Guitar Lesson: Solo Phrasing

By: Rob Barnes

Phrasing is probably the most important thing to understand when it comes to guitar soloing. Without it, your music will probably just sound like a complete mess of notes.

You may have heard people talk about guitarists before, saying how they have great ‘phrasing’.

…but what on earth are they on about?!

Well, it’s definitely not magic…or some secret handed down through generations of guitarists, part of a secret society with plans to rule the world…

Nope.

In fact, you probably understand phrases by another name: licks. A lick is a type of phrase, which is just a group of notes. All melodies are just made from smaller groups of notes. It’s how you organise these notes that makes the difference.

For example, look at the tune below. Can you see how it is made up of smaller ‘phrases’ that come together to make one thing?

Here is another example, taken from a guitar solo. See how the guitarist is separating the notes into smaller chunks? This helps the solo make a bit more sense.

A long, continuous stream of notes doesn’t always make the best solo…

HOW TO CREATE PHRASES

If you think of your guitar solo as having something to ‘say’ in a song, this might make some more sense.

I mean, which is better:

• A long continuous stream of words that just keep going and don’t stop so that you hardly have time to understand the words before the person has moved on to the next topic about flowers or something and you’re still just trying to figure out what’s going on and probably by now getting a bit bored…
• Or, something broken down into shorter sections. This is probably much easier to read, and flows better. This is how your solos should be.

I’m not saying that long words, or long sentences (i.e. long streams of notes) are always bad. Just make sure it’s not all you do in a solo!

So, how do you start to create phrases?

Well, my favourite technique is inspired by the example I gave above. If you can group words into smaller phrases, why not use the rhythms of those words to make some musical phrases?

For example, lets take the question “What is a phrase?” Say that out loud. Now, try to tap out the rhythm of those words. You might get something like this:

Next, grab your favourite scale, note, or chord section and play it to this rhythm. You have just made your own ‘phrase’.

Now, there are some things that you might need to adjust. You’ll probably want to end your phrase on a note that fits the backing track- and please don’t just play up and down the scale!

I think you can be more creative than that…

…although if you’re stuck for ideas, read on!

One of the great things about music theory is: once you’ ve learnt a rule, you can start learning how to break it. To be honest, the ‘rules’ of music aren’t really ‘rules’ at all. They are more like guidlines or ‘best practises’ to follow when making music.

So, now that you know what a phrase is, how are some ways we can make them more interesting?

CALL AND RESPONSE

Let’s take that question from earlier ‘What is a phrase?’. Take the rhythm from that, and use notes from the A minor pentatonic scale. You might then get a lick like this:

Questions usually need answers, right? So we can do the same with the ‘answer phrase’. Now we have the rhythms for ‘What is a phrase?’, ‘You just played one!’.

That would now give us a group of two phrases. Something like this:

This type of phrases are called the ‘question and anwer’, or ‘call and response’. The first part sets up the second part to ‘answer’ it. It’s a very popular way to make up tunes in many different types of music, and is especially used in the blues.

EMPHASIZING DIFFERENT NOTES

Another way to take your basic licks- or ‘groups of notes’- and give them a bit more, is to put the emphasis on different notes in the lick.

So, for example, the question that we were using- ‘What is a phrase?’- can be said in a few different ways:

• WHAT is a phrase?
• What IS a phrase?
• What is a PHRASE?

In music, there are a few different ways to get a similar effect. Probably the easiest way to get started is to slightly lengthen the note you’re emphasizing.

For example, here is the same thing with our example lick:

This is just one method, and there are many more.

For example, if you’re playing a clean guitar, try making some notes louder. This won’t work so well if you’re using distortion, however…

Just use your imagination- thinking of things like: Speed, volume, pick attack…

…how about playing the same thing on a different part of the neck, or in a different octave?

You could even use a wah pedal and rock it to bring out some notes in the lick! Use your imagination.

DIFFERENT PARTS OF THE BAR

One of my favourite ways to take the same lick, and play it differently, is to move it over different beats.

I probably should explain that one! It sounds pretty technical, but it really isn’t. You’ve probably heard guitarists do it countless times in a solo.

For example, take this short lick:

It doesn’t sound like much on it’s own, but look what happens when we repeat it:

This means that the first time you play it, you’re starting on the beat. Then, when you play it again, you’re starting it on the offbeat (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beat_%28music%29#On-beat_and_off-beat). Then you’re on the beat again.

This creates a bit more energy and tension in the lick. It’s used a lot in blues and rock solos to keep the excitement up.

This kind of thing doesn’t only have to be used with repeating licks. You can also just start a lick on the beat, or off it to create slightly different sounds.

ODD NOTE GROUPINGS

If you really want something a bit special, try using some weirder rhythms. Usually, there are an even number of notes in a beat.

So, you’ll hear something like this:

…or this:

What we’re talking about here is using an odd number, instead. Threes are fairly common, and they’re known as ‘triplets’. You can work out the rhythm of these by saying ‘tri-pe-let’ to each beat.

Here is our example lick with a triplet rhythm:

If you’re feeling really adventurous, you can try 5, 7 or 9 note groupings (although be prepared to get confused, confuse others and/or sound weird…).

FOLLOWING RHYTHMS IN THE BACKING TRACK/BAND

This last tip is something that really isn’t done enough in guitar solos: actually following the track.

I’m not talking about being in the same key, or using the correct scale. What I’m talking about is different. Anyway, I’m going to assume you know which scale to use.

I’m talking more rhythmically, here. Is there a part being played by the rest of the band that you could follow? An interesting snare rhythm, bassline, or guitar riff?

Obviously, this is only going to help if there is something that stands out. It also might seem a bit strange that a ‘lead’ guitarist should be following another musician. However, interacting with the backing track like this will really connect your solo to the rest of the band, and the song.

This technique also allows you to ‘steal’ ideas from the rest of the band. So, you’ll be doing more, with less!

I hope this has inspired you to come up with some of your own ideas. In case you missed it, my name is Rob and if you liked this article, you might also like my website HERE – turn up and rock out!