Do you have a difficult time creating awesome guitar solos that sound like real music instead of a “combination of guitar licks”? Have you spent a long time practicing countless guitar exercises and searching for licks and scales on the internet, only to discover that these things are NOT helping you make your lead guitar playing better?
The majority of guitar players who try to make their guitar solos more creative by using the approach above, usually end up frustrated with their slow rate of improvement and begin to lose hope in their potential to become really great lead guitarists. Very often they also start to believe in the common misconception that their ability to create great guitar solos is restricted by their amount of natural talent.
Fortunately, it IS possible for anyone to greatly improve their lead guitar soloing skills with the right approach. If you haven’t reached this goal yet, I want to show you the most common reasons why guitar players struggle with creating truly GREAT guitar solos and give you the steps you can take now to massively improve your lead guitar playing.
The truth is that most guitar players focus on entirely the wrong things when trying to improve their lead guitar soloing and improvising skills. Many guitarists assume that the solution to their guitar soloing challenges is in learning more “new” skills (innovative soloing concepts, new guitar licks/scales/arpeggios etc…). In reality, simply acquiring new musical skills will not (in and of itself) make your lead guitar playing better, just like having a lot of ingredients in the kitchen will NOT make you a “better” cook. While having a lot of musical skills will give you more options to choose from, these skills will NOT “increase your ability” to create great guitar solos until and unless you learn how to “integrate” them to make the best musical choices possible in any musical situation. For the vast majority of musicians, it is this lack of ability to fluently APPLY and INTEGRATE their existing skills that prevents them from mastering the art of lead guitar soloing.
If you are not clear on what the concepts of musical application and integration mean and how they play a critical role in helping you improve your lead guitar soloing skills, watch this free video about practicing guitar effectively before reading the rest of this article.
Now that you understand more about why the traditional ways of improving your guitar solos are ineffective, here are some specific steps you need to take to begin to integrate your existing lead guitar playing skills on a deeper level and greatly improve your guitar solos in the process.
Here is a visual demonstration of the most common process that most guitar players use to create guitar solos:
In contrast, great lead guitar players rely on their ears and their mind to imagine what they want to hear before playing a single note, and use their hands (guitar technique) as well as their music theory knowledge, mastery of the fretboard, and other musical skills to express what the mind wants to hear. Although they also end up “playing scales over chords”, the overall level of creativity and expression achieved is much greater because all of their musical tools/skills are integrated together as one “creative whole”.
Here is a breakdown of the process used to create great guitar solos:
Although the steps above happen very fast (and almost always occur on a subconscious level), this kind of thought process is key to creating truly great guitar solos.
The most important thing I want you to notice is that most of what actually “creates” a great guitar solo needs to be done with your mind and your ears. This is totally different from the thinking process of inexperienced guitarists, whose guitar solos are merely an attempt to “fill up space/silence with notes”.
1. It is very hard to become aware of specific flaws in your lead guitar soloing when you don’t know what things you should be listening for.
2. It is also challenging to determine whether or not your guitar solos are actually improving and what areas of your lead guitar playing still need work.
You will make the fastest progress when you have your guitar solos analyzed by a guitar teacher who can not only point out specific flaws in your guitar playing but also can create an effective lesson strategy to help you overcome the specific challenges that are holding you back from creating truly great guitar solos.
Now that you understand more about what it takes to improve your lead guitar playing, you should become excited as you realize that all of your musical goals are entirely within your control to achieve. When you begin to implement the steps I have outlined above, your lead guitar soloing skills begin to improve rapidly.
If you haven’t already done so, watch this free guitar practicing lesson and download this free lesson about phrasing on guitar to get more specific advice on how to improve your guitar soloing.
About The Author:
Tom Hess is a successful professional guitar player, composer and the guitarist of the band Rhapsody Of Fire. He also trains musicians to reach their guitar playing goals in his rock guitar lessons online. Visit his website, tomhess.net to read more articles about guitar playing, get free guitar tips and guitar playing resources.