Originality/creativity

[Dan Shipway]

Does anyone have any tips on how to be more creative in the approach to riff and solo writing as I feel like with riffs I always use the same chords and they, for the most part, sound the same.
When it comes to Solos I feel as if I usually just run the scales as apposed to making them more musical.
As always, any comments would be greatly appreciated. \m/

 

[Sayonil Mitra]

There are so many things to try, so many perspectives to see in this area. Everyone deals it in a different way. I will tell you what helped me.
1. If you feel you are stuck with same chords as I was with B minor,G and A for months, just pick up any non familiar backing track from Youtube and practice. It is tough breaking out from that comfort zone of known chord changes at first. But slowly you will see your fingers adapting to it.
2. Being creative is never easy. One who always challenges himself, questions himself, never satisfied with what he has to offer can think of being creative. (OK those are not my words, i heard it from my friends I used to jam with)
3. Maybe exploring other artists, or even other genres can help sometimes.
4. Learning new techniques also helped me. I still remember, when I first learnt bending, I was so excited to use it in my playing. It brought a lot of changes over the years.
5. The only goal of being creative should be expressing yourself. Not to be different from everyone out there. There is a difference.
6. I tried covering solos and riffs from guitarists of different genres. Often I failed miserably. But I learnt new licks, scales or some little new snippets which helped me break out of the monotony.
7. Trying different scales helped me. Once, I was just stuck in major and minor scales. The day I learnt a blues scale, someone told me to do a solo over it. That was the hardest thing then for me. Now, I am at least more comfortable in playing along a blues scale than that day. ( Though i haven’t been that lucky with jazz scales, another reason why I admire Syn more)
8. often it helps taking a break from guitar altogether. I know it was hard for me when I did not play for entire week. But it was a refreshing thing from a creative point of view.
This is something I face everyday. Being creative is a slow process and you need to be patient. But i see it has already started for you as you just put this post here. I hope this helps you. Good luck.

 

[Dan Shipway]

Cheers dude, I have often believe thst lack of musical theory has held me back somewhat as with scales I have no idea where notes that complement the solo are so I will keep working with that as well as focusing on other genres to find different influences.

 

[Sayonil Mitra]

The necessity of music theory depends on you. If you feel you need that to express your music, its absolutely worth it. If you think otherwise, that’s also fine. Your instincts will guide you. You can learn music theory later. Enjoying and challenging yourself is key.

 

[Calvin Phillips]

Dan it sounds like you are jumping the gun a bit without watching some of the important videos in the beginning steps here. I’d go back, watch the first few beginning and learn the Caged system. From there, you’ll definitely start to find those spots on the fretboard faster that compliment the chords you are playing.
If you find you are always on the same scale, like Sayonil said find new musical flavours. Try maybe a different tuning too? Drop it down a step, or maybe just drop D in general? Anything to change up the fret moments in the power chords. And then try again. Sometimes just a small change will open your mind up.
And the last thing I wanted to say was when soloing, I try to paint a picture in my head. And I do this for the whole song in general too. Literally try to paint the picture in my head with guitar notes. Sometimes, you get exactly what you were aiming for. Sometimes, you get something completely different and goes off into a new direction. Those are the best times, because you still have the original idea to go back to for a new song later on. But yeah, I’d definitely say a lot of it deals with playing what comes to your head. And as you progress through the videos you’ll find it’ll get easier to paint that picture. I’m still lightyears away from where I want to be in that sense. It takes me usually a week or two to really get a good feel on a solo I write in my head. I think I also read somewhere that syn himself didn’t improvise most of his solos until I think it was hail to the king. So even himself recently too can still struggle from time to time to find the perfect sound. I think it is a never ending process.

 

[Dan Shipway]

Thanks,I will definitely do those ideas, I have done a cover of shinedown’s dangerous which I made a solo for so when that is recorded I will post it for feedback. I didn’t realise it was something quite a few people struggled with but it definitely feels better knowing I am not the only one.

 

[Calvin Phillips]

When I write a song, the solo is literally the last thing I write. I dont even think about it until the rest of the song is done. The only exception there is if it comes to me before I finish laying the song out. But usually, the layout is priority number 1. Once I get the song down, I go back and listen to it a few times, and wait for the solo to create itself in my head. Once its there, I pick up the guitar.. there are times I get impatient and start improvising, but a lot of the times, I usually have the whole picture in my head before I even touch the guitar. I’ve also rewritten parts because I’ve had better ideas or when I realize what I write is pretty pointless. lol Happens to the best of us.

 

[idssdi]

As far as different chords go I usually have 2 different approaches:
1. Learn new chords which I like the sound of and try to write a song using them (I especially did this with sus chords)
2. Trying to figure out which chords work over a bunch of the exotic scales (I do really like those)
As for soloing for me I always just try to really listen to what I’m playing instead of just playing whatever my fingers do. Play what’s in your head if you will. Also for me writing solos comes from playing/analyzing other people’s solos and take the stuff I like. In general for melodies It works to know your interval like you can count to 10 (so to speak) because a melody tends to be a collection of intervals. In the end melodies are one of the most if not the most important thing in music.
Hope this helps

 

[Dan Shipway]

Thanks for the amazing feedback everyone, I have been working on basic solos to build up ideas, in the Shinedown incident I chose to mimic the vocal line at the start as it has a nice melody as well as doing a pentatonic run at the end ( I like Zakk Wylde and his licks to enhance the scale) and it seems to fit well but also ends on the starting note of the chorus allowing for a nice blend.
Just a matter of time before I can get it recorded.\m/

 

[Calvin Phillips]

I am part of nikki sixx’s profile and he used to do a radio show called my favourite rift. He had guests that’d talk about riffs and whatnot, episodes still on youtube. One time, he interviewed the female guitarist in alice cooper (her names slipping my mind) huge shredder on tour with the band, blew my mind when I saw her live. Anyways, in her episode the most important thing I learned from her was, every solo SHOULD start sort of melodic like. Create the melody first, then explode into the solo. If you want I can find the episode.

 

[Calvin Phillips]

[No message]

 

[Calvin Phillips]

lol, posted a blank post again. Sorry not getting the URL thing right my bad. NITA STRAUSS

 

[Dan Shipway]

Any tips on feel, as I can play scales but they don’t really lock into the chords in the song and it kind of takes the fun away from guitar when all you can do is play scales with it not sounding like it fits?

 

[idssdi]

Feel really comes from A LOT of practice. Try working on your vibrato and your note choices and such. Also remember to try and create some melodies and stuff like that

 

[Sayonil Mitra]

This is something I am also struggling with, but I guess Feel comes from the underlying melody. Holding a bend, sustain, vibratos enhances the feel.

 

[Dan Shipway]

I found an amazing dm backing track in the style of Zakk Wylde and it works with feel of the song and there is a lick I can return to so I am using that to build on and may post a video soon when I have the equipment to record

 

[idssdi]

@dan do you have a link to that backingtrack?

 

[Calvin Phillips]

depends on what you mean by the term feel. Because, everyone has their own “sound.” Their own feel so to speak.

 

[Dan Shipway]

This is the backing track. Its hard to explain but that I play something and then return to a lick that is played over the chord change at 8 seconds which helps build everything into the track

 

[Dan Shipway]

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