5 Tips for Better Guitar Solos - ASK ZAC EP 34

well hello friends and welcome to
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another Ask Zac I hope you all are
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doing well today we're going to talk
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about you know four tips to really kind
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of up your game as far as soloing so
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yeah just some some things that I've
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learned through the years from all that
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being around all sorts of crazy people
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and all the interviews and such that
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I've done and just from personal
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experience so first a little short pause
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for the cause if you've been enjoying
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the show
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please go down and subscribe if you've
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you'd like to support it go to askzac.com
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that keeps the keeps the show going
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alright so here are four tips first
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first tip is to get a looper you know I
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you know the looper I have is just this
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mxr clone looper and I guess it's
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supposed to be like a clone trooper or
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something anyway I don't have any kind
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of mxr endorsement and they didn't give
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me that or anything that's just one that
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I picked up used got it from a co-worker
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at true tone and I had been using a
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ditto looper the little mini one that
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just had a single foot switch and a
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single knob and I just found that hard
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to use and this one you know has two
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foot switches in a single knob and it's
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still simple and easy to use but yet
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it's a little more intuitive and having
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the the two foot switches helps as far
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as using them there's a little bit of a
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learning curve and learning how to start
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it and stop it to where it will loop
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correctly and keep sounding like a real
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piece of music instead of it you know
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because if you if your time is not solid
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and if you're you know speeding up or
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slowing down in my a bunch it will not
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match well so this is another excuse for
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you to get at your metronome
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and work through that so yeah so number
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one is get a looper okay
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number two and also just kind of a
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little aside I recommend that what you
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play be something simple and that way
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it's just you know not something crazy
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busy going on you know so I just did
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like a kind of a little walking bass
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line that I've played on the on the tele
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and and just put that on there you know
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just a one four or five thing yeah and
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don't use a lot of effects on there
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either you can put effects on your
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guitar when you're soloing over the top
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of it I think that just works better and
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sounds better and instead of having a
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bunch of delay and other stuff going on
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all the time the next would be to sing
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so number two is sing and what I mean by
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that is while you have your looper going
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with a you know some type of rhythm
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changes of some kind that you're working
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on and again it's such an easy easy tool
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because you can put any pattern that
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you're having trouble with and you can
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just lay down the changes you know the
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rhythm changes on your guitar and then
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you can start working on things and one
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of the best ways is to sing over those
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changes you know just kind of scat or
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hum or grunt or whatever you think and I
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was trying to think back where I first
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heard this from and I believe it was
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somebody told me that when Dan Huff was
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producing Rascal Flatts of course Dan
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Huff so amazing session guitar player
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and record producer that's produced all
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sorts acts and so most the time he's
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just using session guys but because
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we're asked the Rascal Flatts guys were
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you know also musicians they would be
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utilized on the sessions also and so Joe
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Don Rooney who was the guitar player in
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the band well as part of the actual you
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know owning members of the band he you
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know he would also get to play on the
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records and he would play most you know
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I think all or most of the
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guitar solos so of course he's got Tom
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bucha vac and you've got Dan Huff as a
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producer and so Dan Huff's kind of input
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to Joe Don Rooney when it came time to
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play solos on the Rascal Flatts Tunes
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was sing at first so I believe they
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would send him the tracks and he could
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go home and kind of think through some
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stuff and kind of sing along with it and
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then he would work up a guitar part and
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then they could put it on top of there
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and that's great you know because what
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you sing is going to be more melodic and
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make more sense than what you might just
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play because so many times when we're
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playing guitar there's so much muscle
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memory that's involved because that's a
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lot of guitar playing as is you know you
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learn these patterns and you learn these
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things and they're fine but you need to
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break out of those and to make your
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guitar playing interesting you need to
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play melodies you know little mini
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melodies not that you have to play the
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melody of the song itself but even you
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know your guitar solo or guitar parts
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should seem like counter melodies and
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points of interest and when you get down
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to it that's our job as musicians and
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guitar players is to keep the listener
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interested and so if you just keep
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playing kind of the same thing
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throughout a song it's pretty darn
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boring I think and I do a whole another
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video and I probably will at some point
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on critical listening and when you're
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listening to great albums start
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listening to how things change from the
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intro to the verse to the chorus to the
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bridge all these things are done to keep
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the listeners interest going so I was
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you know I was in the car with my wife
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you know the other night coming back
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from a friend's house and the Tom Petty
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tune wildflowers came on and I was just
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listening to the masterful way that Rick
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Rubin and Tom and Heartbreakers you know
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kind of arranged that
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album and and this but especially the
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title track just for an example you know
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the way that song starts off with
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acoustic guitar and kind of you know
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snare drum with brushes and and then I
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love it about halfway through the song
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this triangle part comes in and it just
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really lifts the song up there's all
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these little things throughout the song
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that keep it interesting
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okay so I'll get back to my main point
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sing your part so whatever you sing is
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going to be more interesting than what
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just happens to fall underneath your
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fingers I mean but you may be able to
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impress the kids that you know with that
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with doing you know some fast licks and
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things like that but if you sing apart
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it will just be more interesting okay so
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number one loop get a looper number two
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start singing parts number three is
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start thinking about rhythmic and
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melodic you know motifs so in that
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little opening piece that I played with
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with the looper going there were a
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number of things that I did to kind of
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that had kind of a melodic motif you had
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this and so you've had a you know it
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kind of it you know it was played over
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the one chord and the four chord and you
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know and by what I was playing you could
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tell I was playing the four chord and
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that's another thing about your playing
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is even if there's not chords behind it
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you should be able to tell what chord
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you're playing by the notes you're
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choosing you know it should sound
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appropriate you know like over what that
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the change is you know the one four five
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I could have just played a minor
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pentatonic the whole time that would
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have been okay but then when I if you
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just if you were taking away the backing
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track you couldn't have heard you
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wouldn't have known what chord I was
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playing over necessarily while if I'm
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spelling out chord tones and and have
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some kind of melody going you know this
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is a melodic motif
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yeah that's that's one thing and then I
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kind of kept it going over the over the
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four chord and and then it came back to
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the one chord I did it again and then I
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gave the listener something else to hear
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when I played over the over the five
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chord that's when I you know or maybe I
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didn't but those things keep it
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interesting and so there's like there's
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some melody and and kind of connective
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tissue and that that's important to have
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you know to keep the listener interested
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if it's just a bunch of notes you're
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gonna wear people out but when there's a
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melody to it and someone can walk away
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from when you soloed and they start
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gonna do it it's like that's good yeah
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and it doesn't matter if you're playing
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a swing tune or what you're playing but
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you need to have something that people
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will remember hopefully they can hum it
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so yeah so you've got melodic motifs and
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then also there's rhythmic motifs so
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here's an example of a rhythmic motif
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[Music]
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okay so there I had that and so that
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even though I wasn't repeating you know
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the exact same you know melody over and
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over again I mean there was some
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repetition there but still it was the
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rhythmic thing and so you know you might
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want to do that over the one chord and
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then you do something else over the four
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chord you know you don't want to just
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wear that out but yeah that's a big part
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of keeping things interesting is having
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motifs don't wear them out but just have
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those things that you come back to and
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another thing you can do is just play
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you know something at an octave or play
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something up a third yeah
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[Music]
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yeah that's an example of me playing the
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same thing and just going going up you
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know from playing it in the you know you
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know there are you know it was the same
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fingering but I you know I took it up
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you know I said some minor third and you
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know and played that and that that's
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interesting or you play that's
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interesting you know because there's a
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there's a melody there there's a motif
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so yeah those those are good
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so the fourth one is limit yourself and
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and what that means is not not like in a
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negative sense but limit yourself as you
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know I think back to I did an interview
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with red Volk art last year and he was
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talking about playing the Don Kelly band
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where he was the only soloist and you
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know you be playing a you know a four
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hour night and every single intro/outro
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solo and multiple solos during every
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song they're all you and you've got to
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find some way to keep it interesting so
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he would think he would limit himself
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when he was playing a solo so let's say
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he did the first one kind of like
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himself like you know the way red Volk
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art would play his solo well the next
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time he might say well I'm gonna go the
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neck pickup for both pickups and I'm
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gonna try to play like Chet Atkins or
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I'm gonna go to the back pickup and
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instead of playing like me I'm gonna
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play like James Burton I'm plagued on
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rich or Pete Anderson or let's say
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you're playing blues and let's say I'm
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gonna play this solo like Albert King
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and the next solo I'm gonna play like
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early BB King where I'm not going to do
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a vibrato you know a lot of people
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aren't aware that you know BB King's
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early guitar style was much more akin to
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t-bone Walker
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and he didn't have that vibrato that he
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was known for in his you know later
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career or mid mid career but yeah those
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limiting that can you know make things
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interesting for yourself in the audience
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because you're giving them something
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different instead of just the same thing
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over and over again I'm gonna throw out
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a fifth just because it kind of came to
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mind and that's during the intro piece I
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played a little snippet that I stole
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from Tom buco vac and I think like meant
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like a lot of you guys you know I
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watched the the Tom book of X show and
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sometimes it's more you know for what he
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says and what he's playing because a lot
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of times he plays with with Drive and
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his and his doing music that I
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appreciate but doesn't really apply well
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to what I do but I still get something
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from every single episode that I watch
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or last week he did this lick and that
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was it well number 5 is be a guitar
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tinkerer so steal stuff from everybody
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but then make it your own figure out
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ways to do something different with it
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so he showed that one little lick well
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ok figure out how to play it over the 4
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chord - so I mean so then you've got
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[Music]
15:58
and then I added sorry I did this and
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then for the four chord
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[Music]
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Oh
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[Music]
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and so be a guitar tinkerer that's
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number five is take things you know
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steal things from others I mean that's
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you know that's what you know that's why
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Tom's doing those videos and that's why
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everyone that's why I'm doing these
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videos it's like take anything and
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everything that I'm doing steal it take
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it you know and do something new with it
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take it and make a variation of it you
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know because I didn't just you know get
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up and play no let's let's do something
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with it
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[Music]
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so number five be a guitar tinkerer take
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all sorts of licks that you've learned
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from heroes and things that you've made
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even things you've made up yourself and
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find ways to tinker with them and
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rearrange them I think back to I think
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that's always been something that I've
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tried to do in my first well my the
17:25
guitar the head of the guitar department
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at Belmont University John Pell
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that's what he called me he called me a
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guitar tinkerer and I don't know if that
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was meant as kind of a rub or or a
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compliment but he's right I am a guitar
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tinkerer so every little thing that I
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that I learn I try to take it and
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manipulate it and see how many different
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ways I can use it and make it you know
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part of myself because I've never been
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really good at just mimicking what other
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people did so all right well there you
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have it for today I hope you've enjoyed
18:04
it I hope you will you know pick up a
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looper and start practicing I hope you
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will start singing along with the looper
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start figuring out what you've sung you
18:16
know I hope you will start thinking
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about either rhythmic or melodic motifs
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to make your solos you know more
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interesting I hope you will you know
18:24
limit yourself in different ways and
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maybe try to play a solo like you know a
18:28
favorite guitar player and then do
18:30
another one like it a different one or
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maybe you limit yourself by using a
18:33
different pickup or a different sound or
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something like that and be a guitar
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tinkerer you know mess around take apart
18:39
rearrange and you know make it your own
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alright guys well thank you so much for
18:44
watching I hope you all have a great
18:46
week bye bye