We Need to talk about Improvising Guitar Solos

[@bartosztarka637]

One helpful thing about phrasing is to watch your breathing. Most great improvisers I know stop playing to take a breath. Sounds maybe stupid but actually makes a lot of sense.

[@ksharpe10]

The SAX that was talked about by some really Big time player back in Guitar Player magazine ages ago.

[@johnplaystheguitar123]

Agree with this. Like a singer or sax player. Got to have breaks to catch a breath.

[@user-eu3mn6ss5l]

Doesn't sound stupid at all - a lot of players feel that way, and it's good advice.

[@ESP77769]

Many guitarist's don't "breath" like a horn player when improvising. Wes Montgomery/Django improvised so well, many of their solos sounded like a written melody. Guitarist's fall into way too many blues/pentatonic patterns, and lack bigger intervals.

[@jerryhorton5708]

“Breathing” is essential to melody as it creates space,bookends ideas, and resets the listener’s ear. Improvisation is an essential tool but it is only one in the whole of music. I really like and wholeheartedly agree with what has been said in this thread

[@SteveSmith-qi2gv]

This is absolutely one of the best channels for guitarists- music is stellar,the advice is solid,and the content is just plain enjoyable- would definitely buy his album

[@hendanine]

I said the same thing, that I’d buy his album. He was really cool about it and pointed me to his Bandcamp page. I think my comment got deleted when I put the link here. You can totally buy his album!

[@GitShiddy]

Agree with all of this advice. This is why a looper pedal & filming & watching back to myself has been, in recent years, more educational than actually learning new things. Sometimes your best take is the first one, or the third, or the 27th, or you just don't get a good one. Sometimes the one that felt best sounded the worst & vise versa. And all of that's okay.

[@tvenar]

If I summarize, structure I impose through muscle memory definitely provides an opportunity to flow. I think that's a great observation and definitely resonates.

[@MattSofianosGuitar]

The outtakes are great - we wouldn’t have noticed anything amiss. As you say, it could be better than you think.. but it doesn’t feel right when you move out of that delicate alignment with your inner voice and it’s not authentic. But seriously, the slips ups are pretty cool all the same !

[@FredCapBand-to5hh]

You're intro playing is always fantastic, but this was by far the most lyrical playing yet... this was absolutely stellar!

[@johnatchiane4460]

Listen to you,you enroll all my favorite melody in your solo❤

[@jerryhorton5708]

As always, thank you, John. Your channel, along with Tom Bukovac’s is the most inspiring, informative, and thought provoking. Well done again, sir

[@nivo6379]

Hey John, your videos are very informative. However, the audio quality is low. Maybe get a better mic and try Izotope RX to get rid of noise and reverb. Also starting the videos with an ad removes the boost you can get from the starting preview time when you watch from TV

[@tah5w]

Agree. You don't want to be thinking with the engineering part of your brain. I try and understand what mode I'm in, maybe briefly review the shapes and sweetspots visually of that, then start improvising, perhaps relying on the shapes in the mode I just looked at, at first, but after 5-10 mins using the muscle memory to ignore the analytics and just be communicating emotionally like a voice singing with focus on call/response, etc. Great video man

[@cbsaulren]

Improvising solos is how I tend to write. It seems to come out more natural that way than something that was written and structured. I might go back and revise some parts and practice the solo until it plays well but mostly I just let feel take over.

[@10sassafras]

Great advice here. I think the key skill is being able to realise on the guitar whatever you hear mentally. Constant exposure to music you like helps as does daily practice over chord progressions. Random noodling can be liberating but more fluency comes from playing against progressions or songs.

[@MarkSchoonmaker]

The example around 15:00 reminds me of those Irish pub tunes in the 1800’s you see in movies!

[@yoachelinnocent7963]

That improved line was beautiful 15:10 it can be used on movie scenes

[@chrisgmurray3622]

Eric Johnson was quite specific about self assessment. He said that it's vital to record yourself, and when you listen to it played back, rather than reinforcing negativity, although he says when listening it pays to very discriminating, but he then says listening to yourself can allow you to decide what you want to enhance and develop in your art. This is a sensible but also positive way to approach self development rather than become jaded and hung up on details that hold you back.( at least that's what I took from what he said)

[@kevroyo]

Is that some Paris by The 1975 I'm hearing?? Great playing as always!

[@TheDarkVirusx]

My first thought 😂 thought it was a coincidence at first but I heard some melody bits

[@tgarder]

Amazing to see the outtakes (refreshing to see human "flaws" in an otherwise perfect online world, you know). You're such an incredible player, thanks for doing this!

[@DanielJenkins92]

This is gold. You are incredible. Love your videos. But this is soooo helpful!

[@thejuggernaut5327]

Great stuff as always JNC, even with the monocle!

[@TheCompleteGuitarist]

To get improvising, transcribe to play (meaning you must be able to play it) everything you like or can or want to sound like etc, explore patterns through the scales you like, get to know the arpeggios of the scales, triads will do and it will come. Transcribing doesn't give you ideas to reproduce when you play like playing licks, it basically gives you a language which will come out in its own unique way. Sure you can actually add other ideas melodies and licks, but soloing is like talking, when you talk you kind of know what you are going to say but your dont lean on stock phrases or try to memorize them to repeat later or think about the words and word order, but everything you read and hear in your language comes out when you are improvising talking. Talking is improvising. So ... listen, transcribe .... etc.

[@ksharpe10]

Your a Great instrumental Writer!!!!

[@TLMuse]

Your advice about making a habit of playing things you hear I think is linked to audiation, i.e., "hearing" music in your head. If you learn how to play music you hear by others in a nearly automatic way, that helps you play what you "hear" (audiate!) in your head, composing on the fly (so to speak) as you improvise. Not that I can do this very well. But I do enjoy copying lines (esp. vocal lines), as much on-the-fly as possible, and it does seem to help me get from my own "sound in my head" to executing it on guitar. Though for me I still often have to be deliberate about that last step, vs. being able to do it quickly on-the-fly, esp. for harmony/chords and fingerstyle arranging. -Tom

[@willrayment9544]

When I started playing at 11yrs old I was taught to improvise and play by ear. This was cool but no one explained that guitarists wrote solos. I thought they made them up on the spot in the studio.. improvising is playing the guitar. I was about 15 when I got the lightening bolt of truth. Nearly 30 years later I'm more comfortable improvising than copying solos. But I wish someone had explained this earlier.

[@BrentAdams]

Good advise...... I think that the best improvisational Guitarists put these "tools" to use automatically....and they seem to NOT really be improvising to the average listener.

[@ksharpe10]

Wow JOHN one of your BEST openings EVER!!! Wait til Keith at 5 Watt sees and hears this one!!!

[@Mike-rw2nh]

Really appreciate this upload. There are times when my progress seems to move in geological time. Thanks.

[@charliezimmerman2114]

That was the best I have heard you ever play. Well done!! Great melody!

[@willgoodfellow3144]

John you're a master of the guitar. If you did some guitar clinics I'd sign up in a heartbeat.

[@64cousins]

I love that you left in the glases bit.. 😂

[@waynebacer6235]

Please upload the backing track for this one, thanks. 🎸

[@MrCalenture]

John, this was GREAT!!!! So helpful and insightful!!! You are the man--- Thank you again!!!

[@albertplaysguitar]

Alex Hutchings... man, now that guy can improvise! I think the hard part is creating compelling and memorable melody that takes you on a journey and makes sense in context. Beginning, middle, climax, end.

[@c.g.vonhagenstein7576]

Alex is tremendous. Really excited for his forthcoming album or EP or whatever it is (finally). It's looking like he went pretty hard on it. He can play anything really, I think, but will great to hear pieces that he's (presumably) been able to take his time with and refine on the composition side of things, as opposed to just straight up improvisation. Not that I'm likely to discern the difference lol. His improvising seems so effortless and, dare I say, composed sometimes that I probably wouldn't know which it was. Cheers.

[@anthonystrickland9870]

Brilliant lesson! Fascinating, all of it.

[@TLMuse]

Your AABA discussion reminds me of Larry Carlton teaching and emphasizing call-and-response in his first instructional video for Star Licks (I think back in the 1980s)-he spends a lot of time on it. Perhaps he covers this in his more recent lessons for TrueFire. -Tom

[@Andyrollinsfishing]

I need an album of that intro music. Peter haycock vibes 👌

[@harrysearia1784]

Im in the same boat as Thomas. This helps.

[@charlesstratton5335]

Beautiful John!!! Love this

[@joemiller9856]

Love this groove! ❤️🎸💥

[@ShreddingFinn]

I think the more you write solos, the better your improv will be in the long run.

[@JRandallS]

Love your stuff and especially the way you think/talk about it, probably because it mirrors my own perception of these things. Anyway, I would like to know if there is some particular TrueFire instructor that helped you with the sweep picking or speed picking thing. Thanks

[@joemiller9856]

Brilliant! Very helpful

[@FonceFalooda2]

"For Sale: Middle Pick-up. Never been played." ;)

[@JRandallS]

I recently learned (heard?) that Hendrix mainly used the middle pickup....

[@FonceFalooda2]

@@JRandallS Because Hendrix was a Man of Sophistication and Taste, not a Cowboy Barbarian like our boy Cordy here. ;)

[@sturdeesteamer1094]

@@FonceFalooda2someone’s jealous 😂

[@JRandallS]

@@FonceFalooda2 HA

[@Chenko182]

Hi John, which preset of yours you used in this video? Eric Lead 2023?

[@RobbenBanks153]

“It’s about trying to stay positive…” as his glasses trampled underfoot

[@Bapt98]

Thx ! ur videos help me a lot !

[@tomtrack16038]

I don't know bro, those out-takes sounded fantastic, some real fiery playing there. With that said, being "in my own head" has always been my downfall. To this day, after home recording for over forty years, i still get "red light-itis" when i press the record button....and it's frustrating as hell.

[@chrisdaviesguitar]

I do tend to specifically write a lead break, as opposed to adlibbing/improvising.

[@ksharpe10]

George Harrison!!!

[@lordxerak]

I love your playing, Have you posted your Mesa nomad settings ? Would you please ?

[@Andreascarnero]

What a great guitar plauer you are Jesus....

[@Arthur_My_Dear]

I think the main problem with improvising is if there’s too much of it. Most people like songs - structure, hooks, melodies, a story.

[@treastonschmuckley5111]

18:43 you thought we wouldnt catch the jiggly puff song?

[@1man1guitarletsgo]

To improvise _anything,_ you need to have a basic understanding of the general topic, but not be too hung up on theory. So, for instance, if you needed to change a car wheel but had no jack, you might improvise, setting up a plank and bricks to make a lever, then raise the car up under the jacking point and support it (properly and safely!) with an axle stand before changing the wheel. You'd struggle to improvise this without a bit of prior understanding, and you'd _never_ improvise it if you insisted on using a jack. So how does this relate to guitar solos? Well you need a basic understanding of scale shapes (one minor pentatonic will do to start; change the root and it's major), plus CAGED shapes up and down the neck. To improvise a solo, first recognise the key in which you're playing, then decide whether it's major or minor, and that'll point you towards the appropriate scale shape and position on the neck. Pick notes from this scale, along with notes from whichever chord is happening at any given moment, and hey presto, you've improvised a solo.

[@CraigFlowersMusic]

So to sum up, get out of your own way.

[@user-eu3mn6ss5l]

A lot of us have stock phrases (often blues-based) that we keep going back to over and over. It can be hard to bust out of that. I sometimes try to invent new vocal melodies when I improvise. I'm more concerned with playing something melodic and interesting than just playing fast. Jazz guys talk about vocabulary - the more vocab you know, the more you can come up with different things. I like that idea. But when all else fails, I usually fall back on the old blues licks. But I keep trying.

[@brandonbrunious]

It's Everyday Bro

[@ECrapton]

John very true this. Regarding improvisation do you think Lari is improvising starting at 4:00 or all prepared up front? This is such a brilliant solo: kzbin.info/www/bejne/npecp3SkZZtkipY. How in the heck do you get there?

[@mutantboy8888]

first.

[@CatrinaDaimonLee]

nobody really improvises. (*tom nobody an 18th century english guitarist is credited with classical guitar improvisation and he is the undistupteable master of the guitar improvisational style known today as guitar improvisational thing)

[@johnplaystheguitar123]

Wow. I didnt tbink you made many mistakes in your improv. I just assumed because of how quick you put things together and the number of videos you just are a one or two take wonder.

[@vonbleak101]

(IMHO) Solo's need to be improvised 100% of the time, or they are not really solo's... We gotta remember how/where it all started for modern western music - With jazz/blues over 100 years ago, a solo was an expression in the moment and was meant to be different each time... Its not hard to 'learn' a good solo, its cheating though, and in the end it just becomes a single note melody line that is written, which is not a solo in my mind... So for me, solo's always need to be 100% improvised.

[@givemeajackson]

lmao no. the "solo" (note that the word is latin and means alone) is hundreds of years older than blues and jazz in western classical music and was always thoroughly composed. ask bach. or paganini.

[@handicappedhoods]

⁠​⁠@@givemeajacksondude what? it’s only in the modern era that cadenzas were read off the page. It’s ironic, but most if not all of the cadenzas most classical musicians are reading were improvised back in the day.

[@ChidOki]

I don’t agree with limiting the modern definition of a word or concept to the origin of the word or concept. Some of the most well known guitar solos of all time weren’t 100% improvised. And a lot of them that were, they’re not a single piece of improvisation, but a bunch of spliced clips of different improv takes. Just a different form of writing. Certain genres or built on the premise of pure improv and that’s fine and cool. But “not really solos” unless they’re improvised?

[@1man1guitarletsgo]

I disagree. As long as the audience feels entertained, and as long as the musicians have done their job, who cares whether they always improvise, always play by rote, or mix it up? I certainly improvise a lot, but in covers bands there are some songs that have iconic solos (e.g., Crazy Little Thing Called Love), so I play them as close as possible to the original. If we're playing Folsom Prison Blues, however, I just play some chicken-pickin' riffs. Horses for courses. They're both guitar solos.

[@Dreyno]

That’s just wrong. There’s no stipulation for a solo to be improvised and it long predates jazz and blues. To be so certain (“100% of the time”) and have so little foundation for that opinion is quite impressive.