Composing
solos is great! Your creativity gets all the space it needs and you
will create something musical that comes from the heart. Depending
on how much you are influenced by other guitar players you will sound
more or less unique.
It's
not easy to tell how to compose a solo because it depends on your
level, your skills and creativity. I only can show you how I approach
composing
and therefore I have chosen a solo from one of my tracks and
made a tab for the first 8 bars. I will describe
how the solo is structured.
The
solo is composed for the ballad "Second
Nature"and starts with an up tempo part, gives a melodic
change and falls back to a more sensitive part which will lead to the
the rest of the ballad. The scales played are Pentatonic and Aeolian.
The
trick of composing is to prevent dullness and to choose a varying of
tempo, timing and note choices. Try to let the parts talk with each
other and use different techniques and feel to sound convincing. There
should be some climaxes in it and think about repeating patterns, double
string licks and rhythm parts as well. Vibrato and bends are very welcome
too of course.
*
Click HERE to see the tablature
of the first 8 bars and here the solo (total 16 bars) *
DESCRIPTION
OF THE SOLO:
The
solo starts in D with wah wah effect and is a good example of a to
the point and rhythmic lick. The first notes are simple and played
downwards, leading to a faster run going up to a climax with a small
vibrato which gives a certain emotion feel. Followed by some double
stops and moving on to the second climax with the higher bended notes.
The run after that downwards is very rhythmic and gives a release in
the tension that was build up before. These notes are played with some
accent to give it more expressiveness.
The
second part is played in E and has a slower tempo, building up from
the low E- string to the bended high E-string note and releasing in
a vibrato. The bends after that are played with extra accent of the
pick to give the sound a crying character for an emotion feel. Then
downwards for releasing and giving a melodic tension at the same time,
leading to a double string part with a whammy bar vibrato. A few relaxing
notes with finger vibrato lead to the double string bends on the E
en B string and are followed by a downwards lick for releasing the
tension. From there the upwards double string is repeated and ends
in the vibrato, applied with the whammy bar.
So
maybe this gives an idea to compose a solo with different techniques,
feel and timing. Creating your own solos is really fun. When I write
a song and it comes to the solo part I normally just play along with
the backing, improvising a bit un till I think I have a usable structure.
Then I try to play a more definitive solo and practice this till I
control it, ready for recording.
Hint: Investing
in a (digital) multi track recorder is very rewarding when it comes
to composing, recording and trying out sounds, structures and licks.