INSANELY EASY Trick to Boost Your GUITAR SOLOS 

I just started watching your channel and there is a lot of great advice for guitarists here. For me, especially being a little older and slower these days, choice of notes trumps speed every time.

@@yummyyum36719 Thanks Joe!

Thanks, I'll take that!! You have a great day as well!

You're too kind Frank. You really made my day!

Because he knows what he is talking about.

@@GaryBook thanks Gary!

You bet. Rock on!

Thanks! Glad you enjoyed it

You're welcome John. Man, you've seen a bunch of these groups!

Happy new year! Great to hear from you!!

Good stuff!

Thanks Frank! Glad you enjoyed it.

Thanks!!

My pleasure. I really like the amp too. I'm a fan of Blackstar products!

Glad you enjoyed it!

Thanks Dave. Glad you liked it!

Yep.

I like to play the mixalotathem scale

Thanks Rob. Glad you liked it!

Cool.

Thanks for the narrative. Actually, I think we're lucky. We had to learn without TAB, without RU-vid and many of us without teachers. Just pick up the needle on the record, move it back and try again. Or we had to figure out our own way of getting the phrasing the way we wanted. That may be more difficult and take more time, but it's real learning and it leads to playing in one's own style - becoming an actual musician and not merely "painting by numbers". It's only a disadvantage if you want to play exactly what someone else already played. I hear you. It seems easier now. But developing that connection between the musical ideas your brain "hears" and your fingers play, and getting that knowledge of each piece of equipment you have is real knowledge. And plugging into that "SRV Pedal" and playing the notes of his solo exactly really only "sort of" gets you there. Too many people do just that. The tough avenue to real learning is still there. But it's harder to stay the course with so many enticing short cuts. We were lucky I think! :)

@@MarkZabel I’m just jealous I suppose. I agree that the internet seems to be full of wonderful technical players nowadays but often the musicality seems lacking. Like they know so much theory and technique that they didn’t need to find a little bit of magic here and there.

@@MarkZabel I hear you mark I Learned strictly off of vinyl I didn't have the luxury or money for lessons or books

Much appreciated. Glad you enjoyed it!

Thanks for the feedback!

Go for it!

Thanks Jim!

Thanks!

Yep. All fun and easy things to do. You've got to do more listening than playing though. All 12 notes of Western music are always "right there" under your fingers. Where you start, where you end, and the rhythm you use to get there are most important things along with the tone you produce mostly with your left and right hands and the rest of your body. May could play what he played because he could conceive it. I don't know his upbringing, but I'd guess he was around classical music. Once you can "think" the line it's just a matter of work to find it, and then have the technique to pull it off. May always claimed he didn't really know scales, but he knew chords. For a long time I didn't understand how that could be.

@@MarkZabel The British education system exposes musicians to Western European Classical music. May most likely heard the music, say by watching the proms every year on TV, but didn't formally study music theory. He was after all an astrophysicist. My musical life started as a rock/classical guitarist. I did however go on to study Western European Classical music and am still a very active composer of that style. I agree that all 12 notes are right there, and it is possible to make any note work against any change...but there are some natural fits. For example if you are playing in a minor 12 bar blues there is a difference between whether or not IV and V are major or minor. A lot of times the chord structure will be i - IV - V- IV -i rather than i iv- v - iv -i (Assuming the actual 12 bar pattern here of course.) The first set of changes works better with dorian than minor because scale degree 6 will be raised. So say you are jamming a blues in A minor but the chord used for IV is D major....the F sharp is the note you hit, not F natural, unless you want that dissonance on purpose. I think that may be what Brian May meant...he knows harmony and makes his riffs match the chord progressions. He's doing it by ear, but to be honest every great musical style other than Western European Classical is aural rather than written. Of course with classic rock the recordings take the place of written scores, but I really doubt that Clapton or Hendrix or even George Harrison meant for us to be playing every note in a solo exactly as they recorded it. I am a big fan of making up your own over the same changes. That's really what rock is supposed to be.

Not sure why there is a big line through part of my post...sorry about that....

@@yummyyum36719 No worries. I think it only showed up on your screen. I didn't see any lines through the comment.

@@MarkZabel Great. Hope I didn't get too long winded with that post.

Hi Kris! You're welcome. I've had this guitar for maybe 4 or 5 years. I like it.

Thanks Stephen! It's enamel on aluminum. Supposed to be a landscape of Albuquerque, as the tuning pegs are hot air balloon.

@@MarkZabel that’s clever

Glad I could help!

Thanks! 😃

That's great! I love Page too, but I've been a Neal Schon fan since the 1970s. I've seen him so many times I've lost count now. Great player.

@@MarkZabel To me, Jimmy Page is a once-in-a-generation innovator, composer, rock icon, producer etc. What I love about Neal’s style is I think he’s one of the most melodic rock players ever. You can sing all of his solos.

@Baldspot You are correct. When I'm playing a melody with a major key feel I like to think of my solos in major scales and conversely when I'm playing a song with a melody with a minor feel I prefer to think in the relative minor. No right or wrong and many songs lend themselves to mixing major and minor scales as Mark has pointed out.

Hi. (Sorry, I thought I replied earlier, but it must not have gone through) You can think of it that way certainly (Bm and then Dm pent) if it works for you. To me, this chord progression has a strong sense of key - D major. So that's what I think of as "home". Every once in a while you've got to leave home - even if it's to get some milk. That creates tension and then you bring it back home. There are many ways to "leave home" (Diminished or whole tone scales for example) but a great way that sounds like rock and roll is to play a familiar rock lick. Most rock licks come from blues ... so blues scale or minor pentatonic or just listening to Etta James spawns them! Honestly, any one of your favorite licks can be tried. So yeah, if that works for you - perfectly fine!

Thanks! It's a Tremonti SE with Mojotone 59 pickups in it. Not sure of the year 100%, as I bought it used. The serial says 2017. Plays great and IMHO sounds great. It's a bit heavy at a little over 9 lbs.

@@MarkZabel cool thanks. Ouch 9lbs would hurt after several hours on stage.

@@UpliftingRiffs yep. Not a stage guitar for me. Maybe when I was 20!

I'll consider it. I did a small portion of the song in a live stream and it got nailed for copyright, so investing the time and effort into a detailed video seems risky. Let's see how people respond to this suggestion.

Sure. Shoot me an email and we can find time to see how we could work together.

Thanks man! Much appreciated! Here's the link. Just tested it and it's right - works. www.paypal.com/paypalme/MZabel335 If that's not working for you, you could always buy a course instead of donating. Courses start at $9.99, which may be in the range of what you were thinking of donating. mark-z-guitar-school.teachable.com/

Thanks for the info. I don't recall hearing him do it. Can you let me know a few tunes he does it in?

Thanks. Glad you enjoyed it! Neal was awesome - especially when he wasn't showing off with how fast he could play!

Love it!

LOL! Awesome!

Nah, I've had for a few years now. Here's another video with it. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-J21wJg9LKtU.html