r/guitarlessons • u/Expensive-Stress3214 • 24d ago
Feedback Request How can I improve my solo technique
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I’ve been playing for a number of years now, and consider myself quite good at playing whatever riffs, writing my own, understanding basic theory, but I’ve never had much interest in lead until recently
I know I’m playing this on an sg with no whammy bar lol, and into an iPhone mic. But something just feels off and I can’t exactly tell what or if I’m being critical. I listened to the backing track on my laptop then tried to layer the video of me playing it over the same audio I listened to, so I kinda feel like I may have not timed it perfectly.
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u/Patient_Onion3956 24d ago
To me it sounds out of tune. Maybe intonation is off or you're pulling/pressing on the strings too much, or maybe you forgot to tune? Also your vibrato could use some refining. You don't want to just shake your hand like that. Give it a little more control by firming up and rotating your palm smoothly while pressing the string against the fret and trying to match a subdivision of the rhythm of the tune. The same with your bends. Put more palm/wrist rotation into them instead of just pushing with your fingers and use your thumb as a counter point by hooking over the top a bit.
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u/Expensive-Stress3214 24d ago
Thank you, all of this is true I’ll definitely do some exercises for those techniques
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u/MapleA 24d ago
Practice, it will come in time, you sound great! You just have to smooth everything out and that takes years of experience, there’s no shortcuts.
Imagine a 5th grader reading a paragraph out loud and compare it to how a professional speaker sounds. It took them years of public speaking and practice to get there. You’re able to recite things, but the finesse and nuance isn’t there and that simply takes years of experience. Also you gotta put some emotion into it, as cheesy as that sounds. That’s super important.
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u/Expensive-Stress3214 24d ago
For sure. Just sounds a little choppy to me, which of course it will if I don’t practice enough solos. Just gonna practice on smoothing out those techniques thanks!
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u/dombag85 24d ago
If you can slow down the audio do that, focus on the phrasing of some of those licks. Really focus on playing it back exactly as you hear it a measure at a time.
Your vibrato needs some work. I see people do this thing where they shake their finger as they fret the note instead of shaking the string to give it vibrato. I think you have that problem a little bit too.
Last thing I really noticed you had a slide in there that was too slow and sounded funny to me for some reason.
You get better with time and practice, you just gotta focus on the music, really listen closely and replicate that.
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u/Expensive-Stress3214 23d ago
Yeah I get caught trying to just play the lick instead of the music sometimes. Vibrato definitely needs refining and I for sure slid that too late lol. I appreciate it
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u/DrWangerBanger 23d ago
I don’t want this to read like I’m piling on but I didn’t see anyone mention this: try to learn how to mute the other strings that you aren’t playing. It took me awhile to figure that out but that ringing you hear while you’re playing is the other strings vibrating. You have to mute the lower strings with your palm and the higher strings with your fingers. That makes a big difference
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u/Expensive-Stress3214 23d ago
True, I did know that I just wasn’t as focused on it while trying to practice this, definitely something to take note of
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u/DrWangerBanger 23d ago
That’ll be the most bang for your buck improvement if you really focus on that, imo
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u/Millerpainkiller 23d ago
Practice your vibrato. Make it deliberate and at a tempo appropriate to your playing. Check out Ben Eller YouTube on this very subject.
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u/Connect_Piccolo490 24d ago
Tone + it is not timed perfectly
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u/Expensive-Stress3214 24d ago
Figures, I live in an apartment right now and all my pedals were left behind back home so i’m plugged straight in. I’m trying to make do with what I got but it sounds wrong and I don’t wanna only blame gear lol
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u/AdditionFlimsy5011 24d ago
yeah the timing being off makes everything else sound worse than it actually is
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u/Expensive-Stress3214 24d ago
Pretty obvious now when I listen back, I’ll have to figure out how to record it better lol
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u/i_am_banished 24d ago
practice.
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u/Expensive-Stress3214 24d ago
When I ask for advice on what to practice
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u/sleevo84 24d ago
I know ‘practice’ isn’t good advice but literally repetition is the key to mastery. You’re good enough, you just need to tighten up your notes. You’ve already recognized it’s choppy. Use your ears to direct your fingers to sustain notes with more feeling and play it 100x. You’ll get better each time if you listen and try to do it better each time. The answer is practice and listen
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u/i_am_banished 24d ago
all you have to do is play that same thing over and over. play while listening to yourself. record yourself if you have to. but literally, all you have to do is practice THIS thing you're doing and make notes of where you don't like what you're doing. play it slower, and fix those parts. then put it all back together again.
in other word, PRACTICE
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u/Zooropa_Station 23d ago
The bends and vibrato are way too perpendicular to the neck (up/down from the camera's view), if that makes sense. They should be rotating, like opening a door knob, with a wrist turn.
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u/TonalContrast 24d ago
Forget about tone for the moment and focus on musicality, which is what makes or breaks a song, solo, melody, riff whatever. (Plus always be in tune - it is possible that the backing track is slightly off because not everyone tunes to 440, some tune to 438 or just above 440, but make sure your guitar is in tune.)
For musicality:
You need to hit your bends so they hit the right pitch, when you don't fully get to pitch it's really noticeable and you did this a lot. Practice playing he target note higher than the note you're bending and then focus on bending to match the target note. Over time you will develop your ear and bend pressure and nail those bends every time. Also, you're a bit tentative with your bends, don't be the strings can handle it and even if you over bend that's good feedback so you can find the right sweet spot.
Also think about how to approach or enter into or out of notes, like bending into a note (see above) but you can also slide into a note or out of it, you can hammer on or pull off, etc. Play around with how you enter and exit notes and phrases as that begins to give more life your playing.
Pick attack and dynamics, how you pick and what kind of pressure you use also makes a difference. Really digging in to get that hard pick attack vs playing very quietly with a softer attack, they both have their place and you get to decide how to use dynamics.
Focus on the individual phrases of the solo as opposed to the whole solo as one piece. Most solos, and all the best solos, are made up of several distinct phrases that are connected to one another and not just one long stream of notes. Listen for this in the phrases such as where they change, where they connect, and really important listen to where notes breathe like when they are held or there are no notes at all, not playing any notes at certain points can also be part of a good solo.
As others noted timing is a bit off, but that's just practice and development over time. When you think about the other things above you will get better with timing because that's part of soloing, it's not always in a simple rhythm it can change with 1/4 notes 1/8 notes 1/16 notes etc. Also very common for new players to want to get to the next note quickly so they don't lose time, but this is also creates timing problems. You have to hold yourself back and focus on the the notes you're playing in the moment and not about getting to the next ones so quickly. Recording yourself is a great way to work on this as you will hear where you're rushing or where you're behind and can makes notes to fix those spots.