Help! Getting lost in Scales

[hulder]

Hey Guys,


OK, I know my scales fairly well (maj and minor pent, and major and minor-3 notes per string modes) -I also know (at least to the 12th fret) all the natural notes (A,B,C,D etc) on the guitar as well.

The problem is that when I solo, I still get lost really easily, and I hit wrong notes all the time.

How do you guying keep track on where you are going and still be soulful at the same time.

Any methods out there?

I just want my soloing to be second nature.

Thanks
Derek

[Ro3b]

Keep practicing your scales. Use backing tracks. Try to think about the notes you're playing by their function instead of their letter names: not "A E D C# A" but "1 5 4 3 1." That will help keep you oriented.

And don't panic! What is a wrong note, anyway? Try to think of unexpected notes as suggestions instead of mistakes. There's always somewhere interesting you can go.

[Robert]

Sounds like you need to know the fretboard better. I wrote up something about how to practice guitar (http://www.dolphinstreet.com/blog/howto-practice-guitar.php) that might help.

If you easily get lost, focus on learning how to find the root note of the song first. Then you have a some general lick ideas you can base around that root note. Then expand this to finding arpeggios, scales, etc around this root note. Try to be able find the most important scale/chord notes in any key - think of them as intervals like Ro3b says - 1, 3, 5, 7 for example - these are strong notes and will almost always sound good.

[kiteman]

Do you know what chords you're playing over? Even if you're playing alone you still have to play over one chord to another and so on. It's a progression that you follow.

If you don't know what notes to play over the chords then the chord tones is what you want to start and end on for phrases.

[jpfeifer]

Hi,

I used to have this same problem when I first started soloing. The thing that helps is to visiualize where certain key notes are that you can use as guideposts to get you back on track. I would start by memorizing where the root notes are for your given key, all the way up the fingerboard. The CAGED system is a good way to put these visualizations in place.

Another good way to get this under your fingers is to practice playing a solo and stay in a single position for a whole solo, then do it again but move up to the next position of your scale (do the whole solo out of that position), etc. practice staying in a single posisition for your whole solo until the notes in each position are familiar to you. You will usually have certain positions that are very familiar, and several that are really un-familiar. Keep working on them until all the positions are familiar.

One thing that really helps is to memorize the chord shape that goes with each position. Then visualize where these chord tones fit in each position. This way you will have some target tones to go for when your playing out of the scales. Always keep in mind the chord tones within each position. This is the single most important thing that helped me in my own solos. For this reason, I find that practicing arpeggios almost more important than practicing scales, since the arpeggio practice really helps to make you familiar with the location of all the chord tones.

I hope this helps, -- Jim