Have you ever felt that no matter how hard you studied guitar soloing it was still confusing to you? In this video, I’m going to show you the main reasons why I believe you're still feeling confused about guitar soloing and why your solos are probably not where you'd want them to be...




Between the number of times that you've unknowingly missed a progressions "Home Chord" along with the missed importance of a resolution (in a backing track progression), there are also other vital soloing concepts that I can guarantee you've never applied.

Along with that, every guitarist needs to understand how to hit the right notes when they solo and that means developing; good technique, a great ability to compose melodic lines from scales, and it also means having a solid feel when it comes to your sense of rhythm.

WATCH THE VIDEO:



So, you’re having trouble understanding how to create a guitar solo and you’ve come to me… I think I can help you. I’ve taught guitar players how to solo for many years now and in this lesson I’m going to break down the steps you need to understand what it takes to create a guitar solo. Let’s get started with step number one.




BACKING PROGRESSION ANALYSIS:
90 percent of the time, guitar solos are played behind a group of chords that musicians call the backing progression. This progression of chords will generally use; 2, 3 or 4 chords from a key center (like the key of “E” or the key of “A”), and the key of the chord progression will also end up establishing a tonality for us - of either Major or Minor.

For some of you, all of that information might sound kind of complicated. But, it can be made much easier if you simply use your ear and listen for the overall effect of how a group of chords sound when they’re played. And, what we’re listening for is the one chord which sounds like the home chord of the group. Let me demonstrate exactly what I mean…


1). Example Progression
Play this chord progression, it is an example of a progression for playing a solo over…



Across any group of chords that are being used within a backing progression, there’s always a sense of one chord being the central chord. This chord is what musicians call the “Home” chord. As you listen to the progression above, which chord seems to come across as sounding like “Home?” If you guessed the “D Minor” chord, you’d be correct!

In our backing chord example, the first chord of “D Minor” gives us the strongest sense of being the most central chord to the overall feeling of how the progression loops around and how it establishes itself musically. Plus, since this home chord effect happens in pretty much every chord progression we’ll ever want to play a solo over - it is important to understand.






DISCOVER THE HOME CHORD SCALE:
Once you discover the central “Home” chord of the progression. The next step is simple. You just confirm the quality (of whether the chord is Major or Minor)! In our case that central “Home” chord was Minor. It was a, “D” Minor chord.

This leads us to the next step, which is learning how to play a fingerboard pattern for a, “D Minor” scale so that we can use the notes of that Home Chord to create a solo!


2). Example Scale - D Minor:
The most popular scale layout for playing guitar solo’s is the scale called the Pentatonic. Here’s a nice easy to play centrally located scale shape for the “D Minor” Pentatonic scale…



Once the basic shape for the Home Scale is mapped out, it's time to expand on the shape by looking for unison note options. The optional note locations are shown below for the notes of "F" and "A."



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I wanted to take a minute to let you know, that if you want to learn even more about scales and theory I have a great offer for you.

With any donation over $5, or any merchandise purchase from either my Tee-Spring, or my Zazzle store, I’ll send you a free copy of THREE of my most popular digital handouts.

One is called, “Harmonized Arpeggio Drills” (it’ll train you on developing your diatonic arpeggios).

Another one is my “Barre Chord” Handout which includes a page showing all the key signatures along with a chord progression that applies barre chords.

Plus, you’ll get my Notation Pack! It has 8 pages of important guitar worksheets for notating anything related to; music charts, guitar chord diagrams, and TAB.

As a BONUS, (from my "Over 40 and Still Can't Play a Scale" video), I'll also throw in a breakdown of all of the chords that are diatonic to the "F Major" scale.

As an EXTRA BONUS for my Phrygian Dominant video, I'll also throw in a breakdown featuring all of the chords that are diatonic to the Phrygian Dominant scale.

Just send me an email off of the contact page of CreativeGuitarStudio.com to let me know about either your donation or your Merchandise purchase and I’ll email you those digital handouts within 24 hrs.        
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So far, the ideas I’ve presented, are ones that most practicing guitar players are probably aware of. But, it’s the next few steps that are really important and often overlooked.

One very important thing which generally will get ignored, is that when you look into some of the world’s greatest lead guitar players, like; Stevie Ray Vaughn, Eddie Van Halen, or Joe Satriani - what you might not consider is that these lead guitar players are also incredible rhythm guitar players.

Even though you might more or less understand a chord progression that you’re going to solo over, you’ve got to be better than that! You’ve got to be able to play it and play it with great feel and a great sense of time.




3). Take a Closer Look at the Backing Track
Let’s take a deeper look into the chords and for our backing chord progression. I want you to learn all the chords and practice the shapes and the groove for them until you’re absolutely fantastic at them.










The final idea that I want to share with you has to do with how to go forward (and really use all of this information to start soloing). This has to do with melody creation.

All too often, a guitar student who’s trying to learn how to solo will just noodle around and never really create a worked out melody part.

To show you how easy this can be, I’m going to supply a simple melody that you can learn (and then use as a springboard), to take you off to even more melody lines of your own.


4). Melody example
Learn the melody below and perform it over the jam track progression.