How Do You Solo to Any Chord Progression?

experimentjon · Mar 22, 2008

I was just with some of my friends and some of them were jamming. After a bit of Rock Band, I watched them play real-life rock band on real guitars and a real drum set. One of the things that impressed me was that one of the guitars could just play a three or four chord progression, and the other guitar could just work up some solo to match the chords. Then I played a series of ukulele chords, and the guitar did a solo to those chords.

How do they do it?! Any tips, scales, links to videos, or any insights would be appreciated.

guitarguy159 · Mar 22, 2008

this is called improvising
most people do it by ear
but there is actually music theory to it

each different key is going to have different notes
so if your key is C
it has no sharps or flats
so you could use any combitations of any notes without sharps or flatts
c, d, e, f, g, A, B, or C

but the timing and different techniques used in these improvs are from what you know and what you think sounds good

of course there are many exceptions and what not
juts start off simple and practice will make perfect

hope that answers your question
if this totaly confuses you

pls disregard this comment lol

russ_buss · Mar 22, 2008

you can start with the major pentatonic scale for most songs. if the song is bluesy, you'll want to use the minor pentatonic scale.

just google it. tons of resources out there. you'll be surprised how many of those guitar solos fall within these two scales.

Woodshed · Mar 22, 2008

Learning the major and minor pentatonic scale shapes is the way to go. Once you know those, you can improvise over most rock, blues etc chord progressions.

The easy, no theory, no mistakes way to do it is to just play notes from the chord that's playing at the time. If you know chords in a lot of positions, it can be really effective.

experimentjon · Mar 22, 2008

Ah improv. That's the word that I was looking for.

Is there any way to work entire chords into the improv? And do you change your note-set every time they change chords?

Say the chord progression is G Em C D7 (as in break up song). Would you have use notes from all four scales as they play each chord? And I'm assuming the minor and 7th scales are the same as in the rest of music with just one note changed? (Can't remember which one, but I remember raising a note or two for those scales.)

h-drix · Mar 23, 2008

check out the circle of fifths, its kinda confusing. i had an orchestra worksheet that laid it out really simply. when i go back to class (Tuesday) i'll grab a copy, write out explanations (on the w/s) and up load a pic.

ive tried to find circles of fifths on the nets, but i haven't been able to come across one as simple.

for those who dont know, the circle of fifths basically tell you sharps and flats are in what scale. it'll be alittle easier to understand once i scan that w/s

edit:does anyone have tabs for scales?

experimentjon · Mar 23, 2008

I actually have a copy of the circle of fifths from my flute teacher. I even used to be able to play all of the scales on it. Maybe it's not the most simple layout though. I remember that I thought I was supposed to play each note around the circle in order, so I pretty much looked like an idiot, playing C F Bb Eb...etc (especially since it didn't sound musical at all.)

And yeah, tabs for scales would be nice. Although I think I should be able to figure it out from the Ukulele quick tips. I just need to know how you identify the first note. Does it work like this? Open G is a G, and a full step up from that, or 2nd fret on the G string is a A? And so forth?

JTY · Mar 23, 2008

yeah, major/minor penatonic is any position, any key. Know the I,IV,V basic chord progression in any movable chord position, mix and match different movable positions for more fretboard room or to get a slightly different sound. You can solo on either the I, IV, or V above or below the barre reference and mix major/minor scales too. "Fretboard Roadmaps" and "Ukulele Solo Recipe" are a very helpful books in this IMO.

h-drix · Mar 23, 2008

experimentjon said:
I thought I was supposed to play each note around the circle in order, so I pretty much looked like an idiot, playing C F Bb Eb...etc (especially since it didn't sound musical at all.)

lol, i would of thought the same thing a year ago. im trying to find a way to explain with out that sheet, but i cant. Depending on how much homework i the ay i get back ill post that sheet on tuesday (wednesday at the latest)

Bruce_B · Mar 23, 2008

http://www.circle-of-fifths.net/

Nuke-ulele · Mar 25, 2008

here is a GREAT resource: http://randscullard.com/CircleOfFifths/

seeso · Mar 25, 2008

I have the toughest time improvising. What really helped me out a lot was a different approach.

I started to "sing" the guitar instead of "play" the guitar. I started to play like I was singing what I was playing, instead of just trying to remember the scales and what not.

It sounds weird, but it really burst a door wide open for me.

menehunenyc · Mar 25, 2008

What a great site, I'll be studying this for awhile, try to make sense of it all. Thanks for the post.

crookshankz · Mar 26, 2008

seeso said:
I started to "sing" the guitar instead of "play" the guitar. I started to play like I was singing what I was playing, instead of just trying to remember the scales and what not.

Do you mean kind of hum what you were wanting it to sound like and then trying to play what you were humming?

Groovy · Mar 26, 2008

seeso said:
I have the toughest time improvising. What really helped me out a lot was a different approach.

I started to "sing" the guitar instead of "play" the guitar. I started to play like I was singing what I was playing, instead of just trying to remember the scales and what not.

It sounds weird, but it really burst a door wide open for me.

This is GREAT info!

Groovy · Mar 26, 2008

re Improvising

JTY said:
yeah, major/minor penatonic is any position, any key. Know the I,IV,V basic chord progression in any movable chord position, mix and match different movable positions for more fretboard room or to get a slightly different sound. You can solo on either the I, IV, or V above or below the barre reference and mix major/minor scales too. "Fretboard Roadmaps" and "Ukulele Solo Recipe" are a very helpful books in this IMO.

Here's my Q: If the progression is C Amin Dm7 G7 C - you would use a major pentatonic chord here, I'm assuming... What I'd like to know... should I use I use the C Major Pentatonic over the entire phrase OR when the chord changes to (say) the Dm7 bar - should I use the Dminor pentatonic scale for the portion and revert back to the C Major Pentatonic when the Dminor part is played??? Thanks!

NukeDOC · Mar 26, 2008

Groovy said:
Here's my Q: If the progression is C Amin Dm7 G7 C - you would use a major pentatonic chord here, I'm assuming... What I'd like to know... should I use I use the C Major Pentatonic over the entire phrase OR when the chord changes to (say) the Dm7 bar - should I use the Dminor pentatonic scale for the portion and revert back to the C Major Pentatonic when the Dminor part is played??? Thanks!

i would make a recording of the chord progression. then try it both ways. if it clashes then you know the answer.

studentaccount1 · Mar 26, 2008

...Or you can be like George Benson and sing while you play.

h-drix · Mar 26, 2008

http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j73/h-drix/EPSON011.jpg

theres the link.

basically what you have on the right are modes, count backwards to see what your relitive major is.

ex: "A" lydion is three modes from major. now count back three from A, to get E (A G F E) your reletive major is "E"

now that you know what your relative major is, go to the circle of fifths and find "said" relative major. you see if it has sharps or flats. below the circle you see "order of sharps/flats" count over how many sharps or flats it says, and put it to a scale.

ex: E major, look at the circle and their are four sharps. go to "order of sharps" and count over four places. you see that F, C, G, and D are written. these four notes will be Sharps.

thus the scale is A B C# D# E F# G# A

__________

here is a GREAT resource: http://randscullard.com/CircleOfFifths/

those sites are great, but they dont really tell you HOW they got what they got (i just looked at it at a glance)

seeso · Mar 26, 2008

crookshankz said:
Do you mean kind of hum what you were wanting it to sound like and then trying to play what you were humming?

No, I mean "sing" the guitar. I know it makes no sense. Most people don't have too much of a problem improvising vocally. You can "la da da doo" all day to a piece of music, right?

I'm saying just try to do the same thing, but with your guitar.

It's shifting your mindset away from scales and theory.

How Do You Solo to Any Chord Progression?

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