How To Play Guitar Solos With Speed Without Sacrificing Musical Melody
What is one of the biggest problems guitarists face when it comes to increasing their guitar speed?
Answer:
Not knowing how to use their speed to play guitar solos that sound musically expressive.
This problem makes you feel like a beginner when you solo because you have spent so much time developing technique but are unable to use it to play something creative and awe-inspiring.
That sucks!
Don’t worry though.
Most guitarists go through this at one point or another.
And you’re going to overcome this issue right now.
What Does Playing Musically Expressive Guitar Solos Mean?
First, know that playing musically expressive guitar solos is about making creative playing choices feel automatic (instead of having to constantly think about what note to play next, what technique to use, etc.).
How is this done?
It’s similar to how practicing a scale at fast speeds with a metronome eventually becomes second nature.
You just need to know the elements that help you play musically expressive solos in an automatic way, so you can master them.
These elements help you play catchy guitar solos that best utilize your technical skills to play memorable phrases:
·
General phrasing technique (“how” you play notes
instead of which notes you use)
·
Having time to think ahead while soloing
· Learning to integrate various aspects of your guitar playing together
Here is how to master them:
Setting Aside Time To Work On Phrasing
Focus on making just one note sound amazing at first.
As you get better, try to think ahead of what you want to play next several notes in advance.
Apply this into your guitar practice like so:
1.
Pick any guitar lick you are familiar with. You
are going to improvise with it to create many variations using its melody as
the initial foundation.
2.
Starting with just the first note, play it 50
times to make it as expressive as possible by using vibrato, slides, bends,
tremolo picking or any other technique you can think of.
3.
Next, add one more note and repeat the previous
step for 75 times instead of 50. Note: Play with different note rhythms as well
as techniques.
4.
Add another note and continue this process for
100 times. Increasing the repetition rates helps you avoid throwing away notes
as the note total goes up. Mix in fast runs with slower melodic ones.
5. Next, start from the fourth note in the lick and begin from 50 repetitions. Repeat this process throughout the entire lick.
Practicing Everything By Trying To Make It Sound As Musical As Possible
Ever practice guitar scales to a metronome over and over trying to perfect them?
This approach can be fine, but you get much more out of your practice when you also practice to make things like this more musical.
Practice freely improvising through the scale for 1 minute by focusing on each of these elements:
·
Legato
·
Bends
·
Vibrato
·
Tremolo picking
·
Palm muting
·
Double stops
·
Eighth note rhythms only
·
Only using your pinky to fret notes
·
Only playing 5 notes from the scale
· Only playing 3 notes from the scale
This only takes 10 minutes and massively improves your musical creativity with any practice item so you are able to solo with it melodically.
Also: After practicing like this, it becomes much easier to use your speed together with a better sense of melody while soloing.
Combine Different Guitar Items Together Such As Scales And Arpeggios
This makes it easier to play these things without it sounding forced. This clears up space in your head to think ahead and form guitar phrases in the moment more easily.
Look for arpeggio patterns within the scale patterns you already know. Combining them together makes it easier to solo effortlessly with speed while blending two elements together to make them sound like “music” rather than arpeggio/scale patterns.
Bonus Tip:
Good news:
You now have many solid ideas to work on to start playing guitar with fast speed and melodic phrasing.