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Soloing Help


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Posted

When soloing over a chord progression do you try and solo over one chord or do you change chords when the song changes chords. Such as i-VI-III-VII. Would I just make the solo a big i chord with other n.h. tones thrown in? I not really taking about jazz soloing more like hard rock or metal but including jazz ideas is not a bad thing.

 

Looking for some advice because the i chord will make it all run smoothly with some wrong notes but I can get some cool sounds when changing chords, which much harder for me on improv though.

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Posted

There are no rules set in stone for soloing. Generally, hitting the chord tones is a very good thing to do. You should try and focus your solo around the chord that the rhythm section is playing, but don't be afraid to throw in non-chordal notes.

It's really a "learn what sounds good" kind of thing, IMO. Jam over any kind of music that you can!

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Posted

It's kind of both, you can stay within a scale that is within the key of the song and generally sound good and be able to construct a decent solo, or, to sound even more melodic (as mentioned above) you try to follow the chord changes more specifically, which might even take you out of the scale you start in. For great insight on following the chord changes I highly recommend picking up a copy of the Plane Talk series.

Posted

It's kind of both, you can stay within a scale that is within the key of the song and generally sound good and be able to construct a decent solo...

 

 

 

The reason why staying within a scale/key sounds good is because the notes of the chords are also found within the scale, so it makes for good odds that you're going to land on them. Even for people who don't consciously know what they're doing, when soloing, people always gravitate towards following the chord progression, even if only "by ear." A solo that doesn't follow the chord progression sounds aimless and meandering, like the person really doesn't know what they're trying to say.

 

So either way, it's still about following the chord progression. Whether you want to leave it up to chance (and play entirely "by ear"), or have a little bit of conscious understanding to ensure the best notes are going to come out when you want them to, it all comes down to following the chords.

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