Your First Solo

A great guitar solo can seem like it came from another world. While those solos make lead playing seem like terrain only the masters can tread, once you learn the lay of the land and pick up the proper tools—the minor-pentatonic scale and a simple chord progression—you, too, will be ready to make the traverse.

Start with an Easy Scale
With fewer notes than an eight-note major or minor scale (pentatonic literally means five notes), the pentatonic is easy to play—you only fret two notes per string—and the notes fit with many chord progressions.

Each finger is assigned to cover a fret, regardless of which string you’re playing. The index finger will play notes on the fifth fret, the middle finger plays notes on the sixth fret, the ring finger covers the seventh fret, and the pinky gets the eighth fret. Easy so far, right? Play through the scale a few times (Example 1) to help you start off on the right foot.

Using a Basic Chord Progression
When you’re making a solo, you’re not completely alone. The chord progression provides a foundation to both launch from and connect with. Some of the most common chord progressions in popular music use the I, IV, and V chords, which start on the first, fourth, and fifth notes, respectively, of an octave scale. So for the key of A, the main chords are A (I), D (IV), and E (V).

Played together, in any order, these three chords don’t have much tension or dissonance. Since the minor-pentatonic scale doesn’t have much tension, either, progressions using the I, IV, and V chords will give us a good solid ground upon which to solo
Played together, in any order, these three chords don’t have much tension or dissonance. Since the minor-pentatonic scale doesn’t have much tension, either, progressions using the I, IV, and V chords will give us a good solid ground upon which to solo.