Playing without backing

[xithe]

Hi all,

I can finally pick a solo out of the blues scales, but it sounds "weak" by itself. It's fun to practice with a backing track, but I'd like to learn how to play something that stands on its own well.

How do you play when you're on your own?

And how do you learn to play like that? All the lessons I've seen either cover soloing, or some simple rhythm guitar licks, which get boring real fast without a melody.

Thanks!

[weelie]

You can start in this kinda way: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKpkUMjNVMk

[VikingBlues]

to the forum xithe. Hope you get some good pointers on this one - nice link by Weelie.

How do you play when you're on your own?

Not very well! ... so I'm very thankful for backing tracks.

I'll leave it to those in the know and that can do this to advise you - but you're not on your own with this difficulty. It shows how much of the quality of a lead blues solo comes from it's interaction with the rest of the group underpinning it and helping to give the overall colour and character with the chords, rhythm, and bass line.

If you isolate someones lead playing, even of BB Kings quality, and listen to it without the rest of the band it loses a lot of its qualities - he doesn't, he says, get on with chords - so I guess that's why he doesn't play in a power trio where the guitarist has to mix chords and lead in a strong enough way to create enough interest in the guitar lines. That's not to say he doesn't employ huge skill in the way he mixes his lead playing in within the group context so much better than most players.

[roswellj]

I play mostly acoustic but this method does cross into electric aswell. Basically I don't use a pick and play the bass line and pick the solo at the same time. Easy if your playing in E in standard tuning. More difficult for anything else. You can get a nice rounded song by just hitting a bass string every now and then.

[xithe]

Thanks for the replies so far, and I'm looking forward to more help.

Weelie, that was perfect. Fun to learn and fun to play. Now to try to figure out how to generalize it...

Roswellj, sounds like the right idea--just need tons of practice I guess. Viking, nice to know that I'm not having trouble with something simple.

[2WheelsOfBlues]

on the net you can find drum licks in every tempo and note.
Or
Use e mentronoom, i have one in the amp that sound like a drumset.

Or is this not what you meen?

[weelie]

well the main thing is that you hear the beat and progression in your mind. So tap your foot an ingrain the progression in your mind.

They say that in good solo you hear the progression even though no separate rhythm track was played...

[DeepDrummer]

well the main thing is that you hear the beat and progression in your mind. So tap your foot an ingrain the progression in your mind.

They say that in good solo you hear the progression even though no separate rhythm track was played...

OMG that is profound!! I mean I was aware (mostly from this site and the great lessons and people within it) that you can play the lead parts in relation to the key and that sounds pretty good. I was aware that you can follow the progression along with the rhythm elements using arpeggios and scales pertaining to each individual chord with additions here and there. But the solo following the progression too? Thank you so much. Now where is my guitar? I've just been handed some motivation. That one statement just brought a smile on me that's been a long time coming. I wonder if I will ever be able to get to that point of being able to do that. Bit by bit I guess...starting now.