If you're
looking for instructions for learning to solo on guitar, you've come to the
right place. The best place to begin is with making sure that your guitar is
properly tuned... that way, you will be sure that you are training your ear to
be accustomed to the proper sounds.
One thing to remember when tuning
your guitar...ALWAYS start with the string lower that what it should be, and
tune it up to the proper pitch. Your guitar will stay in tune longer, and you
won't have any difficulties getting it there.
Also, after you put new
strings on your guitar and have tuned it, take each string and bend it real
good a few times to stretch it out... then tune it again.
Here is an online guitar tuner that will allow you to hear what each
string should sound like when they are properly tuned.
(The first note
you hear will be the low E string)
If you can determine that one string is correct, you can use the
following method to tune your guitar. If you always start with the low E
string, even if you're off a little bit, at least your guitar will be tuned
to itself.
To tune your guitar, use the following method.
Put
your finger on the 5th fret on the E string. That should match
the tone on the open A string. Turn the A tuning key until they
match.
Put your finger on the 5th fret on the A string.
That should match the tone on the open D string. Turn the D
tuning key until they match.
Put your finger on the 5th fret on
the D string. That should match the tone on the open G string.
Turn the G tuning key until they match.
Put your finger on the
4th fret on the G string. That should match the tone on the open
B string. Turn the B tuning key until they match.
Put
your finger on the 5th fret on the B string. That should match the tone on the open E string.
Turn the E tuning key until they match.
That
should do it.
Once you are sure
that your guitar strings are tuned correctly, you will need to have some guitar
backing tracks to play along with, along with some basic fingering patterns
that you can use.
Here is that A minor pentatonic scale... The bottom E
string is the low E... if you are holding your guitar, and you lift it up in
front of your face, just as though you were curling weights, you will see the
scales below, as they would appear on your guitar.
Here
are three online backing tracks that you can solo along with as you begin to
experiment with the A minnor pentatonic scale.
Santana Style
Just a Slow
Song
Old
Love
Whenever
you see that the chords of a song are made up of 7ths, like in the picture
below, you can use the blues scale. There are quite a few players out there
that are playing the blues scale in all kinds of music. There are more notes in
the blues scale to play around with, and it will give your playing a more
sophisticated sound than if you are always using the pentatonic scales,
whatever key you might be playing in.
Compare this
"A" blues pattern here with the "A" minor pentatonic pattern ...look at the way
the notes are laid out...you'll see that there is just one note added...it is
known as the "blue" note...if you use these methods of comparison, and study
the different scales, you'll see that they're all just alike, the patterns are
all the same...they just start in different places on the fretboard., depending
on what key you are playing in... we'll stick with A minor for now... try
playing the A blues scale along with Old Love, and see if you can fit in
the extra note.
This time though, we'll be playing in a different area
of the fretboard, just to mix things up a bit.
