A scale is your vocabulary - it tells you what notes you can play that should sound good. Not all the notes of the scale will sound good all the time, and some notes from outside the scale may sound good, but generally if you stick to the notes of the scale you’ll be in a safe spot of avoiding anything that sounds too far off.
A minor pentatonic scale is even safer - such as the A minor pentatonic for songs in the key of C - as it takes out some of the more challenging notes and limits you to 5 notes that all sound good.
But just as you don’t use all your words in alphabetical order, you don’t want to play the scale in chromatic order. In playing, as in talking, you want to use patterns. You want to use repetition. You want to come back to certain notes that sound best to you. Sometimes this could mean going through a scale in a pattern - ACDC, CDED, DEGE, EGAE or ACDE, CDEG, DEGA, EGAC, GACD - but more often it means creating patterns and licks out of notes in the scale: A, GAC, A, A, GACD, E, A, GAC, A, D->E, D->E, D->E, CA.
So why learn the scales when you only use parts of them? Because you develop finger memory and your fingers start to learn where to go without thinking about it. But I would say that a better way to learn scales is to do so in patterns - even a simple pattern of CDEF, DEFG, EFGA, FGAB, GABC, etc. will sound much more musical than CDEFGABC.
That’s awesome! Glad to hear you’re having fun, and getting to play with your daughter!
I would, however, advice a less ambitious goal. A 5 minute solo is enormous. That’s an instrumental song at that point. That’s Paul Gilbert, Yngwie Malmsteen, Joe Satriani level.
How about a solo for 2-4 bars? Start there, and once you’re good with 2-4 bars, you can expand to something longer. Or you can add in little improvisations - 1-2 bars, or just some accents notes - here and there throughout a song.
I just looked up a couple songs that have well known guitar solos - Metallica’s Enter Sandman and Audioslave’s Like a Stone - to see how long they are. Enter Sandman’s solo is ~48 seconds, while Like a Stone’s solo is ~34 seconds long. So maybe set a goal of a 15-30 second solo? I mean, I love your ambition, but a 5 minute solo seems a bit much.
Keep it simple Jeff even 60 seconds is a long time for most solos. Build it up slow. Work a few bars at a time, aim for a 30 second run max. And make sure it breaths and its not a freight train running wild.
Thanks Toby. This may be a dumb question, but it seems like this group is exceptionally smart here. How do I know which scale to use for a solo? Would I pick a C if the song is in the key of C or does it matter? I think I asked that teacher a long while back, but can’t remember what he said. The last time I tried it I used E minor as in Justin’s first E minor lesson and held my own for a little while following the teachers lead.
Personally, to keep thing simple, if the song was in the key of C, I’d impro using the A minor pentatonic. All the notes of that pent scale are in the key so you wont go wrong but listen to what sound good and what sounds really good. And don’t go walking over the fretboard to start, stay in one position and limit your self to the G B e strings. Learn what works and experiment.
Do no get lost in scales the old fashinoned way! I did that mistake looong ago!
Every. scale in 5 positions !!! No, go to Fretscience and learn this in a better way - however you need to tpknow the root and then you do not learn names of every note in the scale BUT it’s position i.e. 1,2, b3, 3, ….
The major scale is the 1,2,3,4,5,6,7 and if the key is C you start on the C.
The minor penta is 1,b3,4,5,b7 and the major penta is 1,2,3,5,6.
If you leanr the stack and the rectangle and mind the warp between G and B string the fretboorad will open up. However, of course you need to learn all names of the notes on the fretboard also in the longer run. Justins App is an excellent tool for that!
Regards
That makes sense to me. Start small with an achievable goal. Three strings c or am pentatonic. I like @sclay s idea too of just listening to a C Cord and try to solo just off of that.
Lately I’ve been trying Don’t Cry by GNR again and starting to get better at that. That song has a great solo opportunity in there too. No video here yet because I’m not happy with my performance yet, but it’s much better than last time I tried it.
Thanks Lars. I know all the notes on the 6th and 5th string up and down so I guess that is a start. I learned that when doing barre and power chords. I get your point about not overthinking it. Thanks😎
That’s a good start because you only need to learn the D,G and B string then!
However, look up fretscience.com ! Much smarter way to learn the scales.
You can strat up with the minor penta at once and will soon be able to move it all over the neck. If you change the rectangle and the box/stack you will soon have any scalle all over. BUT you must know which is what (i.e. ) 1,2,3 … in the scale! When you play chords you must learn which si which function i.e 1, 3 and 5 if its a major chord. Note open chords like A, D, E maj the fretted notes in those are always 5,R, 3 in that order. May help on the way -
Mnemonics are good - notes from B on the low E string Battle Ends And Down Goes Charles Father but it move up one fret on the B string !
Regarding the tip above on using E Ball 008 -038 Strats and similar often comes with 009-042 strings while epiis and Gibson (shorter scales) come with 010-046.
If you replace with other stringdimensions than original you might need to adjust the truss rod!
Jeff, I have to agree with Richard’s points there. Even when you play on top of a single backing chord like C major, just try playing the 2-3 notes on at most the high 2 strings and see if you can come up with something sounding like a lick. I found this lesson from Justin immensely insightful for doing that (posting here since I have read your comments about the C Major scale a few times which is what this video is also on:
Hey Jeff @SDKissFan
Lots of good info here, but I suggest strongly to heed Richards advice. Solid foundations are critical - in both being able to play stuff, and to build an understanding as to what you are doing.
To start, - one chord, one scale. In this way, you will steadily progress in a consistent manner. It will take time.
Otherwise you WILL get overwhelmed, and progress will suffer.
You can find open string root, D chord,Dminor and D 7 all close to each other and you can easily hear the difference in notes. Just start with 3 or four note licks.
If you learn with visual clues dont be afraid of either tabbing or using fret diagrams.
I’m also in the process of learning the fretboard also knowing E and A strings.
Whilst I understand this is just the Octave shapes what I’ve learnt that works for me is for the g string just move up two frets from the A string note and you have the same note, for the b string just move down two frets from the A string for the same note. By up and down I mean in pitch not vertically.
For example on the A string Is at the 7th fret, on b string E is at the 5th fret and on g string E is at the 9th fret.
Similarly for the D string just move up two frets in relation to the E string.
It’s working a treat for me for learning the triads on the gbe strings although I’m only a week into it.
In similar fashion to find the same note on each consecutive string starting on low E, it’s 7 frets up or 5 down which changes to 8 up or 4 down when going from g to b string.
For example C note from E to e would be on frets 8 3 10 5 1 and 8. There are of course other options beyond the 12th fret using the same rules.
I’m learning playing solos over a jam track now. Right now with the pentatonic scale but I struggle with it. It doesn’t sound as good as I want to. I’m going to record something tomorrow and upload it.
It’s going to be in the key of C and the scale is the G shaped pentatonic.
Is it in the key of C major?
Is it a 12-bar blues ste using the I and IV and V chords of C, F and G?
Is it a more general rock / pop style chord progression / backing track?
Are you using major or minor pentatonic scale?
The G shape scale is commonly called pattern 5. Justin, and most teachers, teach and recommend learning and using pattern 1 first.
