For many guitar players it’s an itch that needs scratching as we try to express ourselves musically and expand our understanding of the guitar as a whole.

While sixty minutes might not seem like much, it IS possible to learn how to play solos in a relatively short amount of time, maybe even less.

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How Do I Start to Solo?

Learning how to solo starts with a good set of tools and, as mentioned, good guidance. At the very least you should at have an artist and solo in mind to use as a target.

Having said that, the real difference in being being able to start soloing quickly is not so much the amount of talent you may have (or not), but the quality of instruction and your willingness to make something happen.

Thanks to the convenience of video instruction, a highly focused guitar tutorial on soloing such as Guitareo’s program of free videos, makes the process about as easy as baking a cake, and in about the same amount of time.

What Tools Will I Need?

The short answer is patterns, and a guitar of course. On a guitar, patterns can be as simple as a chord form or a series of single notes, ie; a scale.

For most of us, starting to solo means learning scales. Now, before you start imagining endless hours of tedious repetition taught by a dusty professor scratching out notation on a worn chalkboard, it’s really not that bad.

Scales are your friends. The more you know, the more friends you have.

Is there one scale that rules them all? Technically, yes, and that would be the C major scale – the big kahuna.

But if you’re starting to solo, let’s make it easy and practical – pentatonic is the way to go.

Why?

Pentatonic patterns are simple. Being based on only 5 tones, the “penta”tonic or 5 note scale is an economical structure that can easily be applied across the neck. Plus, chances are your favorite players also make good use of it too – especially in rock and blues styles.

What Makes a Good Solo?

Ah yes, the eternal question. The answer lies in your own personal tastes which are subjective. You probably have guitar heroes you admire, and certain solos you find extremely entertaining.

A good guitar solo is one that contains emotion, uses dynamics and fits the song.

Does this mean it has to be technically brilliant or complex? Absolutely not.

For example, check out Neil Young’s impassioned and understated approach to soloing in this video at 1:54

As they say, sometimes less is more.

From a player’s point of view it should at least be fun to play. And from a listener’s point of view it should be fun to hear.

Regardless of the artist or style of music, great solos tend to stand the test of time. They’re a blend of the player’s personality and their given choice of phrases, which are often a collection of bits and pieces from their own guitar heroes.

If you want to create good solos, learn from the best. Grab your inspiration from the guitar players you admire.

How Do I Get Better at Soloing?

Getting better at soloing involves practice – no two ways about it. Having a good practice routine combined with a positive mindset will always produce results.

To accelerate your progress, here are a few points to keep in mind:

• Be realistic – While it’s a good idea to stretch your boundaries, you should also be practical about the level of difficulty you’re taking on.
• Divide and conquer – Break down the harder passages into bite-size chunks you can digest more easily. Work on each one in turn then patch them together
• Walk, don’t run – Use a metronome to gradually build up speed for faster parts.
• Understand theory – In all honesty, getting a grip on theory will unlock EVERYTHING musical – not just the guitar.
• Think outside the musical box – If you want to develop a more unique solo voice, look beyond the guitar. Other instruments can be excellent sources for inspiration such as vocal lines, saxophone or even piano.

As a word of caution, it doesn’t take long to find extraordinary players that can tear up a fretboard. Did they learn to solo overnight? Probably not. Everybody eats the elephant one bite at a time.

Personal Notes on Soloing

For many players, the idea of soloing is about as complex as earning a PHD in music and growing a sixth finger. But it doesn’t have to be that way.

Yes, copying or “lifting” a solo from another player can be tricky, but it’s well worth the effort. And once you get a taste for soloing it’s almost impossible to get away from it.

Personally, once I started playing solos, I never looked back – total thrill time. Not that playing chords or riffs wasn’t fun, it’s just that I found soloing was MORE fun.

Like most others, I began borrowing licks and tricks from the greats, then mixed the musical ingredients together to develop my own personal style.

Interestingly enough when I started teaching soloing, I noticed an unsettling phenomenon starting to pop up: my students were beginning to sound like me! This threw me for a huge loop and I quickly took my personal licks off the teaching table. Not to protect my ego, but to make sure my student’s own style developed organically from their own inspirations – not polluted by my personal preferences.

In closing, yes, you can learn to solo in a short amount of time. The best way is to find an excellent source of instruction and pick a reasonable goal. From there, making sensible solo sounds on the guitar is just a matter of putting in the time and effort.

The post Can You Learn To Solo In An Hour – From Scratch? first appeared on GuitarNiche.

Solo Guitars: GUITAR OF THE MONTH – OCTOBER, 2021

It’s always nice to see someone you know get recognized for doing good work – especially when it comes to custom guitars!

Recently, our good friend Mike LaPointe was lucky enough to get one of his many custom guitar builds featured on the Solo Guitars site.

The following article was originally published by Solo Guitars in November of 2021 and is reproduced with permission.

Written by: Kevin Strom On: Nov 9th, 2021

Congratulations goes out to Mike Lapointe for his guitar build, to earn him Guitar of the Month for October 2021.

Mike used our JEK-10 DIY kit as the basis to create his guitar.

“I completed this JEK-10 kit with my daughter Amanda Lynn. Frankly, looking at last month’s Guitar of the Month winner, I was humbled to even be considered.

I work in collaboration with my daughter Amanda Lynn on about one guitar a month. She’s the real talent in our family. I was inspired to try this because she was doing similar artwork on canvas and was rather prolific and driven to create.

It occurred to me as the art stated to accumulate in our home that it might work on a guitar body. We started by stripping down and painting a Squire body and it turned out (to a Dad’s eyes anyway) spectacular.  So when I saw these kits available for less money than a body and neck would cost from virtually any other credible source, I thought, why not. I was shocked at the quality of the neck and body.

The build process was basically as follows:

I sanded the body to about 220 grit, filled with simple wood filler, and then primed it in matte black. Then both the neck and body went to Amanda’s studio (living room, LOL) where she did her magic. Her process is not a wrap and not a hydro dip. She prepares her paints in cups and then manually pours them on the guitar.

The top and back must be poured in separate steps. One must dry completely before the second can be started. During the pours she manipulates the paint with torches, compressed air and with her hands.  As you can see she also works in acrylic resin. The two pockets on the front of the guitar are chambers she created with hand tools and a dremel. She filled those chambers with acrylic crystals and resin as well as a glow-in-the-dark material, so yes, they glow quite strongly after being exposed to light.  This one we named MindStorm.  After both sides have cured, she returns them to me.

For this one and all I have done recently, I spray them with nitrocellulose lacquer and buff them to as good a shine as I can achieve. With this type of process, there will always be texture. In other words, bumps and lumps are par for the course.

I had lots of parts on the shelf and for this one I wanted to upgrade the bridge so I opted for a Gotoh 1996. That required me to reposition the bridge inserts as the Gotoh was slightly wider than the stock Floyd. That meant doweling the existing holes and re-drilling them.

The pickups I selected were also parts I had on the shelf and as this is obviously a shredder, I went with a Seymour Dimebucker in the bridge, a Seymour Duncan Strat single coil in the middle and a DiMarzio Super Distortion in the neck.

I opted to wire it so that the humbuckers were automatically coil cut in positions 2 and 4 of the five-position pickup switch. I did this because I always tap or coil cut humbuckers when combined with a single coil and why have a push / pull or toggle which is just another step?

Did I mention that I bought two of these kits?

While building the second kit (nearing completion now) I decided to use the supplied FR licensed bridge and frankly, although the Gotoh is indeed a stellar bridge with excellent design improvements, I have to say that the supplied bridge is more than adequate. It works as you would expect a Floyd to work, and that is bulletproof stability.

Now that I’ve started reading about other submissions for Guitar of the Month, I recognize the huge resource these testimonials represent. I intend to pick the brains of previous winners (whether they know it or not, LOL) to improve my process.

At the risk of repeating myself, I’m shocked at the quality of the neck and body. The neck pockets are tight and the fret work is excellent. Naturally, I dressed the edges and polished the frets but it plays far better than I would have expected for such a reasonably priced kit.

Thank you for considering this guitar. To be mentioned among such beautiful instruments and talented builders is a source of immense pride for us.”

Unfortunately, Amanda didn’t film the making of this guitar, but if you’d like to see her finish a different guitar using the same techniques, check out this Youtube video here.

-Mike Lapointe

With the help of his daughter’s unique process, Mike is brilliant at assembling his custom guitars and realizing a vision.

By using carefully selected materials, innovative hardware and premium pickups, they look and sound awesome!

He’s also wise enough to know that there are some very fine setup adjustments needed to make the guitars fully playable – which can be slightly out of his comfort zone.

To that end, we’re grateful to be part of the process, and see these killer instruments reach their full potential.

The post How To Take A Solo, And Make It Your Own first appeared on GuitarNiche.