How to Plan Your Solos and Sound Your Best

I recently watched an insane documentary called “Free Solo.”

No, it’s not about saxophonist Ornette Coleman playing free jazz.

It’s about this crazy guy, Alex Honnold, and his attempt to climb the 3,200-foot El Capitan in Yosemite National Park without a rope.

Besides having to constantly wipe the sweat from my palms while watching this death wish, I enjoyed the film very much.

And it got me thinking about soloing in a music context (no surprise there).

You see, Alex Honnold is a professional rock climber. And by professional, I don’t just mean he makes a living doing it.

He’s a professional in the sense that he’s not just grabbing onto the rock face and “winging it.”

Every single hand and foot placement is planned. He knows the exact route he’s going to take all the way up from base to summit. Why? Because being as prepared as possible is a matter of life and death.

Now, when soloing in music, there’s more potential variation and spontaneity involved than in climbing. It’s improvisation after all.

But that doesn’t mean a high level of preparedness isn’t needed.

For instance, knowing the chord progression like the back of your hand and in multiple keys would be extremely helpful in making sure you’re able to solo at your very best.

Knowing the chord tones and scales for each of the chords is also a huge advantage.

The list of things to have “down cold” in advance goes on, but here’s the big takeaway:

Just because we’re playing by ear doesn’t mean we’re winging it.

So, prepare accordingly – like you’re soloing without a rope.

And once you have those chords and chord tones at your fingertips without having to think twice, try improvising a solo only using chord tones – just root, third, fifth, and seventh for each chord.

Sidenote: When I started soloing like this way back when, I sounded TERRIBLE. So, if that’s you, too, don’t worry – there’s hope!

Check out my new chord tone etude collection, Chord Tone Magic, to see how it’s done, and you’ll learn that yes, it is possible to improvise chord tone solos that actually sound musical and not like some corny exercise!

See for yourself:

https://go.jeffschneidermusic.com/chord-tone-magic

Happy Shedding!

Jeff