Conference napalm::guitar

    I know I play much better solos when I "compose" them in advance,
    or at least work out some ideas that will serve as a basis. I just
    get bored playing them over and over, that's all. I guess the bottom
    line is that it's a tradeoff between the listener's sense of
    satisfaction and my own.

    - Ram

    
    
    I tend to do it several different ways depending on
    what I am trying to achieve and the context that I
    am working in.  One thing I have been doing lately is to
    play way over my head and see what comes out. (not live,
    of course.)  If I hear something that is interesting,
    I will try to develop it.  That way I can try 
    something new instead of playing the same old patterns.
    
    frank
    

    The general approach I take is actually a cross between the two
    I mentioned.
    
    I program a sequencer to play the chord changes over and over. 
    Then I just improvise over that.  When I hear something good
    I tend to isolate it and develop it til I can play the lick
    just "right" (accurate and with the right 'expression' (bends,
    vibrato, slurs, etc.).
    
    I generally map out one section for spontaneous improvisation,
    partly because I think it helps, and partly because I run out of
    time.
    
    That's how I record it.  Then, if I'm to play it live, I would probably
    use the recorded solo as my "basis", but not "note-for-note".
    I'd probably just go off here and there, and come back after awhile.
    
    I do this because my pure improvisational solos strike me as being
    too "lick" oriented.  Too guitaristic rather than thematic.  To
    be honest, I think that's true of MOST guitarists I've heard.
    I guess that unlike a lot of other folks, I find playing "licks"
    to be more boring than playing something that's fundamentally
    a copy of a recorded solo but with some minor deviations.
    
    The basic problem is that (this is no great revelation I'm sure)
    when I improvise I am limited by what my fingers "know" or "can
    do".  The stuff my fingers can do tends to be very familiar guitar
    stuff.  What I can hear in my head isn't limited by my fingers,
    or even just the general "orientation" of guitar, that is, it isn't
    "guitaristic".
    
    The bottom line is that if I find that "composed" solos tend to
    be more "original" than improvised solos.
    
	db

    I usually do the solo last when I'm recording...that way i can
    fit it with the vocals and everything else. I have used both the
    improvise and the written solo approach. 
    
    The best solo I ever recorded (my humble opinion) was pre
    written...mostly except for about 4 bars towards the end....I recorded
    every pass while my tape looped from end to end while I was working it
    out...stopping occasionally to listen to parts of it..I knew when I had
    a keeper... 
    
    on the other hand the best slide solo I ever played was a second
    pass rehearsal in a studio where I insisted that the deck be in
    record while I rehearsed the solo...we kept it. It was not planned
    out just imporvised.
    
    dave       

    I think the best solos are not really totally improvised, yet off
    the cuff containing some material you've worked on before. Like
    the best solo I ever recorded was a spontaneous thing, yet at the
    end I threw in the signature lick from paganini's 24th caprice
    cuz the solo was in A minor and I figured it would fit there ok.
    I already knew the piece, yet I didn't *plan* to stick it in there. 
    I think it helps if you have a rough idea of what can work in a
    certain groove ahead of time.
    
    wjb

    Dave, 
    
       I would have had to write about this, had it not been for .3
    - thanks.
    
    Jon
    

    I like to approach solo's from a "feel" standpoint. I do not like
    to copy solo's. I like to feel the song through, along with the
    original band members. Once I have accomplished this, I then try
    to play a solo as if they (the artist) were playing some alternate 
    solo other than the one on the record. I am not sure how else to
    put it. I guess if someone heard a solo I played and said "Gee,
    it sounds like something "so and so" would do instead of the recorded
    solo" then I am pleased. I am a very "feel" oriented player, the
    overall picture of the song inspires me. To me music is feeling
    and energy, and theory is a way to express the feeling on paper.
    I value both, I personally need both. Theory points me in the right
    direction, feeling helps me pull it off with emotion.
    
    I have written solo's in advance and improvised, I hope to someday
    be able to improvise and have it not sound "cliched". I think this
    is where the "feel" approach comes in. When improvising, it is easy
    to get into a "rut" and do the simple things you already know. I
    like to stretch my limits. My goal is to stretch the limits while
    improvising.
    
    Tony

    Hard to say what I'm going to do at any moment. I've found that
    If I sing the notes (like Goerge Benson Does in 'This Masquerade'),
    I can play anything that I sing. I only discovered this a few years
    ago. I sometimes spend 5 or 6 hours with a tape deck working out
    a 'signature' lick for a 30 second solo & I often have no idea what
    I'll play when I jump into a solo & I'm playing live. I used to
    play the same old solo's over & over again (like for instance, who
    hasn't played 'Proud Mary' at least 1000 times, over the last 15
    years), but then decided to surprize myself by starting at random
    places on the guitar neck. Sometimes this sounds rather poor & If
    I blow it, I usually switch to some old standard way of playing
    a solo in a particular song, General Lee's approach in the Civil
    War: Always have an escape route,. Often the solos are average
    sounding, but I stumble onto something that sounds interesting.
    Depending on the crowd & how I feel, I've done some wonderful
    things. I now try to remember how to sing the particular notes.
    
    I've also got some live recordings of my solos & I've had trouble
    reproducing some of my better ones, being that I don't really know
    (consiously) what I was doing, but it sure sounded real nice.
    
    I tend not to try many real fast solo's, as they tend to be too
    easy to play (lots of notes), and too predictable when I play
    them. I also find that I can't seem to get the feel of any guitar
    that doesn't have a 24 3/4 inch scale. I guess this comes from
    years of playing my 64 Gibson SG. I simply can't seem to play
    anything but rythem on a Strat or a Tele. I also play Bass guitar
    (in fact I buid my own guitars these days & currently play a double
    neck that I made in Jan 1985 - 6 string / Bass) & I found that when
    I was in those late 1960's/early 1970's power trios & really spit
    out the Bass notes & did harmonies with the guitarest, I could apply
    that to regular guitar work. 
    
    I copy what I like, where it fits. I don't like to practice soloing 
    too much, since it tends to make me play the song in exactly the
    same way when I'm playing live. At the same time, Jamming with other
    people seems to force me into trying different things.
    
    Music is an art form. I have no real Idea how I formulate any patterns
    beyond the major & minor scales. I guess, to me, it seems like my
    mind is talking thru my instrument & not really to me directly.
    
    							Jens 

    	While recording (99% of my playing these days), I like to listen
    to the piece several times and form the basis for the solo in my
    head. I then play the piece over and over with the machine, building
    the solo from previous playings (nothing new from what I've read
    here). The final track is almost never one where I just sit down
    and say 'this is it... *the* one!'. Whether after one or a thousand
    tries, I just know when it's right. It usually ends up that some
    of each technique is used (comp./improv.). The bitch of it is, for
    the most part, I couldn't play the "solos of my life" again to save 
    my life! While listening to my latest creation, a friend of mine
    chuckled and said 'you didn't play that'! *sigh*  :-)
    
    						Steve

    
    When you take a mode and arrange it's intervals like this:
    1-3-5-7-9-11-13, you get what some refer to as a 'Modal Arpeggio'.
    Joe Satriani is majorly into this.  Take the Lydian Mode (my 
    favorite here..): in D; D-E-F#-G#-A-B-C#-D.  Arrange it, and...
    
             ------------------4-7-4-------------------
             ----------------5-------5-----------------
             --------------6-----------6---------------
             ----------4-7---------------7-4-----------
             --------5-----------------------5---------
             ------------------------------------------
    
    Kev --
    
    

    
    Indeed, looks like a M7#11+13, should sound 
    good over a I chord in major, and I think 
    you're getting dangerously close to jazz here. 
    
    Very cool. 
    
    Dave
     

    
    > and I think you're getting dangerously close to jazz here.
    
    ...until I insert a pseudo-African rhythm texture as rhythm base.8^)
    
    Just joshin', it's still jazzy...glad you dug it!! 
    
    Later,
    Kev --