Need rock/metal solo input

[John Jolly]

I recently have been trying to develop a solo that will work with this simple chord progression and seem to be having some trouble developing ideas.  I know there is some real talent on these forums and was hoping some of you could share your abilities and provide some ideas on how you would go about approaching such a solo.

Any and all feedback is greatly appreciated.

Spatial Expansion.mp3

You can also directly download the file from here:
http://www.projectstreamer.com/users/r0t0r00t3r/Spatial_Expansion/Spatial%20Expansion.mp3

Regards,
J. Jolly

[dragonshade]

J....  Solos are so much personal flair the most I think someone else could give you is their interpretation of one that would fit. Personally I heard one in my head spinning off into a run/melody at about 82 (on the MP3 counter), but that may be too early for what you're thinking. Some like melodic, some like shredding speed... it's all very personal taste. Either way, to me, you'd start with the key of the song, and base whatever you're gonna do off some scales/modes. Penatonic minor for example (always great to mix up a few scales though so it's not too repetative). Remember to work off your root notes. I'm tempted to play with this myself, I like your track, but I just ran out of room on my memory card, and as it's full of originals I do not want to loose, I can't. Hopefully a few will have a play at this.

[John Jolly]

Thanks for the feedback. You seem to be thinking along the same lines that I am, for a melodic solo run was specifically what I was looking for. Obviously it would start in the key of E. I was just hoping to hear some ideas from others for they can be such a great source of inspiration Please reconsider sharing your idea(s) with us, Dragon -- we would love to hear your approach.

J. Jolly

[dragonshade]

J....

I had not forgotten about you, but have been slightly busy, and musically scattered lol. I really had hoped some metal guitarist would come by and lay in something for you, believe me there are many here better than I, but so far no luck. I did get a mem card and between originals I thought I would upload and play with this some. I cannot promise much, but I did kinda begin to develop that idea I had at about 1:20 min. I have the rough idea for it. You had asked how some of us would go about the solo so.. basically I have taken the key (E as you mentioned), and using minor penatonic for now. fleshed out the basic "feel" of the solo, and located when/where I wanted to hit the root notes within the structure of the solo. Then I started to go back and change small areas to create more interest than just notes.... ie.. hammers and pull-offs here and there, and a little extra melody within the notes of the solo. Given more time I would "tweak" this more, and then likely add another solo (slightly longer) at about the 2:10 mark, OR extend this one to a full minute or so. Though as I mentioned that is just my personal taste. Still... an example of how I would go about adding a solo to your chord progession. (which is real nice BTW, love the quick switch to/from a power chord down near the B/A).

I edited the file to just around the part I added, again it is at 1:22 in your song I think, hope you like.

Ray

p.s. Just realised that I totally got away from my initial solo "run" idea we talked about. Goes to show you how things change and develop on their own lol. Anyway I guess a nice acending run could be added later, or in the second solo. As I mentioned though, for me melodies and things just develop on their own as I go, and this flowed and fit well... personal taste ya know.

[John Jolly]

Dragonshade,

Thanks a million for taking the time and effort to respond and post the recording which I found to be pretty awesome and inspiring. More importantly the way in which you described how you would go about doing it (with regards to hitting the root notes) really helped to conjure up some ideas which I would have otherwise never thought of. I guess it's just a case of where I was getting ahead of myself and falling back on the basic fundamental approach is the best advice I think I have been given.

Your timing and note selection was outstanding!

Thanks a million and if you ever get bored please don't hesitate to provide any additional ideas you may have... I'll be posting some ideas in the next few days.

J. Jolly

[knniggits]

Hey,nice job on the rythm,gotta love that palm mute stuff.
Not much of a soloist myself but if i do any it's normally the blues scale as i know this one pretty well and can fly around making a racket until i do something that sounds good. The blues scale is a good place to start if you want to develope your solo skills,you can then move on to the other more exotic scales/modes.
I'll do a solo as an example although i must warn you i'm not great  

[knniggits]

Here you go,using the blues scale. It's a bit sloppy in parts but you get the idea 


<http://cid-98fdbf7c3d2ea677.skydrive.live.com/self.aspx/.Public/Spatial%20Expansion.mp3/>

[John Jolly]

Knniggits,

Great job! You really helped to provide some inspiration for some solo ideas. Here's a crude attempt which is ridden with numerous mistakes but I do think there are a couple of parts where I kinda felt might be decent starting points to base a basic solo run on. What do you guys think? Obviously the solo would not be present for the entire duration of the song, I was merely trying to find note combinations in the scale that work at different parts of the song.

P.S. Pardon the trainwreck trill at the end, I seemed to get a bit carried away.


John Jolly

[knniggits]

Sounds cool 
I think you're well on your way.
Some real cool sections that i think you could expand on. Try breaking the solo's into sections rather than one take. i find this helps to eliminate the inevitable bum notes.