Improvising Guitar Solos For Beginners - The Ultimate Guide

Welcome to the ultimate beginner’s guide to improvising guitar solos. In this video, we’ll be using the songs “Slow Dancing in a Burning Room” and “Gravity” by John Mayer to learn how to come up with amazing solos on the fly! In Section 1, we’ll kick things off by learning my 5-step system for improvising by using the major scale and chord tones. Once you’ve mastered that, we’ll move on to Section 2, expanding our coverage of the fretboard by combining the major scale with the pentatonic scale. At this point, we’ll also cover a few important soloing techniques like bending, vibrato, double-stops and slides. We’ll wrap things up with Section 3, where we’ll learn how to play guitar solos in any key by moving our shapes up and down the fretboard.

If you have any questions, please leave them in the comments below the video. Thanks for watching!

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Chapters:
0:00 - Intro
1:02 - Section 1 - The Basics
1:05 - Music theory crash course
2:17 - My 5-step system for improvising solos
2:26 - Step 1 - The major scale shape
3:08 - Step 2 - Play the scale over the song (Slow Dancing)
4:51 - Step 3 - Chord tones (Hitting the root notes)
7:11 - Step 4 - Random notes between chord tones
8:45 - Step 5 - Complete freedom
9:23 - Checkpoint 1
9:53 - Section 2 - Expanding Our Tools
10:06 - The minor pentatonic scale
10:49 - Relative major & minor keys
11:34 - The difference between the pentatonic scale & major scale
12:32 - Combing the two scales
13:42 - Adding the remaining notes
14:07 - The complete expanded E major scale shape
14:43 - Finding the chord tones in the new shape
15:21 - Essential guitar solo techniques
15:53 - How to slide on guitar
16:42 - How to bend on guitar
17:38 - How to use vibrato on guitar
18:14 - How to use double-stops on guitar
18:53 - The final test of Section 2
20:04 - A note about the other chord tones
20:58 - Checkpoint 2
21:16 - Section 3 - More Songs & Different Keys
21:33 - How to improvise solos in different keys
23:24 - How to find the key of a song
24:08 - Soloing over Gravity by John Mayer
28:06 - Modulating into a different key (G major to Bb major)
30:23 - Dealing with other modulations
30:45 - Where do you go from here?
31:25 - Closing thoughts
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Music Credits:
Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License

#guitarsolo #guitarlesson #improvisation #musictheory #guitarscales

[DavidLeeKing]

Dang - wish I had watched this YEARS ago! Still learning, and still helpful. Thanks!

[Dorina_Plays_Guitar]

I am so happy that this dude's channel exists.

[damianoneil]

Something clicked while I was watching these beginner improvisation videos. Thank you

[piticooki]

just wanted to say that you are the best guitar teacher on youtube. You're videos are REALLY clear and well constructed. You're video on fiding any song by ear really open my mind on the relationship beetween minor and major. You're the best keep it up

[roflores]

This is the best video for beginner soloing I have found, and I have watched hundreds, big thanks!

[nissisajan]

So glad I found this video ❤.. im just two years through my guitar journey ... It's really beginner freindly and works wonders..
Thank you so muchh!! 🤗

[gdiddy]

Just found your channel, Andrew! Your step-by-step approach is perfect for us "late beginners". Keep up the good work ... looking forward to exploring more.

[johnmacmillan]

This is an absolute gem of a lesson. Using the diatonic scale adds so much colour to solos.
Thanks, Andrew. Good job

[ddsung]

Thank you, Andrew! By far the very best lesson I’ve watched on improvising guitar solos. You have an incredible way of teaching and explaining in a clear, straightforward way. I’ve learned so much from your channel!

[josephkuser]

Dude your instructions are so good. Glad i found your channel. Thanks!

[stanolivo]

Your channel is by far the best I've come across. Thank you sincerely.

[DG-mvzw]

Been playing guitar for decades and ashemed to say I've avoided trying to learn lead - mainly because ive been intimidated by the fretboard and music theory - even though i have a lot of chords in my arsenal. Ive watched a lot of lead guitar tutorials but i find the tutor assumes I'm at a higher level than i actually am. This tutorial is probably the only one I've found that truly goes back to first principles. They say that "Teaching is more than telling and learning is more than listening." So thanks for this resource, Amdrew. You've made the process accessable, understandable, doable and enjoyable. And people always invest time in what they enjoy. I can think of no bigger compliment, mate. Thanks again.

[DeathByMagikarp]

Hey Andrew, found your channel through an older video "Improvising Guitar Solos For Complete Beginners" on the GuitarReo channel.

Just wanted to say that your videos, advice and teachings have been so incredibly helpful to a beginner guitar player like myself. Thank you so much for the videos that you do and I will be continually watching them as I progress in this wonderful guitar journey!

Cheers from Singapore!

[nickamodeo]

Andrew, thanks so much for clearing up the misconception about not having to change scales with chord changes. I was confused about that for a long time. Love your videos, thanks so much for making them! They are really helping me to improve and further enjoy making music.

[yasharhp]

Man you just changed my life in 2months, I’ve learned so much from you. Thank you so much.
I’m happy i found your channel ❤

[apodaca]

So excited to try this! Thank you for the amazing lesson and inspiration 😎

[kkmok]

Love the clarity and simplicity of your teaching to make dummies like me understand. Thank you!

[derekhealey]

I’m relative new at Guitar and I’ve been playing that shape for a while without actually knowing what I was playing, it just sounded ok but the way you explain everything is just amazing, your method of explaining everything is fantastic, thank you 🎸.

[ashleyalejo]

I played guitar for many years not understanding the important of scales and chords this one is very helpful thank you

[okiweluanthony]

I love you brother ❤thank you for this! I am Tony from Nigeria.