The Solo

Happy 4th of July to all twangers from the US of A. I hope you all had a great weekend. Just another day here on Tamborine Mountain, Australia -- a winter's day at that.

One bit of news: I turned my book PlaneTalk, and the Slide Rule that comes with it, into downloadable PDF file format. It's the exact same artwork as the physical book, extremely printer-friendly and the slide rule is there to cut out, fold and tape.

The art of soloing:

There has been an interesting thread at one of the guitar forums I frequent. One of the members (thanks James H) has posted a backing track which can be downloaded and soloed over by other members by importing it into the proper software and overdubbing the new track. The track is the chord progression to a jazz classic (apparently, I'm not an expert) called Giant Steps, by John Coltrane, It's a piece that follows no obvious pattern whatsoever and changes key every bar -- a very tricky set of changes to play a melody over.

Here is the backing track:
http://www.thatllteachyou.com/movs/giant_blank.mp3

Here are the chords:

||: BMaj7 D7 / GMaj7 Bb13 /  EbMaj7 /  Am9 D9 GMaj7 Bb13 / EbMaj7 F#13 /
BMaj7 / Fm9 Bb9 / EbMaj7 / Am9 D9 / GMaj7 / C#m9 F#7 / BMaj7 / Fm9 Bb9 /
EbMaj7 / C#7sus F#13 :||

As you can see, and no doubt hear, the chords don't follow any standard progression. The whole thing sounds slightly bent, and it's that eccentricity which makes it so difficult to play lines over. Several of us there had a go at it and posted our results. It was very interesting to listen to them all and I won't comment on any but my own. I elected to play a slide solo over the changes, which was pushing the limits of credibility, but what the hell? I figured it's as good as any way to state a melodic line, which is what the exercise was all about: creating a melody. As I play slide in standard tuning, my fretboard was the same as everybody else's.

Here is my version, for what it's worth:
http://www.thatllteachyou.com/movs/giant.mp3

So, how did I go about it? What steps did I take to get to the point where I could press 'record' with any confidence?

First, I played the backing track over and over until I started 'hearing' it, that is to say, being able to anticipate and predict the next chord. Usually, in other more straight forward genres, that process of 'hearing' the tune is either instantaneous or very brief. That's because usually composers choose chords which are more closely related to each other; because composers usually choose to remain in one key. Usually a progression is just that: a series of chords making progress to a destination which can be anticipated well before it gets there. Most popular music is centered around the key, which should be familiar territory for any player learning to improvise. We should all know our keys, all 12 of them, backwards and forwards...know the 7 chords in each and the underlying scale responsible for it all. In this case however, I had to listen to it over and over again before I started to recognize it, because there is no 'center', no common key. Rather, the whole piece is a collection of fragments from several keys.

Once I was able to hear it as an entity, I then had to memorize the chords Themselves, easy enough, so I could map out my fretboard. Naturally, I use the PlaneTalk technique to do this. Many of the other contributors later reported that they used certain scales to attack it, but I've never (ever) found scales to be helpful when putting a solo together. I only really know the major scale, and if I ever do refer to scales, it's that one. To me, all scales are variations of the major scale.

Scales don't come into my thinking, however. I play in a chordal environment at all times. I'm acutely aware of what I call the 'chord of moment', which means just that: the chord that is setting the rules right now. The PlaneTalk technique allows me to see my entire as a chord. To those who still think chords are little clusters of notes you can illustrate in a little chord diagram: you're wrong. Chords are a selection of notes that are scattered all over the fretboard, from nut to soundhole. The little diagrams display convenient clusters that fingers can reach at the same time -- yes -- but in reality, chords, melody, harmony, scale are all the same thing and occupy the whole fretboard.

Now comes the fun part: turning all those chords/fretboards (one for each chord) into a melody. To my mind, unless you're going to create, or at least try to create, a melody, don't bother playing a solo. To string a bunch of licks and riffs together is not to play a solo; that's something you do in a music shop when trying out a new guitar. To play up and down the scale is not to play a solo; that's something you do to prove to your music teacher you're a good student.

Solos are melodies. Melodies should stand up on their own, should make sense to the ear, should start somewhere and end somewhere, should have a plot, should mesh exactly with the chord progression, should intrigue and keep the listener interested and finally, should give him/her closure. The time element is a huge contributor to the final result, but that requires a whole other article. I'm only talking about note choice here.

So, how to choose notes? Most teaching sources will tell you to learn your scales and modes. As I have never been able to do this -- to turn scales into solos -- I use a different approach. I see my chords laid out the length of the fretboard. By that, I mean that I see all the 1 - 3 - 5s plus any extra flavoring, like 7th, aug, flat 5...whatever. So if the chord is a G13, I see all the 1 - 3 - 5 - 7 - 6 of G. These are my anchor notes, the actual chord tones. Boss notes. They HAVE to be right. The next layer down are the other scale/mode notes. These are secondary notes which can connect the boss notes when required. Below that is the chromatic scale which can connect the secondaries.

The PlaneTalk technique turns my fretboard from a homogenous grid work of frets and strings into familiar territory by imposing landmarks onto it. Those landmarks are the same for all chords, always, for ever and ever, Amen. It projects certainty onto the fretboard. In the case of Giant Steps, the landmarks moved around a lot quicker than most tunes, and with none of the predictability most music has, but they are still the same landmarks. All I had to do was memorize the rather unusual sequence, and then do what I always do: follow the chord of the moment using the landmarks and let the melody evolve.

How do you do that? This is where it gets subtle. A strange magic happens when you can get to stage that you can negotiate a chord progression melodically. The player initiates the lines, but the music kind of takes over once it starts, only to be adjusted by the player as he/she sees fit. For example, a pattern of notes emerges naturally, and then is consciously repeated or echoed by the player in other chords; or a certain timing or phrasing is consciously applied only to become subliminally re-applied by the melody itself a few bars later. The process is different for every player, no doubt, but it's a combination of total understanding of the musical environment and total abandon, leaving open the possibility for anything to new to happen. It's very addictive once you cotton on to how it all works.

I'll mention it again. If you are stumped as to how to get over the next hurdle in your playing -- having freedom to invent spontaneously -- then have a look at PlaneTalk - The Truly Totally Different Guitar Instruction Book. It's been selling from my site for many years now. It reveals the 'trick' to doing just that, a simple visualization trick that has forever changed the way thousands of players all over the World view their fretboards.

Go to http://planetalk.thatllteachyou.com and read all about it. You'll also find testimonials by the dozen, free lessons, mp3s, articles and columns.

Guitar for Beginners is still up and running:
http://www.guitarforbeginners.com

Do you have a slide guitar site? Join the Slide Guitar Web Ring at: http://www.bottleneckguitar.com

That's it for the time being,

All the best, twang on!

Kirk