Performance solo videos over 4 backing tracks in various styles

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Hi guys,

This is going to be a long one, so the TLDR would be - check out my 4 solo performance videos in the posts below!

This post is part book review, and part performance showcase, so I actually wasn’t sure where to put it. I hope this is an acceptable “home” for my post, otherwise mods can move it :slightly_smiling_face:

Like many others around here I’m always looking for ways to improve my improvisation, and the timing of this post seems pretty good considering the “How do you make improvisation sound musical” topic that is currently going on. (@Stuartw , @sclay, @stitch, @Richard_close2u, @TheMadman_tobyjenner and more…)

As discussed over there, the key to sounding melodic is to be aware of the underlying harmony (the chords) of the song you’re soloing over, and playing licks and phrases that target “appropriate” notes… usually chord tones, or notes found within the chord currently being played. This is of course easier said than done, and requires a lot of practice.

Some of you might know the amazing German musician called Martin Miller - if not, look him up on YouTube and prepare to be amazed by his session band live performances and guests! I’ve always been a fan of Martin’s style. On the one hand his technique is absolutely insane - I honestly think he is among the most technically gifted players in the world right now. However, despite being primarily a rock guy his education is within jazz. This makes his playing style quite unique, and (to my ears) very melodic. Martin is always thinking of the underlying harmony, like a jazz player would.

Recently I bought his book “Modern Rock Guitar Soloing” to dig deeper into his thinking and playing style. The book is really amazing, BUT also incredibly hard. Check it out on Amazon if you’re interested!

The book is split into two parts; In the first half Martin presents 4 tracks in various playing styles and gives example licks as well as two example solos for each track - one “intermediate” and one “advanced” solo. Some time ago I made a joke in another thread that what “intermediate” means seems very relative to your own playing level, because let me tell you - despite feeling like a fairly accomplished player, these so-called intermediate tracks were HARD for me (as you shall see in a minute below).

After each solo, Martin breaks it down in 4-bar chunks, talking about the licks and his thought process behind each part of the solo. How it relates to the underlying chords, why he chose that particular lick etc. Here he’ll refer to section two of the book, where he’s broken his entire approach to soloing into 32 “concepts”. For example, one concept might be “approach notes” and another “chromaticism” etc etc.

The suggested way to digest his book (he mentions he thinks it will take years to get into it all!!) is to learn the 4 solos, and try to dig into the “linked” concepts. So that’s what I did, and I’ll post videos of me performing each track along with some thoughts in the following posts… stay tuned!

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Track 1 - Hard rock

Martin kicks off the book with a track in an “80s hard rock” vibe (not really THAT hard rock… More like Bon Jovi etc).

All of these tracks have an A section and a B section, with the chord progression changing. This alone was already an eye-opener for me on my learning path! Having the chord progression change mid-solo really is an excellent way to add some interest into the solo, and it’s definitely something I’ll try to suggest with the band.

As the solo goes from the A section into the B section, Martin also often use that time to change sound or switch to a new pickup setting on the guitar. Really cool stuff, and again a little detail that I have not been doing enough in my own playing! I tend to always solo on the bridge pickup, but little touches like tweaking the volume or switching pickup makes a huge difference in sounding more professional.

The track is in F#m, and section A uses a trick where the bass stays on the same note while the chords change around. The B section is very inspired by Bon Jovi’s Living on a Prayer.

The “intermediate” solo had some pretty damn tough parts in it! At first glance it might not seem that hard, but that last alternate picked run required a fair amount of practice to get up to speed for me!
This being the very first thing the book threw at me, I knew I was in for a hard time! :slight_smile:

Check out my performance of the track here:

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Track 2 - Funk

The book goes from hard to very hard!!
This second track, in the Funk style, almost broke me :wink:
At the end I gave up getting it fully up to speed, so my performance below it at 95% of the intended tempo.

The track is inspired by Stevie Wonders “Superstition”, and again it has an A and a B section.

The A section is a vamp over an E7#9 chord (the “Hendrix” chord). A static vamp over this chord is actually a bit tricky. It’s like playing over a dominant chord, and it doesn’t sound clearly major or minor. Yet the licks in this section is still fairly simple, the most advanced/new to me is the use of the half-whole diminished scaled, which is thrown in around the end of the A sections. This was a very new and “outside” sounding scale for me, but I like it.

Then the B section kicks in - and oh boy, THIS was what nearly broke me! Martin plays this insane lick that combines a bit of sweep picking with string skipping and arpeggios… at a fairly high tempo. The dexterity needed to pull this off is mind-boggling, and I had to practice that part A LOT. Like hours and hours!!

It goes directly into some two-string arpeggios, and then into this crazy descending like that switches from outlining A mixolydian over an A13 chord to outlining a B7b9 chords halfway through, before landing on an E major tonality. And this is the intermediate version?!?

Check it out here:

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Track 3 - Ballad

Surprisingly the difficulty seemingly took a big drop with the 3 and 4th track.
This one is a ballad, and it plays much more to my strengths. There are no speed-based technical challenges, but the challenge lies in playing with feel and emotion and nailing those bends and pre-bends. There is also a lot of playing with finger picking.

The A section clearly is inspired by the John Mayer “Slow Dancing” track, and the B section is essentially the “Comfortably Numb” progression.

Overall this track is clearly in a minor key, so the focus here is to play tastefully and always be targeting chord tones!

Luckily this comes quite easy to me, so check out the performance here:

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Track 4 - Album oriented Rock/Pop

The last track is a solo in a major key (D major) and again it has an A and a B section.
The A section is an extremely common pop/rock progression - a I-V-vi-IV progression - like for example U2s “With or Without You”. The B section is demonstrating another cool and common trick, like used by the Beatles where they play the major IV chord, going into the minor IV chord (which is technically speaking out of key, but sounds so nice!). Here the chords for the B section is D-A-G-Gm and the trick is to really outline when that Gm kicks in! Try to listen for that in the performance below, I think it sounds really cool and melodic!

This solo is again not incredibly hard in terms of speed, BUT it requires a lot of control. You’ll notice some string skipping ideas again, and also some arpeggio lines that are played super smooth, almost like a super-slow sweep picking lick.

Check the track here

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Your playing is awesome in all four tracks. If I were to evaluate, I’d choose the funk and ballad style as my preferences. In all styles it’s obvious that you’re aware of the chord progression and what each chord really means in its position; also the target notes are bullseye hits…
I love improvising and, in a sense, usually take a similar approach to soloing; it’s just that I almost always play through a clean channel (it comes with age, perhaps? :wink: ).
Nice work, and thanks for sharing.

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Wow, that was great amazing etc etc Kasper, :man_bowing: :clap:

Your writing and playing guitar reminds me a lot of what I learned from Tim Pierce 4 and 3 years ago… well on paper then, playing for me is not (yet :crossed_fingers:)

I’ll save it and watch and read it all again later,

Greetings

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Once again Kasper, you amaze and inspire with your dedication to the craft.
Great write up and wonderful control and expression in your playing.
:slight_smile:

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I noticed in your intro post that you mentioned Martin Miller whose approach to soloing I like very much and often listen to. This reminded me of another great player publishing on YT, a girl this time, namely Lari Basilio. I’m sure you’ll love her playing, too.

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That was plain right awesome, Kasper! :clap:

I thoroughly enjoyed all for tracks with the #1 and #3 being my favourites sounding wise. From playing perspective all were played just great to my ears. A pleasure to watch and listen to and very inspiring. You made it look quite effortless, though I get it was really, really tough getting this under your fingers.

Also thanks for sharing the journey of learning, too. It’s always interesting to read how it goes for others. :slight_smile:

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Kasper

Awesome!!

Brian

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Thanks for sharing Kasper, no issues with where you posted. The playing and tones as always wonderful. Bottom line, this is a totally different league to most of us. Just a treat to watch and listen. Look forward to the hard versions when you eventually have those down.

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Nicely played Kasper, 4 solid performances :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap:… No. 3 was my favourite … :+1:

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Super impressively accurate playing as always Kasper! They all look extremely tricky to pull off.

If I’ve understood correctly, these are Martin’s “example” solos to illustrate the concepts he’s teaching. Have you tried improvising incorporating some of these ideas yet?

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This is super playing, on all four tracks actually. So these solos are from the book? All intermediate level? And there is an advanced level for each track as well? Or are the tracks partly from the book and partly your own invention?
Either way, it’s wonderful musicianship, very inspiring.
Thanks for sharing :+1:

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A level of playing that I’ll never attain, but it’s always a great watch/listen whenever you post, Kasper. Your commitment is to be commended!!

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Have to say that they all sounded good to me although did find the BT too loud in most cases. It blanked out the solos.

Easy for you to say! :slight_smile: Still too fast for me.

Agreed. So far above my skill level. It’s like comparing a Rolls Royce and a Reliant Robin!

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Thank you for sharing this Kasper. There is a lot to digest in your description of each piece and also your introduction. I have only just been introduced to Mr Miller and he is truly gifted. The BBP shared a video of his “lesson” with Josh Smith, amazing playing and concepts !

What I like about these more instructional videos you have shared with the JGC, is the clarity of what you are playing. Both hands clearly visible but maybe a little blurred on those fast flurries. :rofl: This reminds me why I always refer to my self as an Advance Beginner, when ever asked.

The 4 exercises were all relatable tracks and as usual played to your exceptionall high standard. I liked the comments about switching pups mid solo, something I have just started experimenting with in a rudimentary way on of the Blues Immersion lick medleys. I’ll play a 4 chorus 12BB, split LP Smokeys PUPs, start in the neck and change the config for each 12 bars. Changing mid solo for the future maybe, But the difference in tone over the same piece can be like chalk and cheese, in a good way.

Book marked for future reference.

Big thanks.

:sunglasses:
Such a wide range of tone.

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Yeah, I know of Lari Basilio. Haven’t listened to a lot of her playing, but have come across her a few times and she is also a super melodic player. There are so many inspiring players on YouTube. Besides Martin and Lari, a few of my favorites would be Pete Thorn, Tim Pierce, Shawn Tubbs & Josh Smith. All play with a decent amount of flash, but never just shred - always with the song and melodies in mind.

Ha ha, well - for the 80s rock and Funk track that is never going to happen - I can say that much. The ballad track and the AOR… those I might be able to get down. My plan is probably to learn parts of the advanced tracks, because there are some licks in each of those solos that I love the sound of. Then I’ll work on combining those into my own solos over the tracks - that’s the real end goal after all, that I’m able to do something entirely of my own.

Yeah, I’ve also been improvising a bit over the tracks, like any other jam track. The tracks that comes with the book are longer than those solos I posted, it just repeats those sections over and over. As you surely will know, it takes a long time to absorb new things and make them your own, so I’m trying to pick up bits and pieces.

A few concrete concepts of his that I’m already working on is something he calls RDAP (rhythmically dependent alternate picking), Chord Tone Soloing (obviously), Approach notes and finally something called “Tetratonics” - 4 note version of scales, which can be used to “climb up” the neck and strings in a cool sounding fashion (used in the 80s rock track I posted).

None of these topics are ingrained enough in my playing that I can freely use them though… hopefully it’ll come…

No, all of those tracks I posted are taken directly from the book. There are advanced levels as well, and also 5 stand-alone licks to learn for each track… that can be used in the readers own improvisation - either partly, or in full. But those licks tend to be really difficult, so I’ve not gotten any use of them yet. In fact, this would be my main criticism of the book so far - I feel there should be a few more examples at an easier level…

Yeah, I noticed that the video quality really sucks! I need to find a better way to record. I’ve done videos in two ways - I can record with my iPhone… that gives a very good image quality, but transferring the video to my PC is super annoying to do, so that stops me from doing it often. These were done with my webcam, and I thought it would be OK… but it captures both image and light really poorly. Investigating if there are better options, without going full-on out on a digital camera, stand, lights etc… which would be super overkill for my use. Perhaps an upgrade of my old webcam would be enough…

It takes time to get comfortable switching PU while playing. When I started being aware of this and trying it out I would flub the notes after the switch. Too much mental energy would go into the simple motion of flipping the switch. It needs to be practiced so it comes 100% automatic and muscle memory… like playing a lick. But once you get there, you’ll start doing it more and more often…

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Hey Kasper,

Firstly, a pure joy to listen to you play again mate. You’re always an inspiration to listen to. Your playing is always just so fluid, with a sublime touch.

Even moreso with these solos I have this same book from Martin Miller. Bought it as a future ‘extra’ among some Chris Brooks/Keith Wyatt books I bought about a year ago.
I’m working towards tackling this book in the next year or so, so your great post is an absolute goldmine reference/review.

I’m obviously nowhere near your level ( yet :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:), but from what others have said about this book, Martin’s approach is something well worth exposing myself too.

Thanks again for sharing your great playing.

Cheers, Shane

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