I’ve been playing consistently for about 15 months now, and am in the intermediate (grade 4) lessons. I’ve gotten through the Major Scales module (first 3 positions) and have been practicing playing solos over various backing tracks (alternating between my acoustic & electric guitars)
What I’ve noticed is that all my solos end up having a similar sound/mood, regardless of the mood in the backing track. Meaning, the backing track gives off happy/mellow/hard rock/soft rock vibes; however, my solos don’t end up capturing any of these distinct moods. I do try to incorporate slides/hammer-ons as well to some extent.
I’d love some advice on how to spice up my solos to capture these mood variations.
I am at about the same place in my journey and have similar issue. My solution (still a work in progress) was to learn solos from music that had a different sound to it than what my noodling was creating. This also meant that I had to list to different music than maybe I defaulted to in order to pick out the riffs and solos that I wanted to pickup and bring into my own creation.
From learning and practicing other styles I learn little riffs and techniques that I can employ on my own, as well as just training my fingers to do something different.
This is a great idea - thank you for the tip. Would love to hear about your progress doing this - Has this been able to help you incorporate different moods to your solos?
I would suggest utilising the pentatonic scales in your solos. Much more beginner friendly, and you can eventually incorporate those extra 2 notes from the major scale.
Also, practice trying to land on the chord tones when the chords change. You’ll find your solos become much more cohesive and melodic this way.
I’ve found that soloing is often a very gradual process. It takes a fair amount of time and effort.
They key is to start simple, master that at some level, then build on it.
One of the main things is to work on dynamics, it’s the dynamics that add nuances and emotions - changes in volume, tone and whether or not you’re ’pushing’ the solo or not (playing notes very slightly earlier than on time to create a push feeling). All of these make a difference in the flow and feel of the solo.
I think we are still in the mechanical part of learning to play melodies. Once we get this down to a solid level and expand vocabulary, expressing feelings becomes easier. I take analogy in learning foreign language. After 6 months you might be good in everyday situations, but you definitely can’t read or write poems.