Chapter IV

The Art of Solo

Guitar
Mike emphasizes the importance of developing a solid
foundation for solo guitar performance and how this foundation
will improve other significant areas of your playing.
The Art
of Solo Guitar
“The simplest thing you can
do as a musician is sit down
and play a song by yourself.”
Elite Music Mentor
Solo playing is an integral skill for jazz guitarists. Mike
notices that many students are weak in the area of solo
playing, although their group playing may be strong. Mike
believes that having a solid solo guitar foundation will
improve your ability to play in various band settings as well.
Mike acknowledges the main difficulty in laying a strong solo
guitar foundation is the fact that jazz musicians have no
written part and their “part” is solely a reflection of how they
understand and interpret the basic rhythmic and harmonic
language of Jazz. A classical musician can learn a pre-written
arrangement and perfect that, where as a jazz musician must
develop his own arranging techniques to organize an
approach melodically, harmonically and rhythmically for
every song they perform. How well you have absorbed the
music you have listened to will be a direct reflection of how
you do this.
The first step to learning to stand alone in a solo setting is
practing accurately rendering a melody with basic chords
and consistent time. Take any tune you’re interested in, and
practice playing it in time by yourself while striving to
achieve a full sound without the help of a band.
Mike believes that acquiring the skill to play solo guitar
convincingly will help you in other areas of your playing
such as technique, improvisation, and most importantly,
interaction with a band.
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The Art
of Solo Guitar

THE FUNDAMENTALS OF SOLO PLAYING

• Render a melody in harmony with accompaniment (0:10)

• Interpret jazz music in your own unique way (2:39)

• Play your solo arrangement in time (3:00)

Refer to the next section for transcriptions.

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The Fundamentals of Solo Playing - Transcriptions Part I

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The Fundamentals of Solo Playing - Transcriptions Part II

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The Fundamentals of Solo Playing - Transcriptions Part III

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The Fundamentals of Solo Playing - Transcriptions Part IV

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The Fundamentals of Solo Playing - Transcriptions Part V

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The Fundamentals of Solo Playing - Transcriptions Part VI

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The Art
of Solo Guitar

THE FUNDAMENTALS OF SOLO PLAYING

• On the following page, organize some ideas of a simple

arrangement of a tune you’ve been working on. But have
this be only a starting point. Memorizing a chord melody
arrangement gets you nowhere. The idea is to be able to be
flexible and to communicate the groove, harmonic
structure and vibe of whatever song you are playing
without memorizing a part.
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• Write down ideas of harmonizing the melody and

accompaniment between melodic phrases.

ASK YOUR MENTOR

Interact with other users on the website and ask questions!

Our mentors will answer all your questions and help you
through your musical journey. The best student will be
selected each month to recieve one free masterclass of
their choice.

Elite Music Mentor Mike Moreno 66

The Fundamentals of Solo Playing - Arrange

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The Art
of Solo Guitar

HOW TO KEEP THE FLOW

• Pracice with the metronome on 2 and 4 (6:50)

• Make the click sound like it’s part of the groove you make
(7:50)

• Once you can produce a good sound, the band will also
sound great (9:30)
• You have to be able to stand alone (10:14)

HOW TO KEEP THE FLOW

Practice performing the tune you arranged in the previous

section. Perfect the time feel you use, the articulation of the
melody and harmony, and the momentum in which you
perform the arrangement. Repeat this process for other
tunes in your repertoire.

ASK YOUR MENTOR

Interact with other users on the website and ask questions!

Our mentors will answer all your questions and help you
through your musical journey. The best student will be
selected each month to recieve one free masterclass of
their choice.
Elite Music Mentor Mike Moreno 68