The "Hows" of soloing improvement

Danno

Blues Newbie
We have a lot of information on the "whats" of improving our soloing -- minor pentatonic only, mixing minor and major pentatonic, chord tones, modes, every chord is I, chromaticism etc. but the part I seem to be missing, and it might just be me, is the "how." In my head, I feel like the "hows" should be good for each step of the "whats" so if I wanted to just improve minor pentatonic soloing how would I go about it? This all might be covered in one or more courses and I just haven't seen it yet or didn't recognize it. Regardless it might make a useful session.
 

Paleo

Student Of The Blues
...the part I seem to be missing, and it might just be me, is the "how."

How about some of these courses?

1) How To Jam The Blues Alone

2) How To Improvise Blues Solos

3) How To Build Blues Songs


And let's not forget Lesson 9 in BGU: "A How - How - How".:sneaky:
 

MikeS

Student Of The Blues
Staff member
I'm not sure exactly what you are looking for.
Have you completed BGU 2.0? or Soloing Without Scales?
If they aren't what you are looking for and you are looking more for improving you technical ability, then maybe Pentatonic Scales and Technique Mastery?
 

Danno

Blues Newbie
I’m not sure what I’m looking for either I guess but it seems like there would be a kind of progression in soloing regardless of the approach (all minor, minor/major etc.) you take. Maybe it’s technique, maybe it’s just experience, I don’t know. I mean it might be just learning licks or learning other solos or some combination but it seems like there would be a process. For example, once we know the minor pentatonic scale it’s pretty common that we go through what Griff has called “eighth-note-itis.” I know he’s talked about breaking out of that, but then what?

Maybe I’m just really over-thinking this and I should just put on a backing track and work at it that way.
 

PCM

Spring, Texas
If you're comfortable with your knowledge of the fretboard roadmap and your technique, there's no easy way to improve imagination except by continuing to play in a variety of blues styles. As GH says, it's the same scales for everybody...just have to change the order of the notes and rhythm to make it unique and interesting (paraphrased).

MikeS has some excellent suggestions for fluency and technique. Mr. Paleo pointed out some "how" courses.

If you learn a number of GH's authored solos by memory, all those licks are incorporated into your brain. It is usually impractical to spit them out verbatim in a performance environment but all those licks are in your brain waiting to be used in the order you want to use them...there is very little on the guitar that hasn't been done before by someone, somewhere, sometime.
 

Elwood

Blues
I can't remember which of the players I was watching when this type of topic came up. I remember the reply "the melody will usually work".

Two things I don't see a lot of traffic about here are using a melody line as (at least) an undercurrent in your solo, and listening to what is being played and trying to interact with it (or even against it).

I feel that at least part of the playing is expression. I guess that is why I really don't like jam tracks per se. I feel like it becomes a mechanical exercise, identify the chord progression, analyze the timing, review your repertoire and select menu items from there to fit into the track, really? (The VJR feels way better than jam tracks even though that is it essentially, in there we can still hear what someone had going on before opening fire with six strings, unless your first up)

All that stuff is fine but if you get back to the "story telling" aspect of music (BB talks about it, many other too), the melody is doing the telling. That is the part you can hum or whistle, or sell. I believe the solo can be an interval that builds on the musical scene that is present, only if the player listens and at least plays with awareness of the other movement in the band and the main theme of the song, the melody.

I know there are tons of powerhouse players who are a force unto themselves. I still bet you know your favorite tunes by the melody. :whistle::D

If I want to improve pentatonic soloing I would run about 20 minutes of them each day just for finger movement, ear training, and embedding the sound and finger rmovement deep. Like a zen, meditative period in the day, good posture, even breathing and feel the metronome, yeah. Oh wait, I do and I do.

Soapbox dismount.
 

sdbrit68

Student Of The Blues
well, unfortunately, there is an inherent problem with the question itself

what does improvement mean ?

Are we talking phrasing and putting together
knowing the boxes and how to move around the neck
are talking speed and hitting the notes correct


The PTSM course did wonders for me being able to build speed, some phrasing and using more of the neck than a box or two at a time

then, when I switched practicing from AM to other keys, it went faster and easier
 

Danno

Blues Newbie
Thanks everyone for your replies and thoughts, I really appreciate the feedback and advice. As you can tell this topic is kind of difficult for me to articulate but after sleeping on it I think I'm talking about improving fluency. Using the language analogy it's going from struggling to put together a simple sentence to being able to speak like a native and construct complex sentences on the fly.

The Bloomfield challenge might actually be a pretty good example of what I'm talking about. Using Griff's approach from the How to Improvise and Blues Solo Construction Kit courses I had the licks down pretty quickly. Then, again using the approach in HTI and BSCK, I built a solo with the licks. When I started working on the solo as a whole, it was horrible. Timing was terrible, I couldn't remember which lick I was supposed to play, rhythm was way off and so on. But I just kept playing it and over time it came together and outside of a couple of points that I really had to think about the timing, it became just a matter of hearing what I wanted to play in my head and my fingers did it.

If that experience is indicative of increasing fluency then it's mostly learning licks, using them in context and repetition. And if that's the best way to do it, awesome. It's easy for me to think of the players I admire stealing licks from the radio or a record and playing it over and over until they had it and working it in to their own playing. Griff has talked about his "3 gig rule" with licks and I think this is pretty consistent with that too. So maybe I just need to work vocabulary and mixing them around in context.
 

MikeS

Student Of The Blues
Staff member
I don't see a lot of traffic about here are using a melody line as (at least) an undercurrent in your solo, and listening to what is being played and trying to interact with it (or even against it).
.

Griff has spoken about playing your scale/solo/ and using the rhythm form of the melody to avoid 8th note it is.
He has also done a video on "trading 4s" It's something you can even do when playing to a backing track.
 

Danno

Blues Newbie
Looks like @Griff covered this in today’s blog post. Thanks Griff, and thanks to everyone who posted here. You guys have really helped clear this up for me. Hope it helps other folks as well. :thumbup:
 

Griff

Vice Assistant General Manager
Staff member
I hope you're able to jump on to today's live workshop as well on syncopation. I think it'll be somewhat eye-opening where your ideas are concerned and may continue to improve what you're hearing.
 

Danno

Blues Newbie
I hope you're able to jump on to today's live workshop as well on syncopation. I think it'll be somewhat eye-opening where your ideas are concerned and may continue to improve what you're hearing.
Thanks Griff, I'll definitely be there.
 
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