How to Stop Getting Lost in Your Solos

Are you constantly getting lost while soloing?

How are you supposed to keep track of all those chords?

Where’s the beat?! Have you completely lost where “one” is?

These are very common problems many improvisers deal with at one point or another.

Unfortunately, the advice most teachers dole out is to become more familiar with the chord changes and tap your foot harder on the floor.

Those tired tips never worked for me, and they rarely work for my students.

Here’s what actually helps…

Come up with a rhythm for a two-bar phrase and repeat it over and over. Here’s an example on a blues:

Notice I didn’t include any pitches in the example above. That’s because it’s rhythm that makes all the difference when it comes to keeping your place in the form.

Truth is, you can play any pitches you want if the rhythm stays consistent – you’ll still be able to feel the form.

That said, so many of us are obsessed with playing “the right notes.” My advice is to improvise with only chord tones so that you don’t have to worry about hitting any clunkers.

You’ll also free up a bunch of mental bandwidth by not having to think about the trending #JazzScales of the day, which are usually more trouble than they’re worth.

And you can use the extra brain space for ensuring your repeated two-bar rhythms remain consistent.

Got it? Repeat your rhythms and improvise with chord tones.

If you need inspiration for either of those things, my course, Chord Tone Magic will help immensely.

Chord Tone Magic is a collection of 12 chord tone etudes over popular chord progressions like Fly Me to the Moon, Dolphin Dance, and Spain, that will help you learn the RIGHT way to improvise with chord tones for better solos no matter what instrument you play.

And not only do you get the sheet music, audio files, and backing tracks for the etudes, you’ll also gain access to over an hour of video walkthroughs, which include tips and compositional strategies for creating better chord tone solos and better solos in general.

Click here to learn more about Chord Tone Magic and start improvising high quality solos that’ll make you proud.

Happy shedding,

Jeff