Creating a solo

D'zBeats

New member
Hey fam,
Ive been making beats for almost a year and Ive been on this site (and others) religiously so first off thanks for all the help so far...
now when Im listening to music I love hearing a music break or something like a guitar solo and I wanna start incorporatin that into my beats, is there any tips or a brainstorm process anybody uses to makin a solo?

thank in advance
 
Listen and sing. Use your instrument as your voice, learn to associate the sounds in your head with the notes on your instrument and vice-versa. In jazz and blues, this is how many musicians learn to build solos--its just singing along, but with your instrument. It will be challenging at first, but its a good thing to practice.
 
In addition to singing what you want played, remember that there are really only 4 approaches to creating a solo line

  • Arpeggios
    • playing the chord tones one after the other
    • either ascending or descending,
    • you can jump octaves
  • Scalar motion
    • playing a full scale or scale fragment that includes the root of the current chord at some point in the run
    • join scales together so that they move up and down or
    • jump to new starting notes.
  • Patterns
    • small motifs or melodic cells that are repeated at whatever pitch is required by the current chord
  • Free-form
    • jump from note to note without considering the current chord
    • can be interesting if the notes used form higher extensions from the current chord

You can mix and match any of these ideas to create truly interesting solos/melodic lines
 
Definitely everything bandcoach said. If you are trying to come up with ideas for solos (if you play an instrument, or have a midi controller) try looping your break + a bar before it starts. Now that you have a loop going you can really just flow on that section. If you don't know a lot of theory this can be a good place to start because playing/singing over your progression will reveal what you DON'T want just as much as it will give you ideas. You will hear the clashing notes and whatnot-but if you're looking for a good place to start I would say jam on it.

I play guitar and a lot of players will feel more than they think about it. So thats my advice...you will save a lot of time that way +you will be able to get back to making beats sooner!
 
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Additional thought:

The problem with creating a solo that is to be played by a VSTi's is that a lot of the idiomatic techniques that belong to an instrument get lost or forgotten about or can't even be duplicated:

On a guitar for instance there are several techniques that are not easy to duplicate with a vst
  • hammer-ons,
  • pull-offs,
  • slides,
  • bends,
  • reverse bends,
  • harmonics real and artificial

So sometimes it might be better to find someone who can play the instrument and let them rip a solo for you... you can always reject it until you get what you want.....
 
a solo is kind of like a song, it builds up then has a resolution. knowing scales and arpeggios really helps. what also really helps is learning other peoples solos and listening to a lot of solos as well. if you cant play fast learn some simple but still epic solos. ex: david gilmour from pink floyd. his solos are slow but damn do they have feeling. good luck and remember writing a guitar solo is like writing a song it takes a lot of practice.
 
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