5 Ways to Take Your Guitar Solos to the Next Level

You’re the master of the pentatonic scale. You can tear through a major scale like nobody’s business. Even your harmonic minor licks are sounding tasty. But where do you go now?

How do you take your solos to the next level? How do you stand out from the many guitarists around you?

It’s time to rethink the guitar solo. It’s no longer a moment to show off your chops. Your musical prowess. You’ve done enough of that. It’s time to make a statement.

Guitar solos are a great way to compliment a song, when done effectively. Shredding up and down a pentatonic scale no longer cuts it. 

Let me ask a question. 

Who is a better guitarist, Joe Satriani, or Brian May? 

Everyone’s got his or her own taste, so let me ask a different question. Who’s solos do you know better? 

As an impartial admirer of both guitarists, I can say with confidence that the majority of people will know Brian May’s solos better. There’s probably one playing in your head right now. 

They are simple. They are tasteful. They compliment the song. This makes them extremely memorable, a reason he is considered one of the greatest guitarists. 

Change your approach to soloing with these five tips.

1) Carefully choose your notes.

Get to know the chords you are soloing on. Get familiar with the notes in each of these chords, and use them. Your solo will sound much more fitting. 

Try looping a few chords; let’s say Gmaj, B7, Em, D7. Record them, play them over and over again. Now solo along to this progression, focusing on the notes used for each chord. This is a great exercise because the B7 chord contains a note that is not in the G major scale (D#). Practice playing that note when the B7 comes around. 

Take this method a step further with different chord patterns and note selections. 

There are also various modes you can try. Take a song like “Sweet Home Alabama” (Dmaj, Cmaj, Gmaj) and solo with a D Mixolydian scale. It sounds much more interesting than a G Pentatonic.

2) Vary your rhythms.

16th note runs and 32nd note sweeps will start to get old quickly. Play with different, interesting rhythms throughout your solo. Try something as simple as 16th or 8th note triplets instead of straight.

This is going to sound strange, but you will thank me. Look up a great speech made by a great speaker. Barrack Obama was a great speaker, try any one of his speeches. Listen closely, and mimic the rhythm of his words on your guitar. 

This is a great way to develop phrasing.  

Pauses are left to draw people in. Moments of high speed and intensity exist to excite and enthuse the crowd. End on a high note, leave the crowd riled up and wanting more.

3) Leave space.

This branches off of the rhythm category. Leave space in your solo. Like I said, playing constant 16th note runs gets old, no matter how good you are. 

Make the crowd wait for it. Build that intensity by holding notes longer, or waiting a couple extra seconds between phrases. 

This works wonders in building intensity and drawing the crowd in. They will start to wonder what is coming next. 

Keep them wondering, and they’ll be all ears.

4) Work on your technique.

So that was the fun part. This is where you need to buckle down and put in some grunt work. 

Technique is incredibly important to playing a great solo. Your notes need to be clear and precise. Anything less than that will sound unintentional, and people will lose interest.  

Play your scales a thousand times, in various forms and phrasings. Learn proper, efficient picking techniques, and get comfortable with the instrument.

Try practicing all of your soloing on an acoustic guitar. They are generally harder to play. Your fingers will be ready for anything. 

If every note you play sounds completely intentional, and is clear in tone and precise in timing, you will impress even the harshest of critics. 

If some notes are rough, they will jeopardize the integrity of the whole solo.

Keep it clean, keep it intentional.

5) Add special effects.

Back to the fun.

This one may be the most fun, in fact. 

Effect pedals. Use them. 

Wah Wah, Flanger, Delay, Phaser; these are fairly basic effect pedals you can use to spice up your solos. Play with the settings, mix and combine effects, whatever it takes to get strange and exciting sounds.

You may find hearing your guitar in a different way will make you play differently. You might try phrases and scales you’ve never tried before.

If you’re playing many solos in one performance, it will be good to make each one different. Effects will help you distinguish your solos. 

There are also guitar-based effects like tremolo (whammy bar), vibrato (fingers), pinch harmonics, bending, hammer-ons and pull-offs, and more.

If you want to get really crazy, try emulator pedals, layering overdrives, or synth pedals to take your guitar to a new dimension. 

Keep in mind that while effects are fun, you may not have them if somebody hands you an acoustic guitar and asks you to play a solo, so don’t depend on them. 

So there you go, Brian May will be proud. It’s time to start writing guitar solos that people will be singing and playing air guitar to for years to come.

Your solo is your chance to convey an emotion or statement that cannot be put into words. Think about what you want it to say. Grab the crowd by the collars, and say it in a way they won’t forget.