Soloing Guitar Lesson

Make 2013 YOUR Year to be a Solo Guitarist

Soloing is working on art of doing lead patterns over a group of chords also known as riffing or adlib. Guitar players must know there basic 5 pentatonic scale patterns both minor and major.

A pentatonic scale is a five note scale based on major scale. The minor pentatonic scale is Root, b3,4,5 and b7th degrees of major scale. It really gives you that blues feel and works great over dominant 7^th chords and 9thys and minor chords with 7ths or 9ths .

You can use for example an A minor pent scale against A minor, A minor 7^th or Aminor9th and also A7, A9 or A13th chords. Also you may use half step displacement in which sax players and piano players use all the time. That means while the rhythm section is in A minor tonality center u can start on A  minor pent and then slide up half step to A sharp minor pent scale and then slide down half step to Ab minor pentatonic but for very short durations and then resolve back to A minor pentatonic scale.

First before jamming with other guitarists, u should lay down a rhythm jam track of u playing just a 12 bar blues in A or a jam based on A minor 7^th chords.

Also, check out my Pentatonic warm ups in 1^st, 5^th, 9^th, 13^th and 17^th positions. I recommend using a metronome which u can download for free on your cell phone or free on computer. Start on highest note on string 1 and work your way descending to string 6 known as a descending pattern and then practice opposite ascending lowest finger to highest on each string lowest to highest and do  not stop when you arrive to string one just shift up to 5^th and then 9^th and then 13^th and then 17^th. On acoustic guitars just do 1^st and 5^th and 9^th positions.

Its very important to use alternate picking at single meter first meaning quarter notes and then duple meter meaning 8^th notes and then skip to quad also known as 16^th notes.

Guitar & Banjo Lessons
Concord – Danville – San Ramon – Walnut Creek
(925) 695-7060