Crafting an Acoustic Guitar Solo

Acoustic guitar solo? Many a time we hear this phrase, but what really is it about? What is required to form a solo?

Forming solos does require knowledge on scales, chords, phrasing, etc. It is best to know what kind of feel or style is required to play your solo. The type of music for example, Folk, Country Rock or Pop. Having an understanding about the chord changes and the type of scales to use over the chords is vital to solos and improvisation. Saturate yourself with playing scales. Use intervals with wide leaps. The ear picks up and remembers these intervals and as you go along, you will automatically develop good musical taste for your guitar solo.

How to Craft a Good Acoustic Guitar Solo

What makes a good acoustic guitar solo? Do the choice of notes matter? How do I juggle them about? These are questions many guitar players always inquire about. The answer to the first question is discretion in choosing the type of scale and feel to fit the mood of the music. The choice of notes, rhythms, and intervals used are also important to acoustic solo for it causes color and excitement. It is necessary to avoid approaching acoustic solo in a scale wise approach. For example, playing a Cmajor scale for practice is fine. When playing solos over the chords, try using scales that have wide intervals and those that create dissonances.

Scales to be Used for Acoustic Guitar Solo

Listed are some popular scales that are used for acoustic guitar solo. They are very useful scales and should be practiced in all twelve keys. These scales are found in many of today's music. With constant practice, the execution of these scales will become second nature for you.

The Major Scale

(Refer back to lesson on Guitar Chords. Refer to the diagrams to review the section on Major and Minor scales.

Try to apply these principles to form the Major and Minor scales.

Major Scale:

WS= is a whole step, and 1/2s= is a half step.

The C major scale:

C - T= is the Tonic or root of the scale

D - 2nd= Super-Tonic

E - 3rd= Mediant

F - 4th= Sub-Dominant

G - 5th= Dominant

A - 6th= Sub-Mediant

B - 7th= Leading note

A Natural Minor Scale

The Ami Pentatonic Scale:

A pentatonic scale has only five notes.

The C Major Pentatonic Scale:

The C and Ami pentatonic share the same notes.

The A Blues Scale:

All of the above scales can be applied over the chords that are given in the pdf file. Practice going over the scale. Play it first in its scale form. Then when you have the feel of it, apply the wide leaps to your creative acoustic guitar solo. The wider the intervals, the better it sounds to the ears. Do incorporate some major and minor 3rds and any intervals that you can experiment with. The A Blues Scale chart above is written with the chords above the staff. The scales will be written in the Leger lines. The TABS are there to assist you for the notes and positions.

Acoustic Guitar Playing and Intervals

Intervals like maj2nds, min2nds, maj and min3rds, maj and min6ths, maj7ths, maj9,13, perfect5ths, 4ths, dim5ths must be memorized. These intervals give vivid color and brings fresh sound to the ears. Juggling the notes is an approach best learnt by first writing out the notes. View the distances between the notes and then commit it to memory. By doing this, you will have lots of nice licks to use when soloing. Before progressing to the solos, you might want to refresh yourself and review back to How to Read Guitar Notes.

Acquaint yourself with the notes on the staff and then proceed to Approaching Guitar Solos.

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