Soloing

A solo is a section of a song that focuses on a single instrument. It is the lead instrument in the arrangement; hence solo'ing is often called playing lead (as opposed to rhythm). An instrument may "solo" over other parts of the song, such as the chorus; or multiple instruments can "solo" at the same time - "solo'ing" is more about a style of play that is emphasized during solo sections. For guitar, this is usually playing single note melodies, scale iterations, or arpeggios, in higher registers than commonly found in rhythm playing. While rhythm-playing is more associated with repetitive riffs or chord progressions, solo'ing usually features non-repeating phrases.

A solo section is often designed to showcase the performer's ability and personal style. It often features distinctive speed, techniques, phrasing, accents, and tone that differentiate it from the rest of the song.

Goals

Your main goal in solo'ing should always be to enhance the song. Within those bounds, you can do anything you want; however, you have to be aware of the solo's context within the song to understand what is appropriate. For instance, if you are solo'ing on a slow, soft ballad, it's not appropriate to come in guns blazing shredding at warp speed. Similarly, if the song has a sad tone, it's inappropriate to make your solo sound festive or goofy.

Things to be aware of:

• The overall mood of the song
• The solo's context inside the song (during a soft part, or the climax)
• The mood of the song as it enters and exits the solo (should the solo build or reduce energy?)

Energy is correlated to speed and pitch - faster and higher are generally considered to add energy.

Improv vs. Writing

Solos can be written ahead of time or improvised on the spot. Neither approach is right or wrong.

Writing obviously removes your creative thought-process from the constraints of real-time. It also allows you to practice the solo in advance, perfecting tricky phrases or techniques. It allows careful analysis of the rhythm harmony and arrangement, allowing phrases to be written that take advantage of accidentals or other non-obvious notes that only work well for brief time windows. The downside is that it can be overly meticulous or focus on ideas that look interesting on paper but don't really sound that good.

Improvisation can be much more difficult for a novice player; however, it has its own set of benefits. It allows the player to adapt, adding or extending phrases for instance when the band's energy seems higher than usual. It can also be considered more reflective of the current emotional state of the performer. And it guarantees each performance is unique, adding novelty value to each performance. Improvising regularly helps builds one's understanding of the instrument and music in general.

Often, the writing process takes advantage of improv, by trying a few improv runs to harvest ideas that will then be refined and written down.

Phrasing

Some players practice technique extensively and can fly through scales and arpeggios. However, without good phrasing, even incredible technique and speed can seem dull and "wandering" or "lost". Thus, phrasing is key to developing good solos.

Beyond a note, the most basic unit of a solo is a phrase. Just as in a sentence a phrase is a fragment of a thought, musically a phrase can be complete or incomplete - it can create or relieve tension, or do both. Unlike a formal language, musical phrases aren't as clearly identifiable and dissectable. Phrases are generally recognizable based on some pattern they create, whether that be rhythmic or pitch-oriented or both.

  A                B             C
--2--4--5----------5--4--7-------7-7-7-(x)-0-----

Phrases A, B, and C are clearly distinguishable by their rhythms - they all consist of several short notes and one longer, sustained note. This is a classic way to develop identifiable phrasing.

  A                          B        C
--t12p4-h7-t12p4-h7-t12p4-h7-t12p5-h9-p5\4h5h7p5p4h5--

Here, phrases A, B, and C are more ambiguous, flowing directly into each other without strong rhythm changes. Phrases A and B can be considered distinguishable because they are tapping different arpeggios. Phrase C is distinguishable because it is not an arpeggio.

Question/Answer Phrasing

A simple method for developing phrasing is to apply a question/answer scheme. Your first phrase is the "question". It is an incomplete thought that builds tension, but clearly ends. The next phrase "answers" the "question" by resolving the tension.

  Question             Answer
--0--2--4--5--7--------7--5--4--2--0--

  Question             Answer
--0--7--4--4--5--------7--4--7--0-----

The question can even extend over multiple phrases, with a single phrase answer:

  Question     Question 2   Answer
--0--2--4------5--6--7------5--7--0---

Or vice versa:

  Question     Answer       Answer 2
--0--2--4------5--7--0------4--2--0---

Guidelines for Good Phrasing

• Each phrase or consecutive group of phrases should create a complete musical thought (create and relieve tension).
• Each phrase should use sustained notes, accents, rests, or otherwise alter rhythmic/pitch patterns between phrases to create contrast.
• Each phrase should be an independent musical expression, although it may be weak or unresolved by itself.
• Phrases should naturally connect into each other, even when they belong to separate ideas.
• Each phrase must be mindful of the harmonic context it occurs over, such as targetting accented notes from the harmony, or seeking to extend the harmony with "outside" notes.
• Try to make each phrase distinct from the others in the same solo.
• Try to make phrases different numbers of notes and durations of time.
• Question/Answer phrasing is simple and works well, but avoid multiple consecutive sequences of such, unless purposefully doing so to build tension.

Harmonic Context Awareness

For any solo to sound good and enhance the song, it must show some understanding of the song's current key and harmonic progression. It doesn't necessarily have to be the exact same key or follow the chords exactly, but it has to sound related to them. If you just start shredding in a random key, it will sound more like 2 random songs played at the same time - a musically incoherent mish mash of noise.

Current Key

The current key tells us what scales and modes we can play on lead to naturally fit in. If a piece is in the key of E Major, the E Major scale or its relative modes will be the best choice to fit in. The keys removed by one degree in the circle of fifths should also work well. So, a fifth above E is B and a fifth below is A. A and B Major should both work relatively well in the key of E Major, depending on how the notes uncommon to both scales are used and when they are used (over which chords).

For many songs, the chord progression strictly follows the key, using all diatonic chords. However, if the harmony uses a non-diatonic chord, we may need to take that into consideration and avoid certain notes (or flatten/sharpen them)...or change scales completely.

Even if the piece features numerous non-diatonic chords in the harmony, it's still a good idea to know what key the piece is in, and particularly if there is a strong tonic note. This is the basis of your phrasing - creating tension by moving away from the tonic and releasing it by ending a phrase on it.

Chord Solo'ing

A popular solo'ing method in jazz is a chord solo. It is particularly effective when there is no rhythm guitar or piano to fill in the harmony, particularly extended "jazz" chords. It uses a combination of melody lines and chords to create the solo. Some notes of the chord may be sustained while others are moved as a melody. Alternate voicings of the chord may be used to follow the energy of the solo or allow easier manipulation of melody lines. Not all chords may be played - sometimes the melody may simply accent the chord's root or an important voice of the chord not being played by another instrument.

Using Delay

Modern delays have the ability to sync their delay times to the song's tempo, either through beat detection or tap tempo. With the delay synced to the tempo, you can do some interesting things in playing off the delay trails, creating harmonies while playing fast melodies. Or you can use mutes and allow the delay trails to fall between the current notes, creating a seamingly super fast string of notes.

Tone

Lead tones often differ from rhythm tones, especially for hard rock/metal genres. For jazz and blues, where the rhythm guitar tone is often dark and warm, the lead tone has more brightness and bite to stand out. For metal, rhythm guitars are often treble-boosted into distortion, getting a very tight and biting sound, which is harsh when applied to higher-register leads. A fatter, warmer tone is more desirable to sound sweet instead of harsh, achieved by disabling boosts and/or using the neck instead of bridge pickup. Also, lead tones tend to have greater emphasis on midrange than rhythm tones.

Effects-wise, leads are very often enhanced with delay and reverb to make them sound more natural, sweeter, and spacious. Chorus or other modulation can be used to help leads stand out where they don't otherwise do so (playing in the same register as the rhythm; using fewer notes than common for solo's).

Many amplifiers provide a solo boost accessible via footswitch. This typically provides +2 - +6 db of volume, which helps to have your leads stand out above the mix.