Solo of the Month (SotM) #33

stratman3142

This is the 33rd solo of the Month (SotM) Challenge and is being run by @stratman3142 and @TTony.

The challenge is now open, and remains open for submissions until 11:30pm on 22nd February 2018

Here's this month's backing track (you can download it from soundcloud). Record your solo over the top of it and then submit it to us. Send your tracks (in mp3 format) to solos@theFB.co.uk

Discussion:

This is an attempt to create something in a country rock style. It's short and 'sweet'

After last month's SotM it should be pretty straightforward - or is it? There might be some debate about the key, so feel free to post your thoughts as well as your solo.

The chords are:

D  C(add9)  G   G

Voting will start soon after the submission deadline of 22nd February 2018, with each voter selecting their 1st, 2nd and 3rd choice.

First choice gets 5 points - Second choice gets 3 points - Third choice gets 1 point

Voting will end on 11.30pm 28th February 2018

The order and scores of the three people with the most votes will be announced soon after the voting ends.

No prizes. It's just for fun.

As people submit their entries, I'll post them below to hopefully promote some discussion on approaches used for the solo:

https://soundcloud.com/thefretboard/sets/sotm33-2018-02

DulcetJones

Congrats!  Great to have more entries, I hope all the comps pick up.  Thanks also to the forum people for doing these, and adding the bass riff comp.

DulcetJones

Ooops.  I'll just repost that where it's supposed to be......

flying_pie

Awesome. Great track and it'll be a lot of fun.

Am I right in thinking this is 110bpm? 

Bellycaster

Looking forward to this one too, Country is not normally a musical style I would tackle, but that's the beauty of these challenges.

stratman3142

flying_pie said:

Awesome. Great track and it'll be a lot of fun.

Am I right in thinking this is 110bpm? 

Yes, the tempo is exactly 110 bpm.

markv

Sounds nice.

Question - is this a section from a complete track? The reason I ask is that I would find it useful to have some context for the solo - a melody line, for example - that I can then either reference, play against etc. Solos don't normally exist in isolation and the best (for me) work well within the overall sound of the track.

stratman3142

markv said:

Sounds nice.

Question - is this a section from a complete track? The reason I ask is that I would find it useful to have some context for the solo - a melody line, for example - that I can then either reference, play against etc. Solos don't normally exist in isolation and the best (for me) work well within the overall sound of the track.

@markv I just made up this short piece. It's not from a complete track.

ermm? But it might bear some resemblance to something for which the key has been the subject of quite a bit of debate, which is why I thought it would be fun. I just varied the tempo and rhythm to disguise things. Any guesses? The chords are a real give away.

markv

stratman3142 said:

ermm? But it might bear some resemblance to something for which the key has been the subject of quite a bit of debate, which is why I thought it would be fun. I just varied the tempo and rhythm to disguise things. Any guesses? The chords are a real give away.

Hmm ... country style rock ... *sweet* country rock ... 

No, nothing hits home for me. ;-)

bingefeller

Sent!

stratman3142

bingefeller said:

Sent!

Blimey that was quick. 1st again with your entry.
I haven't even started thinking about it yet.

flying_pie

stratman3142 said:

bingefeller said:

Sent!

Blimey that was quick. 1st again with your entry.
I haven't even started thinking about it yet.

I'm thinking this will be harder than it first seems. Easy to jam a pub gig worthy solo but much harder to put together something that isn't a series of rock clichés 

bingefeller

stratman3142 said:

bingefeller said:

Sent!

Blimey that was quick. 1st again with your entry.
I haven't even started thinking about it yet.

I've nothing else to do so I just spent time jamming until I came up with something I liked.  

bingefeller

I need production tips guys, please.  

stratman3142

bingefeller said:

I need production tips guys, please.  

OK. I've started posting the tracks in the original post.

Being as you asked for comments, This is all a matter of taste. I like the tone, but my thought is that it's a bit up front. I'd be scared to be so exposed and my preference is to bury things in the mix a bit. It might benefit from being lower in the mix. Also, maybe a bit more reverb, although that might not be so important if it's lower in the mix. Just my thoughts, others might disagree, feel free to ignore my comment or submit another mix if you want to.

btw. I think we should only comment at this stage if we're specifically asked to, but feel free to post how you approached the solo so we can get a discussion going.

bingefeller

stratman3142 said:

bingefeller said:

I need production tips guys, please.  

OK. I've started posting the tracks in the original post.

Being as you asked for comments, This is all a matter of taste. I like the tone, but my thought is that it's a bit up front. I'd be scared to be so exposed and my preference is to bury things in the mix a bit. It might benefit from being lower in the mix. Also, maybe a bit more reverb, although that might not be so important if it's lower in the mix. Just my thoughts, others might disagree, feel free to ignore my comment or submit another mix if you want to.

btw. I think we should only comment at this stage if we're specifically asked to, but feel free to post how you approached the solo so we can get a discussion going.

OK, I used my Boss-GT001 and I didn't use any reverb from the actual Boss unit.  I used reverb from Logic, but I couldn't get it right, it was either too much or too little to my ears.  It's very difficult to get just right I find.  I always send my reverb to Bus 1 and then mix it in that way.  

I always have problems getting the levels right too.  

As to how I approached the solo, I based it around B minor pentatonic and just used my ears to hit notes which I thought sounded good.  I didn't think about chord tones or anything else when playing, just the basic notes of B minor pentatonic.  

flying_pie

@bingefeller - I agree with stratman about it being very prominent in the mix. Nice tone though. 

Regarding the approach I struggle to adjust to playing in major keys as I've always relied on minor pentatonic patterns for so long, but I think it's much better to view this as D major pentatonic (even though Bm is the same shape). I used to play Teacher's Pet from School of Rock in a covers band and thats a similar chord progression (D Cadd9 G C). It took a long time for me to think about playing in D major instead of Bm when improvising within the solos. Instinctive Bm licks won't sound as strong because the notes are very different relative to the chords. If that makes sense.

Classic Dm pentatonic licks would work fine though. 

bingefeller

Unfortunately I can't fix it guys, I've deleted the Logic Pro file!  I will try to get it mixed better next time, this is a good learning experience however.  

stratman3142

Let the age old debate commence

I'm thinking it's in G major, although I also visualise things around D major pentatonic and G major pentatonic. 

It will be interesting to know what others think and then hear how much it actually affects what's played.

stratman3142

Done mine, so it's now added to the playlist in the original post.

stratman3142

Listening back to the solos so far, I think I might have been somewhat influenced by the solo of @bingefeller ;;
Oh well, I'm not averse to a bit of plagiarism