Guitar Soloing Cheat Sheet
When you’re getting ready to solo over any song, it’s critical to know what scales to play. In this playing guide, we’ll look at when you should play major, minor and other scales over a variety of styles.
We’ll show you what scales work best for each playing situation, and give you easy-to- understand examples from the “real world,” so you can build your soloing chops and gain the confidence to jam with any group of musicians.
First, let’s take a look at Steve Stine’s Real World Soloing Chart.
As you can see, the chart is broken down into three columns based on tonality. We’ll start with middle column “Crossover” (The Theory of Rock and Roll) and then work our way through “Minor Scale Elements” and “Major Scale Elements.”
The first big step under “Crossover” (The Theory of Rock and Roll) is Minor Blues.
2 GuitarZoom © 20162015 Minor blues songs are fairly easy to solo over using the Minor Pentatonic scale. Let’s take a look at B.B. King’s “The Thrill Is Gone” (B minor) to see it in action.
If you want to add more flavor to your Minor Blues solos, the Aeolian mode (also known as the natural or relative minor scale) is awesome. It adds 2 extra notes to the minor pentatonic scales and gives you more options.
Let’s take another look at B.B. King’s “The Thrill Is Gone” and try soloing using the Aeolian mode.
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Our second big step under “Crossover” (The Theory of Rock and Roll) is Major Blues. Let’s take a look at Eric Clapton’s “Before You Accuse Me” (E Major) to get a feel for this scale.
Now, there are many different scales that you can use to solo over Major Blues songs. Using our example,“Before You Accuse Me,” try soloing using the E Major Pentatonic, E Minor Pentatonic, E Dorian and E Mixolydian modes.
See the fretboard diagrams below to get your fingers in the right places. And listen carefully to the different colors each scale provides your solo.
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Our third big step under “Crossover” (The Theory of Rock and Roll) is Rock and Roll. Much like blues, Rock and Roll songs are some of the easiest songs to solo over.
While most guitarists would choose the minor pentatonic scale, the major blues scale gives you more options for creating a powerful solo.
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