Developing Chord Solos

2006 CAAS Workshop

with

Pat Corn

2006 Maizeone Music

All rights reserved www.maizeone.com

A few years back when I got my Maton Australian an opportunity to do some work on a Christmas album came my way. I had never recorded with it before and had no idea what top do about microphone placement. Not wanting to waste any time in the studio with finding the sweet spot. I decided to ask one of the other guitar teachers in the store that houses my studio to play a solo so that I could get down on my knees and, with my ear, find that special spot to place the mic in the studio. When I asked him to play his favorite solo, he looked at me like a deer in the headlights and said, I cant play a solo. I was shocked! Here is a guy who is considered a thirty year consummate musician, and he cant play a guitar solo? He said, Pat, I can play with any band, record any style, cop any lick I hear, improvise and create fills and intros to the max, but I cant play a single song melodically from front to back. Not even Jingle Bells. I was completely stunned. It bowled me over. I couldnt imagine that to be true. No problem, Ill just get the other guitar teacher to do it for me. A twenty five year music veteran who has played with several artists and one of the best rock/jazz fusion players Ive ever heard. I made the same plea to him and got the very same answer! He said that he had turned down an opportunity to perform in a local college Christmas program for the very same reason. And you know what? He teaches there!!! I could not believe my ears. How could anyone who has played that long, played that well, and done so much in the music business, never have sat down and worked out an arrangement of a song that they dearly loved? I started my own research with players that came into the store asking them to play their favorite solo..Crash!! Many of them can pick licks in a frenzy, popping and snapping those strings imitating the latest chicken pickin phrase butno solo! They know every lick from Roy Nichols to Brent Mason but if Grandma wanted to here Amazing Grace they are sunk. What I finally realized was that they never listened to guitar players like Chet Atkins, Jerry Reed, Jose Feliciano, Charlie Byrd, Johnny Smith, Howard Roberts, George Benson, and instrumental groups like The Ventures, Los Indos Tabajaras, Tommy Garrett and His 50 Guitars, and the classical masters. Improvisation reigns supreme over melody in their musical experience. I certainly dont discount the talents and accomplishments of the folks that have influenced these pickers, but I wonder how they escaped the desire to play something recognizable. Every student I have knows from the very first time they enter my studio that my ultimate goal is for them to be able to sit down with a guitar play pieces that are recognizable and musically rich. I want them to know more guitar than the intro to Sweet Home Alabama and Stairway To Heaven. I hope to foster a desire in

each one of them to perform completely Not just the licks of four bars of some song that makes their buddies think that they can play guitar. Its amazing how interested they become in soloing when they learn a piece that impresses the older folks around them. Starved for affirmation in this day and time, young people need appropriate role models in music now more than ever. Who better than Chet? The following material is designed to assist you in starting on your way to becoming a soloist or maybe a better one. I just pray that somewhere in here you might find a nugget that is valuable to you. Thanks for your interest and Id love to hear from you. Just send me an email with your questions and comments to patcorn@maizeone.com . I hope youll visit my website at http://www.maizeone.com Thank again!! Pat

Concept Of Music
Music is comprised of basically three things Melody Harmony Rhythm Melody is the recognizable array of notes that gives a song its identity. Without melody, how could we have a game show like Name That Tune? Melody is without question the most important part of a musical piece. It can stand alone and still be appreciated. Consider Amazing Grace on a bagpipe or sung accapella. Harmony is the supportive chord structure to the melody. Chord structure can be as plain as cornbread or embellished beyond recognition. The monitor for chordal structure is pure taste. It is good to be as expressive as possible, but just like language, more isnt always better. Sometimes, less is more. Rhythm is the dynamic that moves the piece. Some songs are better played in a very open format where a specific beat isnt felt and it sounds unattached and free. Other pieces need a specific rhythm in order to maintain its recognizable feel. The rhythmic movement of a musical piece is solely up to the performer. The feel can vary widely on any given song. The two areas that most affect us as guitar players are the melody and the harmony. If we can play a melody surrounded by the harmony of the chord structure, we have a chord solo. Melody and harmony are very closely related in as much as each come from a common sourcethe scale Melody is just a jumbled up scale. The chord structure, on the other hand, is comprised of specific notes of the scale. Both are tied to the scale that represents the key of the song. Finding the melody line of a song is fairly simple. If you can play a scale, you can find the notes of the melody right under your fingertips. Naturally, the more versatile you are at the locations of the scale patterns the easier it is to find the notes of the melody. Adding the chords to the melody is the more difficult part of the process. Chord application is a growing process. Start simple and add more exotic chords as you learn them. Learning chordal theory also helps greatly in making your solos more and more interesting. You can never learn enough.

Constructing A Chord Solo

Step 1: Decide on the key you want to play the song in. This may change as you discover the range of the song and what effects you want to implement, such as open bass strings or alternate tunings. Step 2: Find the melody line on the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd strings. This keeps the lower strings available for the chords to be placed under the melody line. Most melody lines are not more than an octave and a hlf wide so it should be pretty east to find the melody line. Keep in mind that the melody note should be the highest note heard when you strum through or pull the chord and melody note together. Any note that is higher than the melody line will draw a persons ear away from the actual melody line. Step 3: Learn the chord progression and find the right chord that will support the melody note. This is a process that will quicken with experience. It is very important that you continue to learn chromatic chords that move up and down the neck and their inversions. This broadens the scope of where to match the chords with the melody line up and down the neck. Keep in mind that it is not necessary to play a full six string chord with every note. Half chords work perfectly well and can be very interesting. Work hard on your chordal knowledge. Step 4: Take advantage of chromatic chord movement. If the melody line is moving upward or downward, look for ways to use chromatic chord movement. This promotes a more interesting line of movement within the piece. Try to keep the movement tight without a lot of linear movement if possible.

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Again, finding the melody is generally a snap, but developing good chordal application is an on-going learning experience. Watch and listen to everyone you can. There is a chordal nugget in every performance. Because chordal knowledge is so very important, the following pages should be helpful in melodic/chordal application. The following groups of chords are all chromatic. That means that they move up and down the fretboard making all the other chords by the same name. Once you know one, you know them all up and down the fretboard.

Lets try a three stage process in playing the familiar song How Great Thou Art. Model 1 is very basic and uses open chords. Model 2 switches the chords to the chromatic types and adjusts the location of the melody line to fit the chords. Model 3 is a full blown arrangement using more exotic chords and chordal movement. In each of the three examples the melody is heard clearly. The arrangements just get thicker and thicker chordally. Model 3 uses diminished chords, 7b5 chords, 7#9 chords,11th chords, and other inversions. Learn each one of the unfamiliar chords with the realization that each chord, in itself, is chromatic, and makes all the other chords of that type by simply moving up or down the neck. Remember chromatic movement is purely alphabetical. The tablature represents the melody line and where it can be found within the chord. You should make these notes the highest note heard. Some notes are passing tones and are played individually if not below a chord symbol. If you would like to know more about scales, chord scales, and chordal progression please visit my website at the following link for a ten page condensation of two years of college music theory as it applies to guitar. http://www.maizeone.com/ScalesChordsProgression.pdf