Chicago, IL -- (SBWIRE) -- 05/18/2012 -- Tom Hess, international guitar teacher and member of the power metal band Rhapsody Of Fire has announced the release of a new online resource designed to help guitar players create their own guitar solos. This resource teaches the idea of guitar soloing with a combination of vocal melodies (sung by Rhapsody Of Fire vocalist Fabio Lione) and guitar playing ideas.
Hess discusses the approach of most guitarists: “It is common for guitar players to struggle with creative lead guitar playing due to a basic misunderstanding of various musical concepts. Fact is, guitar players like to show-off their guitar technique skills and look for any opportunity to do this in their solos. There is nothing wrong with this, however, the guitarist ends up focusing too much on technique and not enough on getting everything out of each note they play.”
Many guitar players search online to find lead guitar or guitar solo instructional products. Hess takes issue with the instructional methods of these products: “Nearly all guitar instructors teach lead guitar in the same way. They will essentially throw a bunch of techniques, licks, or riffs at the guitar player, and assume that the player will be able to use them in some way. This approach to teaching lead guitar is totally wrong.” He continues: “If you are a guitar player who is struggling to create great solos or nice lead melodies, the last thing you need is just a bunch of licks thrown at you. Guitarists in this situation must learn how to combine their technical skills together with a great understanding of melody.”
In Hess’s resource he discusses an alternate approach to guitar soloing: “Like most guitarists, I have improved my own lead guitar abilities by listening to my favorite guitarists and learning from them. However, I have also made massive progress in my own guitar playing by emulating the vocal style of my favorite singers. This has helped my guitar melodies immensely, and this is the approach I take when showing other guitarists how to make highly melodic guitar solos.”
He continues: “For example, think about how a regular guitar solo sounds when compared to a singer’s lines during the chorus of a song. For the singer, there is much more focus on using fewer notes to make a great melody, while the guitarist generally plays more notes (using a more technical style). That said, most guitar players’ solos (when compared to a singer’s vocal lines) lack a sense of melody. Unlike guitar players, singers must make every note count because each note they sing is a word in the song. This is the reason why it is so beneficial to learn guitar soloing with a singer. Singers are masters of melody and can teach you how to create awesome guitar solos without even knowing a single guitar technique. By learning this way, you get the best of both worlds as you start playing better melodies while still using guitar-related techniques.”
Hess’s resource about how to write a guitar solo is available on his website http://tomhess.net/HowToWriteAGuitarSolo.aspx.