Soloing Like a Pro

Q: I've come to realize that playing a good solo isn't really so much about technique but a bunch of other factors. I just haven't figured it out exactly. I've been working on scales and arpeggios but I'm not sure that my guitar solos are interesting at all. Is there some sort of moment when all this work I've been doing will pay off and my solos are going to start sounding great?

A: Because I teach, I think about these things all the time. I sort of traced my career backwards and looked at the way I progressed as a soloist to the point I am today. These are the things I think one has to do to become a really good soloist:

THE INFINITE GUITAR COMPANION VOLUME 1

It took about a year and a half but its finally done. I've started publishing a companion series for THE INFINITE GUITAR. As IG was, for the most part, a big fat theory book for the guitar, I felt that a method book was important and I started with this one. Volume 1 is dedicated entirely to imrov based on the major scale, major scale modes, pentatonic scales and the diatonic arpeggios inherent of all the major scale patterns. There is 224 pages of exercises.


THE INFINITE GUITAR COMPANION VOLUME 1 >>>

Mixolydian vs. Lydian Dominant

Q: I have to play a solo over a C9 vamp, and I realize I have several scale choices. let me see if my theory is correct here: The mixolydian scale is totally diatonic, but the #4 in the lydian dominant scale works because the ear also accepts the blues scale (b5), right? So in a way, the lydian dominant works like a pivot between inside (diatonic mixolydian) and out (blues with b3 as well), which also lets the Dorian work sparingly too. Does that sound about right? (or am I trying to get into heaven here?)

A: You pretty much have it but not completely: Some people would argue that lydian dominant is actually more inside than mixolydian because the natural 4th in mixolydian would technically clash with the major 3rd in the C9 chord. There is some truth in this I think. Technically lydian dominant has no "avoid note" so to speak, the #4 being far enough away from the 3rd in the chord. Some players would tell you, me too for that matter, that mixolydian is better used for a 7sus4 chord. It is all a matter of taste I suppose. C Dorian would only work over a C9 chord because it sort of looks like a combination of the C major pentatonic and C minor pentatonic scale. But it leaves out the most important note, the major 3rd. And it seems clumsy (too big) for blues. So I think that a C dorian scale over a C dominant chord isn't really a great choice. Also, I wouldn't put the cart before the horse, meaning that I wouldn't think that (as you said) a scale is diatonic to a chord, it is really the other way around: chords are diatonic to scales. So C9 is diatonic to both C mixolydian and C lydian dominant. But you are right to think that we like the sound of the b5 because it reminds us of the blues scale (again, a matter of opinion).

Besides the major and minor pentatonic scales, mixolydian and lydian dominant, you can also create some tension by using the half/whole diminished scale.

I've posted on dorian over a blues before. Here>> Other links:

• lydian dominant
• mixolydian
• half/whole diminished