The Guitar Player's Resource
When it comes to improving ones' guitar solos, many will often look for the nearest jazz standard. However, jazz isn't the only way to work on this aspect of your guitar playing.
When learning to improvise, it's always good to be quite familiar with the chord progression in the tune you are working on. This is so you can actually comprehend what it is you are actually playing.
If you are just a beginner working with an easy chord progression, first you will want to focus on confidently targeting chord tones.
It's when the progression changes keys that things get a little more interesting. This is commonly found when working on jazz standards. However, I know not everyone is exactly the biggest jazz fan.
That is why I am going to show you a different way to improvise that you might find more enjoyable depending on your tastes. We are going to take the chords from "The Imperial March" by John Williams (Darth Vader's Theme in "Star Wars") and see what different soloing options we can find:
So as you probably noticed, this sounded a little different than your average jazz solo. Though there is still much to learn from it! If there are any other chord progressions you are interested in learning how to solo over, please let me know in the comments.
Tommaso Zillio is a professional prog rock/metal guitarist and composer based in Edmonton, AB, Canada.
Tommaso is currently working on an instrumental CD, and an instructional series on fretboard visualization and exotic scales. He is your go-to guy for any and all music theory-related questions.
