Personally I don't remember the last time I practised a rigid 'scale'. I probably should from a technical perspective, but for several years I've just played off the hat and made it up as I went along according to what fits. I know that some of the scales I use are perhaps a little uncommon but it also means that I am naturally flowing to an appropriate note rather than worrying about a particular scale.

My advice to you improvisationally is to learn some scales so that you know the basic framework from which to structure your solos, but when you are in a musical situation to follow your ears, not numbers.

Personally for blues i would recomend keeping it within the region of strings G, A, and B in minor scale with a slight intro into major. mainly just throw a vibro here and there. half notes are a maybe...  but with blues and rythim, it usually has that deeper bass tone to it.

youve got to feel the music in order to make the solo "cool". if you listen to different types of solos and try to use your expirience and playing ability to take what you hear and make it your own then you will find that your solos will be more natural then to say," i copied this one from van halen and this one from bb king and came up with this.." no, they inspire you to come up with your own style and through listening and imitating you may find a different style of music easier for you to improvise in. last thing is.. dont think that the faster the pickin', the better the solo, just hit each note as if it were a paper airplane gliding down to the surface of the street and landing perfectly on it.

listen to BB King. half his songs are E, A, B and have really great blues licks with them. take em and make em ur own! once u get used to teh feel, improvise ur own stuffs.

also 90% of punk rock revolves around chord sequences like that.. meh even beach boys did it. so really just look around pop music n u'll get an idea of what could sound good.

church songs use those chord sequences too, but at church i really cant go all out with a blasting sweep pickin solo.. so really, just strum the chords n add some random notes in there, if u think ur sounding off go straight back to the chord n u cant go wrong.

good luck ! ^^

way 2 many words here..............shit i'm blinded by advice...........loads of bs.........

get together with a friend and try it out for yourself.................how can a website full of............teach u.......you will find your own answers.....enjoy discovery

splash the fish

Let it all flow. That's the key... and check to Alex Lifeson, Jimmy Page or Steve Howe.

     > Iszil

there are lots of riffs for blues
so you can just put some together and put some random D's and A's in there
thats all

I used to think scale wise in my solo's, but found them redundent after several years.
Try thinking of the chord intervals  1,3,5,7  then try to draw lines between these intervals, either in chromatics, or arppegios. Try playing tones you usually wouldn't play
like the 6 or 2nd . Also when you expand the chords on up to the 9,11,13 you get into polychords9/2nd, 11/4th, 13th 6th, which you can play as chords for chord solos or arppegios. try some diminished  suff I could go on and on but I won't . their is no wrong way if it's what you like and souds good to you.

This all way over my head. I seriously need to learn some theory.
I just listen as many solos as I can. Incorperate what they have and mess around. All I do is use a simerlar patern from a small part of a solo and build from there. Or just improvise and see what sounds good then work from that. Still, I'm never too sure about my own solos anway so...

The method i like to use best is to actually change scales as the rhythm changes chords.So while the rhythm is in the chord of E you would be soloing in an E minor pentatonic scale,when the rhythm changes to A it makes a really cool bluesy sound when you switch your scale to an A minor pentatonic.After that of course the rhythm changes  back to E,so you simply follow the change in your solo by switching back to the E minor pentatonic scale.OK after that the rhythm changes to a B so you change your lead to a B minor pentatonic scale  etc . If you get lost you can go back to the E minor pentatonic until you find your place....It sounds awesome when the lead is changing along with the rhythm and it also enables you to solo up and down the fret board, not leaving you restricted to only a hand full of notes.

I know this is and old thread but I was messing around with my tab writing software and thought I'd post a simple lead solo for this EAB thing.
  The solo is pretty simple chord notes with some chromatics. mostly.


I played this over Major chords.

If you're using a twleve bar blues then of course pentatonic in E, but keeping to the current chord makes it sound better, also bending the notes to transition to other notes is good.

Also, when you use the pentatonic scale (to my knowledge) there is no difference between major or minor. But when playing the pentatonic it may sound good to add passing notes from the E minor scale that aren't in the E pentatonic (and not on the beat of the chord) it will tighten the sound of the solo.


P.S. First post!!!!