boom]

While it is important to learn the fretboard, when you are first learning that is intimidating and boring. Learning other people's solos helps you develop a style of your own by picking up little licks and gimmicks that other people use. For example, this little SRV lick:

Code: Select all

e-------2-----
b-----2---5b7-
g-4b6---------
d-------------
a-------------
e-------------

is used in a LOT of blues solos and is a cool gimick to learn, but you won't learn it from studying the fretboard.

If you're looking for medium-ish solos to learn, I would suggest some early Lenny Kravitz stuff (Are You Gonna Go My Way is a good album to start). He has some cool recognizable mainstream rock solo licks that aren't too intimidating.

i wouldn't ever put down looking at other people's solos and picking up licks from them...but that's pretty different from just learning an entire solo

learning licks adds to your bag and helps you analyze the skills

and snyder, 3 pieces of info to help you be able to know the fretboard at first are:

and these are pretty obvious but they help

5th fret is the same as a the next open string (except for 4 on the b string)

over a string and up 7 frets is an octave (except for 8 frets on the b)

and this is the same as the other but i don't know how experienced some are so, over two strings and down two frets is an octive (except it's 3 frets when the octave note is on the b or the e string)

you can pretty quickly figure out notes from power chords (root, fifth, octave)

hope that helps

i'm dying from a cold

[dmplayer]

i am pretty experienced guitar player, but mostly acoustic rhythm guitar. iwant to get more into electric lead. can you guys/girls suggest some medium ability guitar solos. But i don't like metallica or any metal, i like more of blues stuff or like zeppelin,

thanks

I think that while it is important to learn the fretboard and develop your own style, in the beginning there is nothing wrong with learning some solos note for note to get you going. When I first started trying to learn some lead stuff (after playing Dave for two years) I "Fell on Black Days" by Soundgarden. There is a cool rythmic solo that goes towards the end of the song and sounds really good with the easy verse and chorus. After a while, you'll start to work around that solo that you learned note for note and then eventually you won't even have to solo in the same position once you start to feel more comfortable with lead playing.

There is nothing wrong with learning note for note solos in the beginning, just don't let it get to the point where it slows down your musical growth. Besides, its SOOOO much fun to improv that eventually you'll naturally want to not learn solos note for note and instead rely on your own knowledge.

[Snyder]

and snyder, 3 pieces of info to help you be able to know the fretboard at first are:

and these are pretty obvious but they help

5th fret is the same as a the next open string (except for 4 on the b string)

over a string and up 7 frets is an octave (except for 8 frets on the b)

and this is the same as the other but i don't know how experienced some are so, over two strings and down two frets is an octive (except it's 3 frets when the octave note is on the b or the e string)

you can pretty quickly figure out notes from power chords (root, fifth, octave)

hope that helps

i'm dying from a cold

Thanks, hope you start feeling better. If any other tips come to mind, please share. I've made a diagram of the fret board and where all the notes are in a few of the scales and I've been spending a few hours a day running through them and quizing myself. I've started seeing many patterns and started turning my excersizes into "mini-solo/improvs" on the fly.

I would consider myself a pretty good guitar player, but the other day I got fed up with just "playing the guitar", and decided to learn what it was really about. I want to be able to just sit down and jam better.

[isaac]

http://www.francoisbrisson.com/fretboar ... rrior.html

[johnnyd]

I picked up a video called "The Blues From Rock to Jazz" a while ago by a guy named Don Mock. It went through Pentatonic scales, modes and the relationships between the scales/chords. It also gives you like 4 solos based on each principle that he's teaching. It was the most practical explanation of this stuff that I've seen. I either got it from Musicians Friend
or SheetMusicPlus.com. I can't remember which. I think it was like $15.

[MWR]

I recently got a whole pad of blank fretboard diagrams and then I fill them in with whatever guideline I set. For example, fll in all the Bb's F's and D's. Or you can just put complete scales down. Whatever you want. The point is to be able to visualize where the notes are away from direct contact with the guitar. It's also convienant cause you don't need your guitar with you. Hope thats helpfull.