1. The start - Big and bold (straight into the action)
or easy and gentle (for a relaxed song, or to give yourself room to crank up some intensity!!)
You may be guided by what has come before your solo. You may try to continue the energy of the song, or you may be trying to change it.
2. Riffs - A few simple notes. Make them catchy.
Repeat the riff.
Repeat the riff up higher pitch (or lower).
Repeat the riff with a variation.
Repeat the riff with other variations.
Repeat the riff notes but vary other aspects such as volume/dynamics, tempo (Double time/ half time), different octaves, different articulations (eg slurred, staccato), smooth clean notes & rough 'dirty' notes
3. Use Scale notes - (Blues, modes, whole note, whatever)
4. Use Chord notes - "Outline the changes" - Link various chord notes to sound out the harmonic changes of the chord progression. Begin by arpeggiating the various chords, then link the arpeggio's!
5. Building intensity - Higher pitches, louder, faster
6. Play some space - Use some rests and silence in your solo.
7. Long notes - Easy for audience to listen to, balances out your solo, gives you time to think and plan your next part.
8. Easying off - opposite of building intensity.
9. The finish - Wrap up your solo in a way that makes musical sense. The natural end to a phrase.
10. Hand off - End your solo in a way that leads into the next section (the next soloist, or the whole band coming back in, the bridge, or whatever).
(to have fun and develop skills and confidence for creating an improvised solo).
1. Echo the rhythm.
2. Echo the riff.
Start simple - Same pitch, or one pitch higher or lower, from a set scale. eg blues .No interval leaps yet.
Extend the scale by one or two pitches.
Introduce simple, obvious leaps. Octaves, notes that are two pitches away etc.
As the players get more confident and competent at echo playing, increase the number of notes in the phrases that they memorise. (Possibly make a fun competition of it to see who can memorise the longest sequence of notes just from listening and echoing.)
3. Free choice trading - 2 bars each, 4 bars each etc
Around the circle - Linked solo's one after another
Group then solos around the circle eg 2 bars band, 2 bars solo, or 4x4, or 4x2, or 2x4 etc
4. Set trades - eg 4 beats - must start and end on the same note
2 bars - must repeat at least one note, and must have a two beat rest (or two one beat rests etc)
5.. Create a musical story - Beginning, middle, end.
2,4,8,12 bars
Add complexity to the story eg 4 bars to build intensity, one bar of a whole note (long note), a two beat rest, a repeated riff, a varied riff.
6. Interweaved solo's - two players solo at same time (then 3, then 4 etc)
Trade with band - 2x2, 4x2, 4x4 etc.
7. As group members become really confident and experienced, set them different modes to improvise on
This can lead to changing modes/scales with set chord changes.
Practise improvising on different scales, to follow set chord changes.
