How can I sound better at improvising/composoing rock solos?

by Thomas
(New Jersey)

Why does everyone say you can use the A natural minor / A minor pentatonic scale over an entire chord progression to play a solo? I find that when doing so, only on the A5 or Am rooted chord that scale sounds best over. As the chords change and I solo using A natural minor/ Am pentatonic scales it just sounds like something is missing. Like, I need to really nail the root of the new chords as they happen.

BUT, if the chords are going by so fast it seems impossible.

So you see, I am confused why everyone says just to stick to A natural minor / Am pentatonic scales to solo, when it just sounds like it doesn't fit as well over the other chords.

Must you be always consciously aware of what chord is happening in order to sound good? If so, how do lead guitarists put together such amazing sounding solos over chord progression that move fast?

Answer

It all depends on the progression. If the entire progression resides within the diatonic key of the scale you're playing, then yes, you should be able to use that one scale throughout the progression.

For example, in my natural minor chord progressions lesson, I show you the chord scale that corresponds to a natural minor key. All we're doing is building chords on each degree of the scale.

Once you get to know the sound of these chord-scale relationships, you'll know when you can use a single scale over a sequence of related chords.

So when someone says "stick to natural minor", they should be confident that the progression in question resides entirely within that minor scale. If it does, it's simply a case of picking the right notes within the scale to highlight these chord changes (each chord change will use notes from a different part of the scale).

Sometimes, people will say "use this scale" and there will be chord movements outside that tonic scale. In this case, yes, you have to look at the root and triad of each chord individually to determine the chord type and then you can decide which scale/notes to use.

I go into great depth with identifying chord types for soloing in my how to solo over chords series.

If the chord changes are fast, and you may only get one or two notes in, then the safest option is to first identify the chord type, and simply play one or two of the notes from that chord through that chord change.

For example...

G / Cmaj7 / F7 / Am7 / G ...

After studying my lessons, you should know that Cmaj7 is the IV (4) chord of G major, so it's part of the G major chord scale. Similarly, Am7 is part of this scale. G major will, therefore, work over these chords. It's only over F7 that some notes of G major scale will be incompatible because the note F, and therefore the chord F7 isn't part of the G major scale.

If the chord changes are quick, I could simply play a couple of notes from the F7 chord to support that change.

This is where understanding the building blocks of chords comes in. Again, some theory study time required! See my chord theory lessons.

Once we understand what makes up 7th chords, we'd know that F7 contains the major triad (R, 3, 5) and a flat 7th (b7). We could simply find an F7 chord form on the fretboard (preferably near to where you've been soloing in G major) and play any of its tones.

This is a good place to start - identify the root, triad and 7th tones of each chord and play through the changes using only chord tones. These can act as the skeleton of your solo. You can add in more linear harmonies later.