7 Guitar Solo Tips That Will Actually Make You Sound Like You

Emily Johnson

-Mar 12, 2026, 1:52 PM

7 guitar solo tips that will actually make you sound like you

by Justin Comstock | May 12, 2025 | Uncategorized | 0 comments There’s something personal—almost spiritual—about guitar solo tips. When it’s done right, it’s not just a flurry of notes. It’s a voice. A statement. A sonic fingerprint.

Most players spend years learning licks and scale shapes, but never feel like they’re saying anything when they solo. So if you’re looking for real, creative, soulful guitar solo tips that go beyond “learn the pentatonic scale,” then keep reading. Take our interactive quiz to generate the right learning pathway for you. Learn to play like an authentic jazz guitarist. Dr. Molly MillerIf there's one person you want to learn the CAGED system from, it's Molly.

Karl will turn you into well-rounded rhythm and lead guitar player. Transform your guitar solos from boring to unforgettable with these 7 expert tips. Learn how to create stunning solos on guitar with techniques like phrasing, dynamics, and more. When you see a guitar god deliver a perfect solo on stage, it often looks completely effortless. Like it’s the most natural thing in the world. Every note is where it needs to be.

The whole solo sounds convincing from start to finish. So why is it then, that so often when we try ourselves thing sound a little… underwhelming? You might feel your playing sounds stale, boring or unnatural at times. In this article, we’ll dig into some of the biggest problems guitarists face when soloing: the ‘enemies’ of great guitar solos. We’ll analyse the problem and I’ll give you a number of solutions to overcome these obstacles. (Spoiler: we'll explore how to tap into your musicality to make your solos sound better.) This is a choose your own adventure-style article, so select the villains of your story and let’s find out...

Villain #1 - Scale Patterns My solos sound like running up and down a scale Villain #2 – More Scale Patterns I'm Stuck in a box or scale pattern There's no messing around with this tab and video lesson: it’s time to workshop some lead guitar ideas and get your solos spotlight-worthy When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. All the latest guitar news, interviews, lessons, reviews, deals and more, direct to your inbox!

Welcome to our feature centred on playing better solos. In it we aim to identify core techniques and soloing concepts with a view to supercharging your vocabulary. We have split our 15 examples into three sections, each with five examples. The first section is based around technique. Section two is more music theory-based and the third section concentrates on taste and feel. For many guitar players, knowing how to make great guitar solos and use scales, arpeggios, chords, and melody to do that is the holy grail of playing.

However there are many obstacles to getting this good at guitar….. And just getting good enough to practice this stuff! So what I did was made you a video as well as a free eBook that’ll tell you all about how I taught myself how to make guitar solos like Slash, Eric Clapton, Eddie... Once you’ve gone through this set of lead guitar tips and tricks I’ve got for ya, you’ll know exactly how to make guitar solos using scales or arpeggios or whatever. It seems that guitar players are always searching for the holy grail of six-string knowledge: the secret to how to solo on guitar in the most awesome and easy way. But for the most part, it seems that many players already actually have the skills to play the perfect solo — they just need to change the way they think about playing scales on...

See, when guitarists first learn how to solo on guitar, the first thing they typically learn is the Am pentatonic scale. Pentatonic scale patterns as a whole are powerful, movable and versatile tools that when played correctly, sound solid in virtually any guitar solo. However, far too many guitar players get stuck in Am pentatonic and never learn to manipulate it for broader use. While aspiring lead guitarists really should take the time to learn all five patterns of the pentatonic scale, even if you only know the first position of the Am pentatonic, you can make your... Something to keep in mind while learning how to solo on guitar is why guitar solos are even still important in the first place. After all, even though guitar playing has its place in today's popular music, it's not like how it was 30 years ago, when almost every song had a guitar solo in it.

But while you may not be all that interested in shredding like a metal head or running through scales with your teeth, learning how to handle a guitar solo effectively is really useful for... Consider the common situation where being able to handle a guitar solo is most useful — when you're jamming with another musician who plays an instrument that can also be used to play rhythm... Now, you could just play chords when it's time to take an instrumental break or you could skip instrumental breaks altogether, but either way, you're not only going to miss on out on something... See, taking a guitar solo, and actually, playing lead guitar in general, can reall help take your playing to the next-level because it causes you to listen, react, collaborate and be on your toes... So, why do guitar solos still matter? Because they make the song and your playing better.

It happens in guitar lessons everywhere: a student wants to learn to how to solo on guitar, so the teacher shows them the first position of the Am pentatonic scale and starts playing the... Over the major key, the Am minor pentatonic scale gives off a heavy, bluesy sound, which is a staple characteristic found not only in the blues, but also in a lot of rock 'n'... The problem, though, is that playing the minor pentatonic over a major key is too bluesy, and it doesn't fit well in all styles of music. In fact, you should actually always default to the major pentatonic scale when you're playing in a major key. Only play minor pentatonic scales when you're playing in minor keys or in the blues. To find the major pentatonic scale, take your minor pentatonic pattern and move it three frets back.

For A major pentatonic, take the Am pentatonic scale pattern that you know, which starts with your index finger on the low E string and the fifth fret, and move it three frets back,... Then play the pattern from there. No matter what style you're playing, it's best to choose the major pentatonic scale as a rule for guitar solos. For instance, if a country song is in D major, you don't play the Dm pentatonic scale. You play the D major pentatonic scale. A pop or rock song in C major?

Play the C major pentatonic scale. A Spanish-flavored song in Gm? Well, that's when you play the Gm pentatonic. Mostly, you should forget about playing the minor over the major, but blues is an exception. Now, even though you can play the minor pentatonic over the whole blues chord progression, it doesn't mean you should. Specifically in the blues, start with the major pentatonic and mix in the minor sparingly.

A good starting approach for blues soloing is to play the major pentatonic scale over the I chord, while playing the minor over the IV and V chords. This will even out the bluesy sound with some more conventional notes that won't let you overdo it. In the key of A, this means that you'll play the A major pentatonic scale over the A chord and the Am pentatonic scale over the D and E chord. And then, of course, when you gain some confidence using the first position of the major pentatonic, you're going to want to expand your knowledge so that you can get up the neck. So the next order of business is to learn positions 2-5 of the pentatonic scale. Noodle through these until you know them like the back of your hand.

The full five-position pentatonic scale is so valuable to the guitar player because if you use it right, it's all you'll ever need to play even the most complex ideas on the guitar. After you get comfortable with all the positions, you'll want to start being to identify the notes by scale degree. From there, it's a short leap to being able to add the notes that complete the entire major scale and not too much further to begin understanding how modes really work. At the end of the day, five pentatonic scale patterns can get you everywhere if you're open to a little music theory. A critical mistake that most beginner lead guitar players make is that as soon as they go from playing rhythm guitar on a song to taking a guitar solo, they change their entire rhythmic... To begin practicing this technique, start by strumming all six strings on a 16th note strum count, and then pare it down to one string.

From there, move up and down the string and make up phrases. Switch strings when ready, and then work through a scale pattern. While you do have to be more accurate when you switch to new notes, especially if they are on different strings, strumming your phrases rhythmically will immediately improve your soloing by giving a backbone... In a real-world situation with a real song, use the way you would strum the song as the rhythmic foundation for the guitar licks in your solo. The great thing about connecting your rhythm and your lead playing is that it's the gateway toward being able to play by yourself and go back and forth between playing guitar solos and strumming... Ideally, guitar licks work like a story: they have a starting point, a middle section and an end.

The starting point can really be any note in the scale you want, and the middle section could be any collection of notes you want. But the best place to end is on the root note of the scale you're working in. Now, you don't have to finish every single line on the root, but it's the one place that will give you a 100%, full sense of completion, so it's good to use it when... As you string together licks — also known colloquially as lines — another thing you'll want to consider is that due to the guitar's wide range in sound, it's best to use the notes... For the most part, you'll want to center your licks around the notes on the D and G strings. These are your bread and butter notes.

When you really want something to stand out, use the notes on the B and E strings. These notes are best played mostly as double stops, which give your licks a little more weight. The notes on the low strings, E and A, are best used to transition to and from a chord. They'll sound too muddy to stay there for too long. Using double stops will also give more structure to your licks. A double stop is any two notes played together as a chord shape.

7 Guitar Solo Tips That Will Actually Make You Sound Like You

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Villain #1 - Scale Patterns My Solos Sound Like Running