Rock solo in D

Hello all! Ive been playing for around 1.5 yrs now and i want to improve my soloing and improv. When i play it feels and sounds good yet when i listen back i hate the way it sounds. to my ear its disjointed and not as smooth as it feels when im playing it, and my licks sound much better in the moment than they do listening back. Id love some feedback on where i can improve my playing from here

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Hi, Jacob. First, I think your solo is too overpowering of the BT and would
sit better and sound better if the mix was more balanced and your solo melded in with the BT. I think what you’ve got is pretty good tonewise, but I think there are notes getting in there that aren’t intended. That being said, just try to make your playing more precise, would be my take on this. Overall, I think you’ve done a good job of it for the time you’ve been playing.

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Thanks for the tips :smiley:

Yes I agree with OH, your mix was far to loud with your guitar. Also I don’t think that your backing track was that good for the style of soloing you were doing, there was some dissonance in places and the drumming parts were to me more like for Jazz.
It might be a good idea to look at Justin’s Shuffle backing track and have a go using that.
If you’re interested in Blues/Rock then your playing is OK, you’ve got a reasonable amount of technical skills that will improve with practice, keep at it and all will be good!

Ive got an use justins tracks i just like to vary with others to keep it varied. I find justins rock specific tracks to be a little fast for me currently. As for the mix i had my phone recording closer to my guitar amp than my speakers. In the room It definitely sounded more balanced but in future i need to record properly. Thanks for the tips and support :smiley:

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Some nice licks in there! :slight_smile:

I think there are different aspects to the problem that you explained.

When I started using a looper pedal, I was shocked at how my playing sounded in the room after I listened to what the looper played. As my playing improves, so does what I hear through the looper.

Second is, that what you hear in the room and on the recording can be very different. And when you start recording isolated guitar sound through an interface, there may be another shock. It might even sound bad on its own, but great when mixed in a track. Justin has some great lessons about how to record guitar, and that helped me a lot.

Finally, the better the quality of the recording, the more mistakes are exposed. Smartphone recordings can hide a lot of mistakes, but it’s still better than not recording at all. You can analyze what to improve by listening to your recordings. Eventually, you will be experiencing less of that disjointed feeling. :slight_smile:

Most importantly, enjoy the journey, you’re doing great so far! :slight_smile:

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I normally record by micing up my amp but on this particular occasion i just wanted to quickly shove a microphone somewhere and record without setting everything up. I definitely think i need to start recording properly more frequently to hear where im going wrong :smiley:

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Ive posted it elsewhere but for reference heres my follow up where I implemented the advice. Be nice to look back in this in time and see the progress

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I thought the second take was a huge improvement, so good job on that. You clearly listened to some of the feedback in terms of the output levels of the solo versus the backing track. Also, I thought the second version was just a bit more rhythmic and relaxed, sounding. Turned out to be too hard on yourself, and just give yourself the time it takes to improve. You’re on the right path!

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I agree with Tosh on this Jacob. The second one was better than the first. It did sound more chilled and the tone of your guitar was better too. Musically it was better as well.

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