Phrasing

jcoote

i have fierce trouble with phrasing in solo's anybody got any tips???

Karl Hungus

Um... Can you be more specific? Is there some solo that you're having a problem with? Or is it that you don't really know how to phrase something yourself?

If it's the latter, the best thing for phrasing really, is if you take some inspiration from somewhere or someone, and apply it to what you know. For example, you could learn how a particular favourite guitarist would phrase something, then use that phrasing on different scales or suchlike.

I'd also recommend some DVDs by Paul Gilbert and Marty Friedman. I was just watching Paul Gilbert's Guitars From Mars Volume 2: Rock DVD today, and he basically starts off by showing you the E Pentatonic scale, then runs through all these different ways to phrase it, vibrato, bends, slides and so on. There was really nothing there that you could practice, but what he does is just give you ideas.

I just went crazy and started playing the scale, and what came out was amazing, just stuff I never thought about, I was just jamming away, and bam! Here's all this funky stuff I didn't know I was capable of. I starting doing a lot of string skipping aswell, which wasn't something that was in Paul's DVD, so I've no idea where that came from, so I guess I was just inspired.

Also, try learning some Marty Friedman, because that man has some of the most interesting phrasing going. But I'd definetly recommend you check out the Paul Gilbert, Guitars From Mars 2.

jcoote

yeah i was talking about phrasing my own solo's restaint i think i somethin i lack...anyway cheers KH i'll check out that dvd and some friedman

Karl Hungus

jcoote wrote:

yeah i was talking about phrasing my own solo's restaint i think i somethin i lack...anyway cheers KH i'll check out that dvd and some friedman

Well, definetly try and just learn some stuff from guitarists that inspire you. I mean, if Marty isn't your thing, you mightn't be as inspired. Check out this, which is certainly a very cool little solo, but you can see some of the interesting phrasing and bends that Marty uses at work. www.freelicks.net is a great site to learn things from anyway, and I'm thinking of getting the DVD.

parasite

Karl Hungus wrote:

www.freelicks.com

:eek: www.freelicks.net surely, freelicks.com is just a shoddy porn link site

Karl Hungus

parasite wrote:

:eek: www.freelicks.net surely, freelicks.com is just a shoddy porn link site

Whoops! Edited.

jcoote

yeah freelicks is a decent site so too is freeguitarvideos.com

-=al=-

think off all the techniques u can and try and emply them into songs, alota guitarists are repetitive in their solo's its fun to be different in different songs, sure we all use th trusty pentatonics as starting points, get into modes, and get ideas from your head onto the gutiar, I find if i hear sometihn in my head ive an idea of what i want it to be and thankfully im good enogh to get it onto the guitar, theory helps ur udeas sound "proper" but i spend alota time phrasing, Jamming over simple blues tracks is good gettin the right notes and bends,

the march edition of guitarworld has a cool section on "soloing" by Joe satriani, its an interesting read, but end of the day its down to u and what u want, if u get stuck keep at it, sometimes mistakes have fun bits to them

jcoote

cheers al yeah i think its the lack of backing tracks or even a metronome that is causing me to drift to obsecurity...i have to look into modes that'll help too...cheers for the advice lads

Karl Hungus

Hey, if you're after a Metronome, I recommend this.

jcoote

nice one KH i'll have to wait til i get my broadband back to download a file of that size tho

Baggio

Johnny,
...the bold Alex no help to you on that?...just curious...

Baggio

jcoote

yeah he is and so is dave gilmour and eddie van halen and everyone else i listen to but i just can't nail it when i'm on my own...the music that is

Karl Hungus

This might be of some use also.

Fusion251

Have you ever tried singing a solo before you play it? Generally people that play Brass/Wind Instruments have good phrasing because they have to breathe. On a guitar people neglect to do this alot which makes for endless lines in a solo that makes it sound fairly lifeless.

Also you could try starting a phrase on an off beat which will give it a different feel and open up your phrase lenghts...

Hope this makes sense to you.

Cheers
Fusion

JMArr

Yo Johnny hows the craic...I was gonna suggest singing the phrase but Fusion beat me to it ...you gotta hear it in your head then sing it then work out the notes ...thats the way I always try to do it ..also after a while then it gets easy to pick out stuff from the radio etc by ear after a while you get a sharp ear ...just watch you dont cut yourself with it. ga ha. yowsa!

jcoote

cheers lads i'm gettin there and i'm not really doin anything different except chillin out on the fast solo's and thinkin ahead on the slower ones.

The Agogo

phrasing is simple...if you are familiar with tonic solfa (eg. mediant, sub-dominant, dominant, submediant etc) then you should set out with these recomendations

*practice the scale(key signature) that your song is in
*go up the scale chromatically
*then down in a step motion (frets: 12/10/9/10/9/5/9/5/2/5/0)
*if you find the right notes for your tonality(major/minor) then you can play them as randomely as you likeusing different rhythms
*a good book for solos is A Dozen A Day (€6)

fish-head

I think phrasing is easy if you think of each set of notes as a sentence, so you work the notes out the way you would speak them.. I dont know if that makes sense to anyone but me.