The 3 Most Important Lessons For An Amazing Guitar Solo
In the rock guitar world there are a myriad of techniques you can throw into your guitar solo’s and a myriad of different musical concepts you can apply too.
But out of all these techniques there are only a few that are of critical importance to an amazing rock guitar solo. When examining the techniques for rock guitar solos you will continuously find that all great rock solo’s revolve around these three fundamental techniques; Bending, Vibrato and Phrasing.
Read on as we take a look at each one of these fundamental techniques and how to harness their power to instantly improve your rock guitar solo’s.
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1. Vibrato
Vibrato is one of the most important techniques of amazing rock guitar, and if you want to become an amazing rock guitarists, then you had better take that statement to heart because that’s exactly what all the rock guitar greats have done.
Think about it, what is the only technique that can take one note and turn it into music? It’s vibrato.
What is the only technique that an amazing rock guitar solo would absolutely have to include? It’s vibrato.
What is the technique that every single rock guitar great has mastered? It’s vibrato.
All the rock guitar greats may not all be as fast as one another, they may all have their own unique styles, but they all have one thing in common, they all have great vibrato.
Vibrato should be regarded as one of the most important techniques for great rock guitar soloing, and it should be placed along side the other techniques that you hold as important for great rock guitar soloing.
Remember this saying; You are only as good as your vibrato.
Vibrato is essentially a bend, it’s a small bend of around a ¼ of a tone.
This bend is bent to the same pitch then released to the same original pitch repeatedly in steady rhythmic pulses.
The pulse of your vibrato should be controlled and steady, it should pulse consistently at the same rhythm. The standard rock vibrato will be bent around a ¼ of a tone and pulse 4 times within each beat of a metronome set at 65 BPM.
Most rock guitar players recognise a metronome as a tool to increase their speed, it is a great tool for this purpose as well a lot of other things, but very few rock guitarists recognise a metronome as a tool to increase their vibrato, which is exactly what I want you to use it for with the following exercise.
Lets play an A note at the 10th fret on the B string.
Fret this note with your 3rd finger, lay your 2nd finger in the 9th fret and your 1st finger in the 8th fret to support your vibrato, remember that a vibrato is essentially a bend, so standard bending mechanics still apply, press down equally with all your fingers, and bend with all your fingers for your vibrato.
Hold the neck with your thumb by the top of the neck with the curve of the neck in the curve of your hand between your 1st finger and thumb.
Bend your A note at the 10th fret on the B string with your 3rd finger (as well as your supporting fingers) a ¼ of a tone, then release it to its original pitch.
Repeat this process being mindful to bend your string to the same pitch every time at the same rhythmic rate.
Now set your metronome to 40 BPM, return to the A note on the 10th fret of the B string fretting it just as you where before.
Now bend and release your vibrato so that 4 bends fit within each click.
We are dividing these beats into 16th notes, there are 4 16th notes within a beat, and we are bending our vibrato on each one of these 4 16th notes. As you become more comfortable with this exercise increase the speed on your metronome.
There are many different ways to apply vibrato, try playing a note and having your vibrato fade in gradually like singers do, or try some slow vibrato, or fast vibrato, or some small vibrato or wide vibrato.
For further examples of amazing vibrato listen to solos by the following guitar players, as you listen to their soloing pay close attention to the vibrato they use: Jimi Hendrix, Michael Schenker, David Gilmore, Zakk Wylde, Gary Moore, Paul Gilbert, Angus Young, Randy Rhoads, Eddie Van Halen, Ace Frehley, Brian May, BB King, Albert King, Eric Clapton, Slash.
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BECOME THE ELECTRIC GUITARIST YOU’VE ALWAYS DREAMED OF BEING.
2. Bending
Bending is one of the most expressive, versatile, iconic and important techniques of the electric guitar, and the ability to bend successfully and soulfully is a prerequisite for any great rock guitarist.
But unfortunately the most important element of great bending is largely over looked by the majority of electric guitar players, this element is bending in tune.
Before you attempt your next bend on guitar I want you to be fully aware of what note you are bending to and what its supposed to sound like and feel like when executed properly.
Whether it’s a full tone bend, a ½ tone bend, a 1 and a ½ tone bend, a 2 tone bend or a quarter bend. The key to bending in tune is to understand what note you are bending to, and how its supposed to feel and sound when you reach it.
Every bend will feel a certain way when executed correctly.
There will be a certain place on the fret board your fingers must reach, you will feel a certain amount of tightness in the string when you bend it to the correct pitch.
To bend in tune choose a note on the guitar neck to bend, then reach up to the note that you are planning on bending to and play it. This is how your bend will sound when you bend it in tune.
Alternate between playing the note you are bending to and bending to it.
Have a good listen, are you hitting that note as you bend to it? Are you slightly sharp? Slightly flat? Maybe you have been bending out of tune this whole time but never realised.
Try this exercise all over the neck with different strings and different types of bends.
You can also record yourself playing a single note over and over to a slow amount of beats per minute, then play along with the recording bending up to the picked note you recorded, when you bend in tune you will hear your bend merge with the notes in the recording.
Another great exercise for bending in tune is unison bends.
Choose a note on either the B or G string to bend, now bend it using a unison bend. When you bend in tune you should hear the notes of the unison bend merge sonically into the same note.
Play these unison bends slowly, listening carefully to hear the point where they sonically merge. This is how unison bends sound when they are executed in tune.
Play them a few more times this time being concious of how they feel when they sonically merge in tune, notice the tightness and pressure of the string when you hit the correct pitch.
Is that the amount of tightness and pressure you usually feel when playing unison bends? If not, you may have been playing unison bends out of tune this whole time but never realised.
Bending is one of the most expressive and versatile techniques in all of rock guitar playing. When it comes to bending you truly are only limited by your imagination.
There are so many different ways to bend, each way expressing a new emotion and musical character, I encourage you to experiment with all of them and develop bending licks that really celebrate one of the electric guitars most expressive, versatile and iconic techniques.
• You can bend and release notes.
• You can slide up into bends.
• You can slide down into bends.
• You can slide from one bend into another either up or down the neck.
• You can bend a whole tone, a ½ tone, a 1 ½ tone, a 2 tone, and more.
• You can bend and release notes with your 1st finger as well as your 2nd, 3rd and 4th fingers.
• You can apply sustained vibrato to bends.
• You can pre bend notes.
• You can bend and release notes a whole tone then bend and release them a 2 tone.
• You can quickly bend and release notes before bending them again.
• You can apply pinched harmonics to bends.
• You can cross strings during bends.
• You can play unison bends.
For further examples of amazing bending listen to solos by the following guitar players, as you listen to their soloing pay close attention to the bending they use: Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck, Albert King, Buddy Guy, Roy Buchanan, Eddie Van Halen, Michael Schenker, David Gilmour, Slash, Brian May, Ace Frehley.
For more examples of great bending in context download your copy of my FREE eBook 25 Licks Every Rock Guitarist Must Know.
3. Phrasing
Phrasing is the life blood of guitar soloing, it gives guitar solos purpose and direction.
Its the fundamental guitar soloing approach that differentiates an amazing improvised guitar solo, from an improvised guitar solo that sounds like the guitarist is simply wondering through scales and notes at random with no direction, plan or purpose.
Phrasing is the art of grouping relative notes together through the means of different licks that work well over the chord progression you are soloing over.
Great guitar solos tend to be a combination of great phrases that work well over the chord progression and lead the listener though some kind of musical journey. There are quite a few elements that go into successful phrasing, but here are a few of the most fundamental ones.
Scale And Note Knowledge
Become familiar with the different positions of a particular rock scale all over the fretboard. This is an integral part of confident and successful phrasing.
When you become familiar with the different positions of a particular rock scale you will be able to look down at the fretboard and see all the positions as if they where mapped out. The next step from this is to be able to look down at the fretboard and see all the potential licks and ideas you can play all over the neck.
Create Licks
Start creating your own licks and practicing them.
Play to a backing track or record a progression of your own, then compose licks to be played over the top and practice them along to the track.
Writing, learning and practicing licks along to backing tracks of rock progressions is one of the best things you can do to develop great phrasing.
For guitar licks and phrases you can use in your solos download your copy of my FREE eBook 25 Licks Every Rock Guitarist Must Know.
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