SOLO of the Month #22 - Chat

Antique_Guitars

This is the 22nd SOLO of the Month (SotM) Challenge, being run by @Antique_Guitars and @TTony. 

We give you a new backing track to solo over every month. The backing track will be a maximum of 1.5mins long. 

You download the track from our soundcloud page, record your solo over the top of it and then submit it to us.

 
Challenge #22 is now open, and remains open for submissions until 24th December. 

Voting opens on the 25th of the month, and closes on the last day of the month when the winner will be announced.

Here is this months backing track (you can download it from soundcloud) 

Specs: prepared by @spark240 ;;

https://soundcloud.com/thefretboard/back-track?in=thefretboard/sets/solo-of-the-month-backing

Send your tracks to solos@theFB.co.uk 

The tracks will be uploaded to our SoundCloud account and saved in a playlist that will be linked below

https://soundcloud.com/thefretboard/sets/sotm-22-2016-12

Modellista

That's a fine backing track. 

More of a marathon than a sprint this month methinks. 

ChrisRG

Great track. I have enough trouble coming up with ideas to fill 30 secs though  

stratman3142

I love the backing track. You should turn this into a song.
Quite lengthy but very inspiring. I think my entry will be more of a composition than an improvised solo on this one.

ElectroDan

Great track @spark240  Shame it cut off rather than ending.
Looking forward to having a play around with this. I can already hear some ideas.

kin

Love that, very Tom Petty. Excellent tune mate.

Stevepage

Mines done and sent 

paul_c2

Stevepage said:

Mines done and sent 

I'm still at the first stage, which is to transcribe the backing track. I say transcribe, so far I have the tempo and the first note.

Bellycaster

Like that backing track, nice job @spark240 ;

ElectroDan

Stevepage said:

Mines done and sent 

I don't think Lukather himself would've got a solo down that quickly. Look forward to hearing it.

Rowby1

Right, this month I am going to have a go!! Definitely!! I'll start tomorrow 

mudslide73

ooooohh that's nice. I should have the time over Xmas to have a try at this. 

spark240

Well thanks for the kind comments folks...sorry about the abrupt end...to be honest I didn't think it would get used !

I feel almost honoured, its a track Ive been fiddling with for ages, and we are looking to make it a full song someday.

Very much looking forward to hear the solos !
 

Teetonetal

Oh my, this is long. Made a start but I just don't have that many good ideas! 

ElectroDan

I always have a good few listens before I play over the backing. I try to let my ear teach my fingers something. It'd be the same repeated licks otherwise.

spark240

I guess you can trim it down a bit, or just so solo where you see fit !

Teetonetal

spark240 said:

I guess you can trim it down a bit, or just so solo where you see fit !

Well, it makes it a challenge. 1m 40 of solo is not something I'm normally called on to do - this is more like writing an instrumental

Antique_Guitars

I don't think you need to solo the whole thing you could add extra parts in places as it is pretty much a full song

markv

By my reckoning, our previous longest SotM (ever!) was #4, a whole 3 seconds less than this one. We've had several around the 1:30 mark. They do feel like writing mini-instrumentals. I quite like that.

ElectroDan

If you are concerned about the long backing track, come up with a theme and work out variations of it.
A solo doesn't have to be completely unrelated all of the way through.
Just changed the strings on my Music Man now. I will try to get the best tone I can, for spark240's great backing track.

stratman3142

ElectroDan said:

If you are concerned about the long backing track, come up with a theme and work out variations of it.
A solo doesn't have to be completely unrelated all of the way through.
Just changed the strings on my Music Man now. I will try to get the best tone I can, for spark240's great backing track.

That's along the lines of my first thoughts on how to approach it. I was thinking of maybe composing a melody for the first pass then improvising embellishments to the melody on the second pass. But I'm still experimenting and all of that might go out of the window.

It's a great backing track and inspires lots of ideas, but stringing them together cohesively could be the tricky bit.