• RT6a1 • Pan solos

Demonstration

TODO

Procedure

You should find this exercise a lot of fun.

No metronome for this one. This is all about learning how different notes sound in different contexts.

Either record your own strumming or use an app like iRealPro to create three super simple backing tracks. Each one should be a continuous loop with just one chord:

1. Am
2. AMaj
3. A7

A simple one-strum-per-beat recording suffices, but you can use any rhythm or style you like. If you know more than one voicing for Am, use any or all of them. (Different voicings are fine, but only record one chord in each backing track.)

For each backing track:

1. Play the root note A from the frying pan shape slowly over the chord.

• First just play A by itself, with different rhythms and dynamics.
• Next, play each of the other notes in the frying pan, coming back to A each time. In other words, slowly play A, C, A, D, A, E, A, G, A.
• Try different rhythms and articulation. Really listen to how the A sounds, and how it feels like home each time you come back to it.
• Try bending from the G to the A (or releasing from a pre-bent A down to the G) instead of just fretting the notes.

2. Next, continue returning to A periodically, but start emphasizing each of the other notes in turn a bit more.

• Stay on them longer.
• Play with dynamics: softer/louder/slapped/plucked/muted.
• Try a bit of vibrato.
• Play with articulations: hammer-ons, pull-offs, slides and bends bends from other notes in the the frying pan shape.
• Try articulations from a fret below or a fret above.
• Start playing with multi-note phrases. Develop your own licks.

Once you know what you are doing, you can literally force any note to sound good over any chord, but for now we are just trying to get our brains to associate the obvious sweet notes over each chord.

After a while it should become obvious that the root note, A, always sounds “best” (or at least “most resolved”).

Each phrase you end on A sounds … complete, back home, content. You should find your fingers wanting to end up on that root A. Tension and release is the essence of soloing: every note you play other than the root creates a bit of tension (some moreso than others). Every time you come back home you release that tension.

The remaining four notes should feel quite different, and the feeling changes depending on the backing chord. Pay particular attention to the note C: over Am it should sound harmonious, but over AMaj or A7 it should create some dissonance. This is because it’s clashing with the C♯ in the backing chord.

For me, I felt for the first time that I was actually soloing when I attempted this exercise. This is because I was playing with intent, actually targeting sounds I could hear in my head, before I played them.

It’s incredibly satisfying when you finally break through from mindless noodling to actually creating lines and musical expressions or phrases.

Take your time with this exercise. Really explore every sound you can make with just those five notes. I guarantee that no matter how far you take it, any one of your guitar heros can get still more out of just those five notes.

Pass criteria

You can never really “master” this exercise. Try to stick with it for at least an hour or more, but come back to it periodically as you gain more experience.

Extra credit

Try adding “outside” notes to your phrases. Use notes that aren’t in the frying pan shape. We did this a bit already when sliding from one fret above and below a target note, but see if you can create cool phrases where you hang on an “outside” note for a while. It’s okay to color outside the lines sometimes. Really.