Solos

There are several schools of thought to approaching the guitar solo in rock music. Some eschew any display of technique, opting for “from the gut” or “seat of the pants” minimalist playing. Some go the opposite route and consider their solos mini-orchestral movements within the song, composing busy and gymnastic showpieces. While each approach has its merit, if there’s no emotive or melodic quality to end result, neither works. As someone once said “If I can’t hum it, it’s not music.”  Ideally even an improvised solo should be melodic, interesting, and hopefully memorable.

One of the things my original guitar teacher Chuck Biel instilled in me was the idea that a solo should have an ebb and flow, peaks and valleys; it should draw the listener in, and “should NEVER sound like you’re just running scales up and down the neck!” He also stressed the importance of allowing a solo to build; not starting out wailing in the high register, leaving yourself nowhere to go but down …and how great soloists like Alan Holdsworth, Al DiMeola, EVH, Randy Rhoads etc, jumped positions mid-solo in a dynamic, “call and response” manner. Their solos spoke. They could whisper and scream, not just one or the other. They weren’t linear: they jumped, climbed, rose, and fell. They sometimes incorporated animal-like shrieks and growls; no matter what they were playing, it sounded dangerous. And never at any point monotonous or boring!

Fail!

How many guitar players are there that have blazing technical ability but they’re so intent on impressing that upon everyone the end result is it sounds like they’re doing a floor routine in an Olympic gymnastic competition? Where you want to hold up a scorecard at the end of the presentation rather than aplaud? It’s not a competition, it’s music – or at least it’s supposed to be.
Plus, you can always tell when someone was just looking for an excuse to work in that diminished lick they’ve been working on – “Hey, it doesn’t fit here, but check it out!” Having said that, a guy wanking the same old tired pentatonic and blues licks isn’t going to move anyone either. You’ve got to have the best of all worlds to draw from: a repertoire of cool licks, tricks and scales to draw from, with an array of shrieks and sound effects in lieu of bells and whistles – but still be able to be emotive and melodic at the same time.

“Don’t force me to use this!”

My goal has always been to play tasteful, melodic, slightly shreddy solos, personally. While I’m capable of speedy playing, over the years the concept of restraint has entered the equation. Remember, just because you can doesn’t mean you always should. Plus a cascading flurry of notes sounds even more impressive after you’ve hung on a single note like a blues king for a bar or two. Variety is key. Intersperse hammer-ons, trills, staccato picking and legato licks. Go for both the soaring and the low, guttural artificial harmonics. Sound effects from the whole animal kingdom, not just the horsey harmonic! Make tasteful use of your pickup combinations and use your tone controls if your guitar has them. If you use a tremolo bar, make subtle as well as dramatic usage of it. Imagine you’re a sonic painter or storyteller: The more colorful and descriptive you can be, the more interesting things are for the listener.
It’s important to have enough of a musical background to look at the chord progression you’re soloing over and be able to figure out what your options scale-wise are… but let that be a guide rather than cage. You have to know which box it is you’re playing outside of, right? Listen to the players that move you, and ask yourself what it is they’re doing that grabs you. Then you can work to incorporate those traits into your own playing.
As an example of someone expertly utilizing all of the techniques described above, I offer this video of esteemed shredder and SD user George Lynch… RIPPING.