Looking for some cool not too hard solo songs

[niels]

Hi all,

I'm working on solo'ing so I wanted too know some songs which aren't too hard.
Does someone have suggestions?

Thanks,

Niels

[cknowles]

I've personally found that B.B. King, Eric Clapton and Mark Knopfler are great teachers through their recordings.

B.B. King's style is really nice in that he uses pretty standard blues chord progressions and doesn't throw a lot of extra notes at you.

In his own description, his lead riffs are meant to tell a story in counterpoint to his lyrics.

The album "80" is really nice for this, as is his latest "One Kind Favor". I also like to play along with "Lucille Talks Back"

Dire Straights is another band that's great for learning solo's
Mark Knopfler is an amazing guitarist and does do some pretty fancy stuff, however most of his music is based in "D" or "Em" and once you've figured out his shortcuts you find he can really economize using basic chord shapes for his lead riffs.

In both cases I found that I could create some satisfying leads without getting my fingers all crossed up in the process.

Hope this helps
Chris

[dnic]

I use the minor pentatonic shape. It took awhile to figure out how to make it work for me. This may be old news for you but if you play it rooted at the relative minor, examp; A major, rel minor is F#m or the sixth, you can play all over that shape no matter what the chord progression is doing. If you are over a blues prog you move it around rooted on the major chord changes. I know you asked about specific songs that might be easy to learn the solo on but I don't usually learn the solos note for note. Something like Knockin on heavens door is a pretty easy prog to work with. You can do a kind of country blues thing with the Em pent. The whole song is just G/D/Am/C

check out this guy, lots of good free info.www.justinguitar.com/

dane

[Deleted]

I agree with Chris, The blues are a cool way to learn how to solo. An other group I like to play along with is CCR. He plays a lot of double noting but it is easy to learn. From there I went to Led Zeppelin (the beginning of my hard rock faze) Now I'm back to the blues. You can't go wrong with B.B.King, Clapton, SRV, Dire Straights is one of my favorites. I love the tone of the guitar in Salton's of Swing. Cool stuff.
I haven't found too much out there of to days music I would want to play along with. Not saying there may not be I just haven't found too many.
I think a lot of music to day have gotten to wordy and too complicated. Give me a song I can remember in my head and I can sing or hum too. I think that's way classic rock and blues are so popular they are fun to listen too and play along with.
Oh.. Santana is another good one to play along with. I don't like all his stuff but there are a few songs that are cool. Smooth is not too hard. Has some guitar work that is not hard to learn.

[niels]

I'm already playing blues a bit. I downloaded a backing track from here.
www.torvund.net/guitar/index.php?page=Backing_blues
Maybe it's fun to download for you some of you?

Anyway I'm improvising with the pentatonic scale in C and yesterday I tried the solo from nothing else matter which isn't hard at all but sounds very nice.
Thanks for the songs you guys sent I will listen them and take a pick or just learn them all

Niels

[cknowles]

Thanks for the link Neils!

It's bookmarked now.

Chris

[dnic]

Thanks, yes, bookmarked.

Niels, did you ck out justinguitar.com ? I found the song "She talks to angels" it's in open E tuning and really pretty easy to play. He shows how to do all the intro lead riffs for the acoustic.

d

[stratpurist]

For pentatonics, I recommend a copy of the album Blind Faith (Clapton). lots of riff based songs which branch into solos - e.g., 'had to cry today' and 'well alright'.

more than copying solos I like to vamp off a solo - particularly major scale songs like Dickie Betts' Jessica (A maj and D maj scales). figure out (if you haven't already) how to play an A scale starting with your pinky on the 5th fret of the low E (watch that stretch on the D string!) start with constant intervals and the improvisations come pretty easy.

[cknowles]

Another good one is Eric Clapton and J.J. Cale Road to Escondido
Fantastic Album, great riffs.

Chris

[Deleted]

I use to go to a web site called whole note.com. I haven't been there in a while they had all kinds of teaching of scales technique and even had guitar contest to help improve your skills. They even have guitars for sale Just all kinds of stuff.
An other one was Guitar Masters.com I think... Lot of free stuff on there too! I got some of my blues scales off there. But it's been a long time since I have been them web sites.

[niels]

May 22, 2009 16:10:39 GMT -6 @eagleblues said:

I use to go to a web site called whole note.com. I haven't been there in a while they had all kinds of teaching of scales technique and even had guitar contest to help improve your skills. They even have guitars for sale Just all kinds of stuff.
An other one was Guitar Masters.com I think... Lot of free stuff on there too! I got some of my blues scales off there. But it's been a long time since I have been them web sites.

I tried your website but they aren't online anymore so that sucks.

I will check out eric clapton too if everyone says it's fun to learn.

[niels]

May 22, 2009 8:29:55 GMT -6 dnic said:

Thanks, yes, bookmarked.

Niels, did you ck out justinguitar.com ? I found the song "She talks to angels" it's in open E tuning and really pretty easy to play. He shows how to do all the intro lead riffs for the acoustic.

d

I was already subribed on youtube to his channel he does have some awesome stuff indeed, he also have way to learn techniqes.

really helpfull

[Deleted]

May 23, 2009 0:44:23 GMT -6 niels said:

May 22, 2009 16:10:39 GMT -6 @eagleblues said:

I use to go to a web site called whole note.com. I haven't been there in a while they had all kinds of teaching of scales technique and even had guitar contest to help improve your skills. They even have guitars for sale Just all kinds of stuff.
An other one was Guitar Masters.com I think... Lot of free stuff on there too! I got some of my blues scales off there. But it's been a long time since I have been them web sites.

I tried your website but they aren't online anymore so that sucks.

I will check out eric clapton too if everyone says it's fun to learn.

www.wholenote.com/ This is the link to whole note

[niels]

May 23, 2009 16:00:09 GMT -6 @eagleblues said:

May 23, 2009 0:44:23 GMT -6 niels said:

I tried your website but they aren't online anymore so that sucks.

I will check out eric clapton too if everyone says it's fun to learn.

www.wholenote.com/ This is the link to whole note

Thank for the link looks very usefull. I only took a quick look at it because I didn´t had time to study it more closely. but I will do it very soon

[Deleted]

Your welcome! There is a lot of stuff on there and it does take some time to find things. Have fun!