Lead Guitarists, I Need Your Help

[Orange]

So I am more of a rhythm (chances are I spelled that wrong, I can never spell it right) guitarist, but I'd really like to put some solos over the songs I have. Problem is I don't know the first thing about Major and Minor scales, finding what note starts what key to solo in and all that stuff. So for example if I have a solo that starts in C, where note do I start the solo on so it'll flow with the song? Any help is appreciated, as I really can't find what I want on the internet and Ultimate Guitar damn near gave me a virus Thanks in advance guys

EDIT - I play in standarg tuning btw, it's very rare I'll play in any other tuning.

[Kris Kobain]

I'd say your best bet is to check out the solo's from some bands in the same style you play.
I'd love to help here more but my solos are more anti-solo like Nirvana stuff.

[Orange]

May 11, 2010 3:22:07 GMT -5 Kris Kobain said:

I'd say your best bet is to check out the solo's from some bands in the same style you play.
I'd love to help here more but my solos are more anti-solo like Nirvana stuff.

Well in that case it'd be KISS, who I think uses a lot of basic scales to make up their solos, and yeah that's kind of what my stuff is to but unlike Nirvana it's because I can't do solos

[Bam Neeley]

Learn solos from your favourite guitarists and figure out in which key they play. Then use their licks as a base for your own lick library. You'll soon notice how there are certain patterns which repeat everywhere. For example:


e:-15p12-------| Repeat
b:-------15p12-|


That's probably one of the most basic minor pentatonic licks you see everywhere from slow blues to Zakk Wylde. That lick is in E-minor but you can transpose it everywhere you want. If you want to transpose it to A-minor just move your fretting hand from 12th fret of e string to 5th fret of e-string.

As for the scales, here's a E-minor:

If you want to make it F-minor, just move everything up one fret. If you want A-minor, just move everything 5 frets from the picture. If you want to have a major scale start counting on G of that picture and you have G-major.

As for which scale sounds best on the backing track it's a good starting point to use the same key. If your backing track just plays C(note, not C-major) you could pretty much pick any scale that has a C-note on it and figure out which sounds best.

You didn't specify what kind of music you are playing.

[Orange]

May 11, 2010 5:04:51 GMT -5 Bam Neeley said:

Learn solos from your favourite guitarists and figure out in which key they play. Then use their licks as a base for your own lick library. You'll soon notice how there are certain patterns which repeat everywhere. For example:


e:-15p12-------| Repeat
b:-------15p12-|


That's probably one of the most basic minor pentatonic licks you see everywhere from slow blues to Zakk Wylde. That lick is in E-minor but you can transpose it everywhere you want. If you want to transpose it to A-minor just move your fretting hand from 12th fret of e string to 5th fret of e-string.

As for the scales, here's a E-minor:

If you want to make it F-minor, just move everything up one fret. If you want A-minor, just move everything 5 frets from the picture. If you want to have a major scale start counting on G of that picture and you have G-major.

As for which scale sounds best on the backing track it's a good starting point to use the same key. If your backing track just plays C(note, not C-major) you could pretty much pick any scale that has a C-note on it and figure out which sounds best.

You didn't specify what kind of music you are playing.

Yep I knew I'd leave something out. I play rock n' roll that's very inspired by AC/DC and KISS, in the sense of just big 3 chord rock music, nothing too fancy. That's a lot of great information though man thanks!

[Bam Neeley]

May 11, 2010 5:36:32 GMT -5 Orange said:

Yep I knew I'd leave something out. I play rock n' roll that's very inspired by AC/DC and KISS, in the sense of just big 3 chord rock music, nothing too fancy. That's a lot of great information though man thanks!

In that case just learn minor pentatonic and learn AC/DC solos and base your playing on them. And it wouldn't hurt to listen some blues players too because that's what influenced most of those players when they were young.



As you can see the notes in blue are what players call "home box" or something like that. Notice how the pattenrs repeat at one octave. It's incredibly common that many solos are based on playing around in this box(12th fret in E-minor) and moving vertically on the neck only on the last couple of strings. Transposing to other keys is the same as before. Just move everything up/down on the neck so the home box with E is at whatever key you're supposed to be playing. Feel free to play around with the scale and hear how it sounds like.

Now that you have knowledge on how the scale works check out some popular solos and you'll see how the pentatonic scale is on effect:

A-minor: Highway to hell and many others by AC/DC. Stairway to heaven, November Rain(actually Ab minor due the tuning)
E-minor: Paranoid, Probably everything by Kirk Hammett, Voodoo Child(Slight Return) in Eb

Here's a good resource for backing tracks to try out how your licks work with different backgrounds: www.guitarbackingtrack.com/bts/Jamtracks.htm
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[Orange]

May 11, 2010 6:49:50 GMT -5 Bam Neeley said:

May 11, 2010 5:36:32 GMT -5 Orange said:

Yep I knew I'd leave something out. I play rock n' roll that's very inspired by AC/DC and KISS, in the sense of just big 3 chord rock music, nothing too fancy. That's a lot of great information though man thanks!

In that case just learn minor pentatonic and learn AC/DC solos and base your playing on them. And it wouldn't hurt to listen some blues players too because that's what influenced most of those players when they were young.



As you can see the notes in blue are what players call "home box" or something like that. Notice how the pattenrs repeat at one octave. It's incredibly common that many solos are based on playing around in this box(12th fret in E-minor) and moving vertically on the neck only on the last couple of strings. Transposing to other keys is the same as before. Just move everything up/down on the neck so the home box with E is at whatever key you're supposed to be playing. Feel free to play around with the scale and hear how it sounds like.

Now that you have knowledge on how the scale works check out some popular solos and you'll see how the pentatonic scale is on effect:

A-minor: Highway to hell and many others by AC/DC. Stairway to heaven, November Rain(actually Ab minor due the tuning)
E-minor: Paranoid, Probably everything by Kirk Hammett, Voodoo Child(Slight Return) in Eb

Here's a good resource for backing tracks to try out how your licks work with different backgrounds: www.guitarbackingtrack.com/bts/Jamtracks.htm

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Well that doesn't sound as hard to figure out as I had thought it would be, obviously it'll take practice but I was expecting something a lot more complex than the home box thing. Thanks for your help man

[Macho Dude Handy Damage]

If you play rock, learn the typical blues scales. They're a great tool for learning to do solos.