Transcripts
1. What You Will Learn: Hi and welcome to my
lesson on improving your guitar solos using
studio musicians, tips, techniques,
and approaches. I'm out in a studio musician and a record on
hundreds of albums. Thus, I've repaired this
lesson that covers some of the techniques that all
professional players use. Whether you're a beginner, whether you're an
intermediate player, upper intermediate player, you still will be able to apply this cast as what you're
finished this video, because there are
different levels to all of them for which
you can work over time. We're going to learn
how to hear them first, what difference
that makes and how you can apply them in the lakes, solos and leads that
you already know. I'm not going to teach
you difficult techniques, what you're going to take,
things that you already know. Whether it's just the
pentatonic scale of just a single blues
lick and riff. And we're going
to work over them to make them sound better, more tight and just
like our recorded. So take your guitar and
start the lesson right away. I promise you, you're gonna
get something out of it, even if you're seeing
that you're not yet in the level to play a solo.
2. Add Intent With String Rakes: The first tool you
can add right away to your playing Arsenal,
our guitar rakes. Guitar breaks, basically
consistent thrumming through the strings while
muting with the left, right hand or both of
them at the same time. The sounds something like this. So basically what I was doing is playing on the 14th fret. And while doing that before actually playing
the highest string, I was breaking through
the five other strings. The reason why guitar players do that is because it
brings a lot of emotional intent
and being so a lot of purpose to the part
that you're playing. So basically it's
the logic of a drum filled before the drum starts. It separates some structures
from one another. It, it brings more in, is more moral attack and more
power to the certain parts. You'll heal blues players,
there is a large rock layers. Even metal players do it, but slightly more
aggressively some cases. Now I'm going to play
the same thing with rakes and then we'd
break so you can hear the difference in the
emotional intent behind it. Now the same thing,
but without breaks. It sounds much cleaner, but it's also much thinner. This leak is taken
from very famous, they've had given her salute, you probably already
figured out. And if you listen closely to
the record, most of this, he's told us in the
classic blues players from Jimi Hendrix to
Stevie Ray Vaughan, them to Gilmore into
older grades all the way. Especially when they
start elite part or in times even in-between the end of their soldiers to put more
attention to specific part. It's not a specific rule. There is no specific rule
on where you should rake. However, you should pay conscious attention to
where you're applying it. So it doesn't just
become a habit, but it just becomes
an intentional international trick
that you hadn't away. Let me now show you the
technique behind it. So basically it's
pretty straightforward. You just use your
usual permuting. Put your right hand close to the bridge without
touching the bridge. Just a bit more close to the pickup and apply
some pressure. Then the logic is to mute all the strings besides the string
that you're playing. The way to do that,
you should go through the strings and the morphology
go to the high string. And if you don't wanna do it on the same
logic, the same logic. As you can see. My left
hand is helping me out because I'm muting with the sum and putting my
son but for the neck. And I'm also meeting
with my index finger. So basically only with
the left-hand new thing, it sounds like this is
still very much me with it, but it's still, there's
some routing there if I use the right hand as well. So basically a combination of flat hand muted and
right-hand looting. I'm going to show
another example in a very typical blues lick. So what I'm doing
now is applying the same logic I'm
using with my son. The bass strings and unmuting with my first finger,
the treble strings. And ultimately with
my right hand. You feel the same thing
without breaking eggs. There's much more power,
much more intent behind it. Technique. It's something
that you always develop over time because even
for professional players, muting is always part
of their plane that is developed by
habit. In the studio. Guitar, music is
an essential part because you only want to let them ring out what you need to end up in the record
or in the live show. You kind of get the habit of
meeting me both the left and the right hand just by
our seniors of playing. The only thing that I can
give you regarding muting, besides putting
your hand close to the bridge and just resting
your hand on the strings. It's consciously think
when you're muting or not, don't just do it out of
habit. That's the main thing. If you consciously thing
when you're muting, then you will get better at
muting and you will know how much power we
have to apply in both in the left
and the right hand. The guitar also
plays a major role. Of course, the different
bridges are different. When you play another
guitar, you kind of feel like everything is alright. I just, I can't mute as I was moving, but that's
pretty normal. So what I would
advise you right now, just take the soldiers
shoulder ready play, and start adding rakes in
different parts of the solo.
3. Play With Dynamics: Probably the most
important topic we are discussing in this
lesson is dynamics. Dynamics, very wide topic. It can refer to a lot of things. It can refer to the
right hand playing. First semester you go. It can refer to the
dynamics and your tone, how much gain you have an odd. However, the key to
it is to think about dynamics center only on what happens in your
hands and your guitar. So we're going to account, we're going to call tone. Everything is type is only
shear and everything else that the bad debts and
everything else we're going to call them effects
for the moment. Now let me show you a few examples of
returning to that mix. E.g. if I play the same lake, this time, I was playing it, everything was quite the same. Every node had the
same strengths. It is kinda flat. If I add some more
dynamics to it, it means that this term I made up to make the beginning of its strong and then
let it down little bit loose towards the
anode smallest away. The difference is slide, but it's highly
affects your phrasing. How many people
call it phrasing? Phrasing it just
basically how you apply your dynamics and now
you move through time. Now, really good
way to exercise, isn't it kind of combines some right and left
hand technique, something or coordination. He also combines dynamics. The exercise looks like this. I'm also going to add the
tabs here so we don't have to go through their
whole notes because it's kind of a finger twister. So basically the logic is, taking this basic movement, you move up one
fret, play softer. I usually do it from the fifth. Which you can also go wild and go through
all the fretboard. Logic is just try to make it
softer the higher you go. It's tricky. It's not that easy. However, it's very rewarding. When you hear the full fret. You can just do it backwards. Then go to the other strings, and backwards. Then you didn't do
the whole thing in the fretboard and
other exercises to actually change the light I mix how strong your peak or not, even inside one shape, e.g. there are players like
pet methionine who don't play one node
at the same volume. They do that just
because they can control masterfully the picking. All the guitar grades
have excellent dynamics. There is also another
part of dynamic, which is dynamic tone,
which is something that we're using a lot. And even guitar players
of Aboriginal use. But it's not really noticeable unless you're the one putting it is controlling
the amount of gain. Using the strengths
with your hand. Meaning that the stronger you pick them or
gain the guitar will have stronger
paying the software it'll pick, it might clean up. You can get this
by using any AMP and ever driven any basic year. So let me show an example. Now I'm picking strongly. Now I'm going to
use the same tone. I'm just gonna speak softly and the tone is kinda clean up. It's a crucial skill to have. Also, you can achieve the same
results with your guitar. Volume knob is a
volume knob is a ten. Distorted. If you're really down,
it starts to clean up. There's a ton of weight
experiment with this. So the way that I would
exercise is to take, as I've said in all the
previous technique, soldiers should already know, pieces that you already know. Put only one tone, one amp, one pedal,
and that's it. And see if you can get through a number of songs using
only that. What I do, e.g. a. Live shows, they only have one distortion, especially
when it's in blue. So an overdrive pedals
are no distortion. And our amp, and I
use the same tone. I just control it either with a volume knob or either
with my playing. The difference between me
being a recent player. And lead is just a
brilliant, I'll non forget. It's essential to
make it consciously. Think at the beginning, I'm going to hit this software, I'm going to hit this
harder, just uses some solace in time. Are going to notice
that all big solos have dynamic own
grid players use dynamics the whole time is the most essential skill
you're going to have, is the one thing. Then can take it to the next level, whether
you're a beginner, intermediate, or a
professional player wants to break through
at the highest level.
4. Micro Bends: Another technique
that you can add to your playing is micro bending. Micro bending refers to slight changes in
pitch that are not even a quarter step or could maximum beer
cooler step and loose players do
them a lot, e.g. it's the difference
between playing this simple pentatonic crown
of the a minor like this. I'm playing it like this. What I did there is just e.g. when I'm playing the eighth fret of the E, even a little bit. I don't go directly
on micro bend. Basically, just slightly
bit sharp the frets. You don't have to go all out. Just slightly. Even reach the pitch
of the next Fred, just let me show you
again the difference. I'm exaggerating a
bit now because I'm using it in every node. However, it's best
to just use this surprisingly when you just wanted to kind of give
it a bit of spice. Another interesting thing
you're going to be bending is used pretty bands when
you start the solos, e.g. here I blend it to prevent from when I landed on the 13th fret micro bend in the
forefront of the jeep. It kind of adds lots of tension.
5. Play Like a Singer: Another pro tip is to think like a singer and using the power of playing only on one string. Playing only one
string help you learn the fret board faster because you're not
stuck in box shapes. You connect pentatonic shapes
first or any kind of shape. And you also start to
think more melodically. E.g. the way that I approach
session is like this. If you take a simple lick, a minor pentatonic 30, basically, you can play
it in this position. You can play it alter
in this position. Different positions. However, it's still
guitar, bass lake, if you want to
make it think like a singer and a lot of the
Fred bone the same time, it's best to play it only in one string, which looks easy, but it's not as
easy as playing it like muscle memory leak.
Let's put it on the lower. Yeah. It sounds different. It is different than it sounds
more lyrical because you don't skip strings and
you have a natural flow. You actually start to learn the fretboard and
start learning Python. She's loved the
neck. Let's play. It. Went from here to here. And also a good way
to approach it. It's sort of how
much you're singing. This time we played it
on the G. We can also have something different than based on what we're humming. The logic is very
good if you go from here and you take a
lot of flakes that you play on multiple strings
and play them all in one string across the
neck and you also start humming different
melodies over them. A greater processing, like a singer is singing
while you're playing. You don't have to nail the
nodes because myself and not the greatest singer and I cannot catch a lot of pitches. However, I hum the dynamic. I hummed the intent, e.g. if I'm playing this lead, what I'm doing is I'm following with my guitar and
falling my voice. I don't have to
catch all the nodes. However, being that the voice is the most dynamic instrument, I kind of go after
it in a certain way. So I advise you if you're stuck, if you're improvising
and you don't have any more ideas
on what to do. Just start singing some
ideas or just some patterns, even without having
the right nodes and then start applying
them in your playing. Another example is, I'm
playing an E minor. Let's suppose you're stuck here. You don't have any more
ideas for what to do. In this case, I started
thinking on one string. And I said, How many ideas? Okay, to start, then I started
adding more strings to it. But as they start to, HM, who's trying to get
somewhere here, not everything sounds good. However, just by
following my voices have to get some different
ideas that I would get if I will just be playing league soda
pentatonic scale.
6. How To Use A Pick & Get Natural Reverb: On this next section,
we're going to learn how to play with a pig dynamically and also how to get a reverb naturally from your guitar without
having any effects. I chose to do it on
an acoustic vectors. The effect of the
pecan and acoustics is much more heightened. However, it is the same
on an electric guitar, but just for the purpose of showing you I chose
an acoustic so you can hear it better even
if your ear is not trained. What I mean by using
a big dynamically is that if you're given it thought, you might have noticed that different parts of the
pig sound different. If you use the tip of the pick, you're going to have more
attack them brighter tone. If you use the side of the page, you're going to have
a more rounded down. So it changed a lot, especially if you play rhythm. Now the side, the
difference is slide. However, it contributes,
especially in high volumes and especially
in your recordings. You will listen to it a lot. And you can also
experiment, e.g. if you want to play like a lead, which you wanted to
sound a bit muddier. You can experiment
using either the thumb, the other side of the pig, e.g. also, where do you play in
the springs matters a lot. If you're gonna get a thin tank, if you go closer to the bridge, if it gets closer to the neck. E.g. even in lead, there are lots of combinations. Now, to the most
surprising part, the reverb you can
get out of here. Guitar. Strings, guitars were
their acoustic or electric, have a sympathetic ringing. Sympathetic ringing is
that if you play e.g. the bees, there are some
harmonics going on. There's sometimes even
mess up your tuner. If you tune with your phone. If you play a string,
all the strings are vibrating and producing
some harmonics. Let me show you a very
good example of it. If you play guitar
without music at all. Meaning that even
non-conscious muting. Because what happens is that
often when we play guitar, we are used to putting the hand close to the bridge
and meeting with our left hand just out of habit because we're used to me
just so we don't make noise. If you do the opposite, if you put your hand
as perpendicular, as parallel as possible
to the guitar and you don't move at all
with your right hand, you get this kind of ringing out of the guitar
that has a reverb. There's a reverb going on on
the guitar the whole time. If I play almost the same thing, but I play like normally, like with my fingers anchor debate and one muting,
it sounds like this. Now I'm going to play it with my fingers not anchored
and not eating at all. The guitars is sort of
sympathetic, ringing. And the same concept applies
even on an electric guitar. Let me show you now
the same thing, but on an electric guitar. Now, on an electric guitar, the effective is felt
slightly different. Everything is the same. Like if you pick here,
you get to a more sound. If you pick here, you
get a warmer sound. If you don't mute,
you get more reverb. However, this is highly felt when you're actually
playing lead guitar. If you hear classic
records, e.g. Led Zeppelin, Jimmy
Page records, first Eric Clapton records. Players. They don't
really mute a lot. One other platelets, e.g. when they played bends the
left strings opened like you can heat a lot of these
accidental strings ringing, didn't hear a lot of that
natural reverb with a guitar, especially in old
Jimmy Page recordings. Nowadays most players
play cleanly, meaning that you rarely heels dental note, there are still, but
you rarely hear them. Now, neither of the two methods, it's good or bad. You can do the first one and get the solos and it's great. Where do you put it consciously, but you can also mute. The effect is very slight. However, if you're going to
record, it's highly failed. And if you're playing
on a big stage, it is too high. The failed. So thing is practiced
doing both practice, playing time and also participating. With
your finger sprays. You're still gonna get this
nice sympathetic reverb, which a lot of players
do accidentally. But not many players
know from where it comes from. And now you know it.
7. Slide Into Phrases: The other tool you can
add right away or too early to playing is sliding
in and out of phrases. Let me play you a phrase without sliding of the nuclear
phrase with sliding. So basically the
difference between the first and second leg
was that in the first, I immediately started
on the 14th fret. On the second, I slide it in and kind of gives it a more emotional
impact when it comes in. Another way to put it,
especially slide out, sliding Armenia when
you're finished a phrase, you just go down the slide. You'll see a lot of blues
and rock players do that. What you have to keep in
mind is that it's not really important when
you're slightly in front. If you end up in the right
node is not very important. Even if I start the
father of your star, the bigger the impact is. But it just depends
on your timing and depends on the song, but doesn't really matter.
Even when you slide out. The point is just sliding down and then raising your
finger as you go down. It's pretty
straightforward technique, but it also makes a difference. You can also combine
it with breaking. You can do them both
at the same time. A lot of blues players do. You can also slide in and
out from other strings, meaning that if I'm going to
start on the 12th, sorry, the 14th fret of the D. I
can slide in from the GI. So I'm not starting. I slept. I can also slide from
this finger bone. And the best example I could
show you is the solar. We played all praying rigs because this soul
doesn't start like this. But it starts Starting from the B string. And then you wait. So basically you're
sliding in from the beach. And then you'll enter the
14th fret of the high. Now, if you're sliding
from other strings, you have to keep in mind
when you finish this slide. And it's different when you're studying the same string
because he just laid down. The string. Doesn't matter. It always sounds like sounds good because it doesn't
matter what you end up. You just sliding
from another string. It does matter when you stop it because your ear kind
of gets the difference. E.g. if I stopped here, it sounds like it's
a different key. If I go here. So there's a
difference in doing that. Another sliding in that is very popular that
Jeff Beck invented, also called Jeff
Beck sliding thing. I guess it's this
technique when you play it. Back, do it for them. So what I'm doing
is the 14th fret with my ring finger than immediately sliding
in with my index. Then doing the same with
the 14th and 15th fret. So the way to practice this
is just dig any of the solos. And besides adding rankings, you can also add like
sliding into starting out. This is actually
what sometimes make the technique and make a
signature thing of a player. E.g. I. Can sing out of my head of Steve VI who can
just recognize him playing just of the
way because how he slides in into different pieces. So basically take a basic lake. And just like that, you
can also slide like I did here in front of the day. And then at full
stop band, release, the fifth fret, land back. You can also do it
like this. Just like multiples way to do it. It's just a matter of adapting. And as I sat in the regs, it's just a matter
of consciously doing it at first and then
making a habit out of it. Don't make a habit out of
it just by being automatic because it's so much
more likely than just doing it because you're
used to do that. Relatively sounds good. So just consciously
think why you're adding it and then start just applying it to all
if air leaks and off your souls whenever you
think it's best to do it.
8. Controlling Your Vibrato: Another very specific
concept that I wanted to talk to you about is using
vibratos and effect. As you know, every guitar
player is different, my router, and it's actually the thing that tells guitar players
the most from each other. If you listen to a great player, you can tell him
from the Ramayana one as a software bottom, one is a very
relative errata, e.g. Angus Young is he has a very
fast, aggressive vibrato. And the whole time
other players have a very mellow one like BB King. He's a more rounded one. However, the thing
that many players misleads many
players is that they think they should have
only one vibrato. And they unconsciously have a kind of automatic
vibrato the whole time, especially intermediate
or yet to be intermediate players
have only one kind of era which is automatic, e.g. the play. What I mean by automatic vibrato
is that you don't sink. But if you're playing
vibrato now than ever, it's not sort of
sounds the same. Now, great players think
consciously about the vibrato, and you should also
do that because it's just a way of
thinking is it's hard to implement cinco vibrato note as a technique,
but as an effect. If we're playing over
a very soft piece, you might want to have
a softer vibrato. Each are playing over
the first piece. What are Festival route or you might not want to
have about at all. Now let's just take a leak
and placed in different ways. Not only buried all vibrato. Vibrato. Every time it sounds
different like this. Take a bend. Very aggressive
and fast vibrato. Let's make a softer one. No, or November at all. The emotional
content emotionally intended should get from every different types of
vibrato infants to the song. And even great guitar players
don't have one single type. They might fall in
a single category, but they all think consciously
aware they use it. E.g. the best one
is David Gilmore. If you listen to
Shannon, you the Crazy Diamond is the beginning. He uses very fuzzy about them. Also use the whammy
bar to do it. However, in the
middle of the song, he starts going
very slow vibrato. Why? Because the dynamic
of the song is changing. So just don't think about vibrato as a technique that
you always have to do, but think it rather as a
conscious effect that you choose to apply and use it
in the solid material or deploying and think consciously or where you
want to put it and where you don't want to put
it in your solace will improve like 50% right away. Only by using that,
you will start to hear that different things
are happening. And notes are starting
to sound different. Solids flow better.
9. Guitar Swells, Sounds & Piano Emulation: So now in this section
I'm going to go around. So I'm a bit more
specific techniques that we use in sessions to get them more than
once ferric sound or to use more special sound. The first one is guitar swells. Swells as basically
just playing an out, raising the volume as
an OT goals and using a lot of reverb and delay to
get this atmospheric effect. If you're combining
with bending, you get this very cool effect. You just play the note and you raise the
volume with your pinky. It works great if
you use your thumb. Another thing we
often use in sessions is having the electric
piano sound of the guitar. How you do that is
just your acetone. And you pleat exactly 12
frets up your fingers. So e.g. here, from
the G minor cold, though, 12th fret higher, and I'm going to play, it
kinda gets its worldly. Are eligible electric
piano sound. If you do the same thing, but you do it with tapping, are gonna get some
very cool harmonics. Another great technique
that we use with the slide is you'll
get the slides squeals above the 24th fret. What they mean is
that if you put enough your practice to it, you can actually catch the
notes and just by picking, just by gently tapping
with your slide. And I use this a lot to put like atmospheric layers around it
sounds like bird droppings. The trick is to just start analysing when you
find the node e.g. I. Want to go to the cecil, so he is also here. So as long as you have a lot of reverb and
delay going on, if fingered a lot
of cool effects while you're paying
live using this.
Altin Gjoni, Playing with feel is the key
