{"id":2994,"date":"2024-01-23T17:17:53","date_gmt":"2024-01-23T17:17:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.guitar-chords.org.uk\/blog\/?p=2994"},"modified":"2024-01-28T00:50:50","modified_gmt":"2024-01-28T00:50:50","slug":"guitar-soloing-the-problem-with-scales-and-how-to-use-them","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.guitar-chords.org.uk\/blog\/guitar-soloing-the-problem-with-scales-and-how-to-use-them\/","title":{"rendered":"Guitar Soloing – The Problem With Scales and How to Use Them"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\nPart 1<\/span>\n\n\n\nPart 2 <\/a>\n\n\n\nPart 3<\/a>\n\n\n\nPart 4<\/a>\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n

My guitar solos suck! What scales should I use?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s a question we hear often among amateur and even some advanced intermediate guitarists. The title sentence reads like a statement followed by a question – in actual fact it\u2019s more like a question followed by the answer. Let\u2019s rewrite it:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Q: Why do my guitar solos suck?
A: Because I don\u2019t know how to use scales.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In other words, you think your solos suck and you\u2019re hoping that using a different scale will improve things … and that is where everything has already gone very wrong for you. Not your fault, with the majority of books and lessons about guitar soloing, it\u2019s pretty much all they talk about – scales and scale patterns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bear with me here, the chances are that you\u2019ve been so buried deep in confusion about scales that all of this will take a while to sink in, so we\u2019re going to take things slowly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s start with a simple chord progression, a I-IV-V in C major. In other words just 12 bars using C, F and G.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"1-4-5<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

We can solo over this using the C major scale. Generally when playing around with scales as a beginner or early intermediate guitarist, we might try something that sounds like this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Example 1:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"C<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Now, before we try to fix this, let\u2019s listen to another example. I\u2019ll copy and paste this exact solo over a different chord progression. Still in C major but we\u2019ll use more chords in the backing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"C<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Example 2: <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n