When we think about guitar solos, we mostly think about playing ear-melting, shrieking solos on an electric guitar. Acoustic guitar solos are not that common and are definitely not the prototypical kind of guitar solo. However, soloing on an acoustic guitar is possible, and it can sound amazing with a little bit of effort.
If you want to solo with an acoustic guitar, you have to learn at least the basic scales. Once you’re familiar with them, experiment and try different things until you get something you like. Start small and add details later. Use chords and try different techniques.
To make acoustic solos follow the song, learn to target chord tones on guitar.
If you’re interested in learning how to solo with an acoustic guitar, you’ve come to the right place. This article will give you a detailed overview of the things you should do if you want to create great acoustic solos, so you’ll be shredding away in no time.
For a full map of the neck, see our pentatonic scale shapes guitar lesson.
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1. Learn the Basic Scales
Learning and practicing scales might be the least pleasurable part of learning guitar. Some might enjoy torturing themselves with this, but most of us just want to jam and have fun as soon as we pick up a guitar.
However, it’s impossible to jam out and have fun if you don’t have a great grasp of the foundations of guitar playing. If you just pick up a guitar and start playing whatever, you’re not very likely to produce anything meaningful unless you have some kind of sixth sense for music.
Therefore, you have to learn some scales if you want to write coherent solos. This isn’t only true for acoustic guitar but for any instrument on which you can solo. Once you’ve memorized the necessary scales and playing them has become second nature, you can start soloing.
Does that mean you have to learn every scale there is? Of course not. There are tons of scales, and it’s questionable if one person can even memorize all of them perfectly. There is a lot of overlap, which makes things easier, but it’s still unnecessary to put that much pressure.
Learning the most basic scales is more than enough for most people. It’s enough for beginners, without a doubt, so you can get a good start with just a few basic scales. Once you feel like you’ve done everything you could with them, you can start learning new, more complex scales and improving your knowledge.
As a beginner, you can start with pentatonic scales. If a scale is pentatonic, it means that it consists of five notes, which makes them easy to memorize and work with. For example, in the A minor scale, you’ve only got A, B, D, E, and G. Simple, memorable, and effective.
While having only five notes to work with may seem extremely limited, it’s more than enough for a start. Many well-known riffs consist of only three or four notes, which shows that you can get a lot done with very little if you apply yourself. Lots of pros rely on pentatonic scales and manage to create decent solos.
Using a limited scale will also force you to be more creative. Necessity usually breeds innovation, which is most certainly true when it comes to playing guitar. Having fewer notes at your disposal will make you play around with them more, and you might create something catchy and unique.
Besides, using more notes doesn’t mean you’ll write better solos. You might be tempted to go mad with the scales and end up creating something that is technically complex but will move no one except a few guitar nerds.
Remember, you’re trying to express yourself while entertaining your audience and making them vibe to your music. If you set that as your goal, you’ll realize that complexity is not necessarily better.
2. Create a Background for Your Solo
Every solo needs some kind of rhythmic background. You can’t just solo in silence, or else it will sound very thin, you might easily lose the rhythm, and it most likely won’t sound good without accompaniment.
The background doesn’t have to be super complicated. You can pick a scale and use three or four chords in that scale to create a simple but catchy rhythmic background over which you can lay down your solo.
Apart from giving you a canvas for your solo, it will also give you a rough idea of what to play. Having your solo revolve around certain chords puts it in context and makes it a part of a coherent musical whole. You can’t have a solo just hanging in thin air.
When you create your chord progression, you can record it. You can use a looper pedal, or if you have a microphone, you can record the progression to your computer and reproduce it that way. You can record on your mobile phone if neither option is available, although it probably won’t be as good.
If you have the time, skills, and resources, you should also program a simple drum beat to accompany your chord progression. When you mix it with the chord progression, you’ll have a more complete backing for your creative endeavors, and you will be able to focus much more on the solo.
When your backing track is ready, you can move on to creating the actual solo.
3. Start Small
When first starting out, you probably won’t be able to improvise an entire solo from start to finish and make it sound good. In fact, even seasoned guitarists take time to think out and write down their guitar solos before including them in their songs.
Instead of trying to nail everything in one try, you should start slowly and add details as you go along. Listen to your backing track a few times and try to think of some things you can play over it. Hum or whistle your ideas to see if the melody fits the rhythm.
At first, you should focus on short phrases and motifs. Focus on a few notes and the first two or three strings. Limiting your scope will make it easier to focus and think of a catchy hook or motif you can repeat throughout your songs.
Play different notes together until you think of something that sounds good. After that, try to make that combination of notes as catchy and groovy as possible. Try to think of as many different ways in which you can play it and experiment to see which one you like most.
Also, try adding some twists to the note progression. Don’t simply move from one note to the other. Use slides or hammer-ons. Bend the strings and see how far you can go without being out of key. Add some vibrato here and there and see how the melody works with that.
Simply said, you should play around as much as possible until you get something you really like. Once you create one catchy phrase, you can create another one that’s either a variation of the first one or a progression into something completely different.
Think of the ways you can connect the two phrases into a coherent whole. Don’t be afraid to repeat something if you’ve thought of a cool motif. Motifs are necessary to show that the solo is a coherent whole revolving around an idea and not just a mish-mash of unrelated hooks.
Resist the temptation to channel your inner guitar god and blow everyone away with the sheer complexity of your solo. You’ll likely end up with a riff salad that won’t excite anyone. Sure, you might have fun playing it, but if your goal is to be a live musician one day, you should not get used to doing things like this.
4. Use Chord Fragments
Using chord fragments is a technique that is particularly useful when soloing on an acoustic guitar. When playing an electric, you can rely solely on single-note passages, as you can count on the amplifier and effect pedals to make the sound louder and thicker.
You don’t have the same options when playing an acoustic guitar, and your solo might sound somewhat thin if you only play single notes, especially when playing the higher notes. Chord fragments can help you with that, as they naturally sound thicker than single notes.
Plus,