Lesson 7: *Part B. *Soloing over Chord Changes
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In Part A, we covered the first method of soloing, which is to choose a mutually cohesive scale or mode for all the chords in a song. *
The second method is to adapt your playing over the chords as they come. *I'm sure there's a ton of theory that lots of folks can give you as to what you should play when, but I'm going to give you a few tips and ideas and remind you again that there are no rules, just suggestions. *A great way to play over chord progessions is to use arpeggios and split chords in conjunction with modes to create seemless transitions between chords. *A great example of this type of playing is
Eric Johnson's "Manhattan" or Steve Vai's "Sisters". *
Split chords, as they are sometimes referred to sometimes use only two notes. *"Manhattan" begins with these, as does "Tender Surrender". *Work out arpeggiated versions of the chord changes, then practice in the spaces between them. *Little trills, slides, bends. *All of these add flavor to your playing. *This kind of lead work can feel bluesy or angelic depending on your playing.
Prime examples are "Little Wing", "Sisters", "Manhattan". *The best part of this is. By playing close to the chord changes and adapting with them, when youf finally pull away from the chords and use a few solos that work well over all the chords, it starts to soar. *Now that you've built up, you can wail, and then when you're done, use your adaptive lead to bring it back within the confines of the chords. *Once again, this is not a law, you can play however you want to. *It's just one more way to spice up your playing.
Here's one simple example given the
chord progression
E, B, A
---7-----12------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------
-9-------11-----------------------------------------
-9----7---------------9---9--------------7----------
-7-7---------9--11-------9----------9--7---------7
--------------------------7-9--11------5--7--9-----
(Edited by jem7vwh at 1:33 am on April 11, 2001)
