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There are several approaches you can take when it comes to using chords in your acoustic guitar solos. You can use them a lot, even creating a full blown chord solo, or you can use them sparingly, but extremely effectively, sprinkled amongst your single note lines.
If your soloing sounds dull, boring, and lifeless, then there is a very big chance that it lacks tension and release. Tension and release is one of the main ingredients that makes music work. Using chords in your acoustic soloing can bring a lot of tension and release to your playing, and in turn, have your solos sounding drastically better than they ever have before.
A big frustration for me in my early years of playing guitar was that I sounded good soloing on the electric, but pretty much sucked at it when it came to the acoustic. This went on for some time. No matter how much I tried, nothing seemed to work. To be honest, I wasnt really trying too much. I would play a lot, but when it came to soloing on the acoustic I was taking the same old approaches time and time again.
Fragmented Chords
Eventually I realised I had to stop running around in circles and learn some tools and techniques that would make my acoustic guitar solos sound great. One such tool I came across were chords. This is not obvious to most guitar players because chords are generally only thought of in a rhythm sense. However chords will also sound great in your soloing, adding some really nice contrast and texture to the single note lines you play.
Your soloing on the acoustic will take on a new life with just this one element, when used well, leading to you feeling so much more confident when its time to rip out a solo on the old acoustic.
Its important to note that we are not talking about full chord shapes like the ones you use in the progressions of the songs you play such as bar chords and open chords. At least not in their usual form. These would be much too big and awkward to use in your solos. What we are talking about here are chord fragments.
When you take a larger chord form, such as a bar chord, and break it up into smaller pieces, these are known as fragments of that chord. You basically end up with several smaller chord shapes to work with instead of one large one. A great way to think about and organise these fragments, so that they are under your fingers anytime you wish to use them, is to view the larger chord as the parent and the smaller fragments you break that chord into as the children. All youll need to know is which children belong to which parent. More about this shortly.
How To Give Your Soloing A Makeover Using Chord Fragments
Let me show you exactly how you can go about adding chord fragments to your solo lines, bringing new life to them.
Here is a typical 4 bar excerpt from a solo:
Single Note Acoustic Solo Excerpt
There is nothing wrong with how this sounds, however it could sound a lot better by adding some chord fragments like this:
Acoustic Chord Solo Excerpt
You will notice that the fragments used in the solo above are approached a fret above or below from where that fragment is. There is also an instance in the 4th bar where the fragment is approached chromatically (one fret at a time) from below.
The difference in the sound of the example above compared to the first should be obvious. There is a lot more depth and texture to the solo when chord fragments are used.
This is just one of the many creative ways you can use chord fragments to spice up your solo lines on the acoustic guitar. They alone will bring a whole new dimension to your acoustic guitar soloing.
Parents And Their Children (Sorting Out Your Chord Fragments)
The better you can visualise where each chord fragment is coming from, the better you will be able to apply them to your own soloing. We need to know which fragments (children) belong to which of the larger chord forms (parents).
Let me break down the example from above for you:
Chord progression used:
C Am G F
Chord fragments used:
C Major Chord Plus Fragments
A Minor Chord Plus Fragments
F Major Chord Plus Fragments
G Major Chord Plus Fragments
Above, I have matched the fragments with the larger chord forms that they are derived from. I like to think of the larger chord form as the parent and each fragment that relates to it as a child.
Knowing which fragment relates to which chord form, or which child belongs to which parent, is absolutely vital in having the ability to visualise these on your fretboard. This way you will be able to use them in your soloing, in real time, without needing to give it any thought whatsoever.
Learn how to make your guitar solos sound killer with these 5 unique, cool, and easy ways to create acoustic solos using chords.
