Help me out a rut

lincolnblue

I a very much stuck in a playing rut. Acoustic work and fingerpicking I'm fine, but when it comes to soloing I'm stuck in that all-too-familiar and common pentatonic rut. When I try and play with a track or use a looper, I'm just using the same shapes over and over and it's rather boring.

I'm not a fast player (can never seem to get my fingers to move quickly) but what are some helpful tips? Is it best to try and learn solos from songs or something else?

Lestratcaster

Its all about phrasing and how you use those notes within the pentatonic scale to create a melody. I try to land on a root note when I finish a phrase and not use too many notes, that way I'm more focused on rhythmical interest. Also starting phrases on different beats of the bar can help break it up (i.e not always on the first beat). 

You don't have to be fast to play a good solo, look at BB King for blues, he can bend one note and make it sound majestic. The greats have that knack of knowing how the note they play reacts to the chord they're playing over, and make it sound good.

Learning solos from songs can help you listen to where those notes fall under which chords in the bar, for example some have a "pickup bar" where it comes in before the first chord has even been played.

JAYJO

Learn arpeggios and play them with your scales. Arpeggios may help you speed up.

HAL9000

What kind of music are you soloing over? Blues? Rock? Soul? or something else?

My playing is mostly, but not exclusively, blues and blues rock. Like lots of people I learned the minor pentatonic early on but soon found I was playing the same tired old licks over and over.

Some things that have helped me are...

1. Learning major pentatonics (Freddie King, Peter Green).

2. Mixing major and minor pentatonics (Clapton).

3. Using chord tones.

4. Trying to throw in snippets from the melody.

5. Double stops.

Like you I can't play particularly fast, so I try to do more with less if you know what I mean. Also, don't feel your solo needs to fill every available space. It's ok to leave gaps and to 'embrace the space'.

Vibetronic

I love playing fast but it’s nothing without melody or feel for the most part, so don’t worry about that. All the above is great advice, and check out @JohnCordy ’s recent vibrato thread. A few notes with nice vibrato is all you need 

Roland

Learn to play some song melodies. They are easy to play because the human voice can’t change note as quickly as a guitar. Their simplicity might surprise you.

Learn to play other people’s, particularly their phrasing. You’ll learn what fingering patterns they use.

Funkfingers

Roland said:

Learn to play some song melodies. They are easy to play because the human voice can’t change note as quickly as a guitar. Their simplicity might surprise you.

Learn to play other people’s, particularly their phrasing. You’ll learn what fingering patterns they use.

Try some Hank Marvin.

Obviously, acoustic guitar has no twang bar. You will have to find other ways to inject some "personality" to the delivery.

rossyamaha

Roland said:

They are easy to play because the human voice can’t change note as quickly as a guitar. 

Scatman John might beg to differ. 

JohnCordy

here's a vid I made on this subject that might help a bit?

rossyamaha

I've said this before to someone but it helped me a lot. I asked Paul Gilbert (clang) the same question. He gave me some great advice that I still use now. Learn some sax stuff. Not too far removed from guitar and you will find there is a lot of pentatonic in there but played in a very different way. 

Another thing is to go to youtube and find a backing track. I love the stuff from Elevated Jam Tracks. Play along but play no pentatonic at all. He gives you the scale to play and the diagram. Really useful. Try and follow the chords and hit the chord note when it comes round. 

Also! I've discovered I play the same stuff if I play the same scale shape. So if I'm playing something in straight minor, it gets really samey really quickly. Try playing the relative major to the minor. Meaning if you're playing in E minor, play everything as if it's G major instead. It's the same notes, same shapes but it changes how you play. It does me anyway and I seem to sound more interesting. 

Take all this with a pinch of salt as I'm completely devoid of theory knowledge and generally an idiot.