How Do The Pro's Build A Solo On Guitar

I'm excited to work with you through the solo lesson today I wish someone would have showed me early on these steps because they really connect the chords and the scales you're using let's break down how a pro builds a guitar solo all right we're going to look at this in four steps a professional player is going to work through these steps almost instantly we're going to take a few minutes and it's so well worth it so Step One is identifying the chords and what keys are in so let's take a simple Groove here a she D back to a so that's a simple blues rock Groove I chose this just because it's a you know medium Tempo where we can work through some of these solo ideas but it starts on a and you so you think oh this is in the key of A it is not is actually in the key of D major now how we know that is working through the major scale so D major scale one two three four five the fifth degree is an a chord one two three four G chord and then of course the root note is is one here so this this progression is actually a five four one in the key of D major so now that we know what chords we're working with we know what key the chords are in the next step is uh working through a few scales that will fit with this set of chords so we already talked about the D major scale works really well over this foreign all the notes fit you are actually playing the mixolydian mode when you play the D major scale over this this is not a lesson about modes but it's so important to know that also the A major pentatonic works really well over this so let's listen how that sounds foreign really good too what about the a minor pentatonic scale all of those scales sound completely different but they all work over those three chords but stay with me because at the end of this video I'm going to do a demo solo with all the concepts we're talking about right now all right so we know the chords we know what key the chords are in and we know some scales that will work over those chords a big thing and step three coming up is knowing the notes in the chords you're using so important to play with a sense of Melody the notes in the a chord are a C sharp E the G chord g b d and the notes in the D chord are d f sharp and a now these notes are all up and down the fretboard we're just going to stay in this little area of the neck today for just some structure here but so let's let's look at that [Music] so just using the notes of the chords how does that sound they all fit because they're in the cord but with all the other scales and even adding this information in there it sounds pretty boring so we've assembled a lot of information here stay with me because this is so important we know the chords A G and D and they're in the key of D so we can use that D major scale the A major pentatonic a minor pentatonic foreign and also we now we know the notes in the chords this is such valuable information to improvise a solo what we've already gathered now step four is the key to lock all this together again we need to create a sense of Melody through the through there with some phrases we don't want to just you know play uh just simple we don't want to play every note in every scale we're just going to take the information that we already gotten and try to make some music with it foreign so just right there we've started grouping together some sets of notes really looking at the notes in the chords as they go by and again this is not an easy thing to do but you need to know what chord you're playing over as you're soloing and a great way to do this is just taking the third of every chord you're using so the a chord the third of the a chord is a C sharp note the third of the the G chord is a b note and then the third of the the D chord is a f sharp so we're really going to Target with these other scales we're going to Target the C sharp note the B and the F sharp such a great tool right there to sound like you have a sense of Melody and really you know sound like you're playing melodically [Music] right there yeah [Music] foreign [Music] really looking at those chords as they go by just targeting a few notes and that major third is a great one to use and also the root notes in the chords but just following these simple steps we can create a really melodic solo very easily and again we can use this D major scale and really play linear up and down the fretboard is a great way to do it [Music] the D major scale I was just just playing it no you know one note at a time on one string and you could walk right down these strings walk up and walk down [Music] thank you or you can really just walk right up [Music] so we have so much information we just got with those three chords and it's easy to give your solo some structure but still let loose on these pentatonic licks also so let's put all of this information together and create a solo [Music] [Music] thank you [Music] [Music] [Applause] taking time to gather all this information is so important and believe me early on I did not do this and it really hurt me later on in my playing because I was really locked into just playing a pentatonic scale and just hoping I hit a good note but planning this stuff out it just takes a few minutes to really you know be confident in the notes you're playing and you'll have so much more fun with this instrument I guarantee it thanks for hanging out with me today hopefully you got something from the lesson and we'll see you on the next one

Channel: Rustys Guitar

Views: 103,050

Keywords: build a solo on guitar, how to build a solo on guitar, solo like a pro, rustys guitar, play melodic guitar, blues rock solo lesson, beginner solo lesson, intermediate solo lesson, best intermediate guitar lessons, start to improvise guitar, chords scales guitar, start to solo guitar, improve your solos, a minor pentatonic scale, a major pentatonic scale, scales over chords guitar, connect guitar chords with scales, how to start playing solo guitar, how to improve your solos

Id: -El2m16TS5o

Length: 11min 44sec (704 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 26 2022