Soloing on Recordings - A Different Approach

As some of you know, I’ve been in the studio for the past six months recording two separate projects, backstage at the resurrection (www.jamesleestanley.com/backstage.html) and a duet recording with Cliff Eberhardt called All Wood and Doors.  This project is the second installment of the All Wood and… series, the first being All Wood and Stones (www.allwoodandstones.com) with my pal, John Batdorf (www.johnbatdorfmusic.com).  

We had two songs left that didn’t have guitar solos on them and Robby Krieger (www.robbykrieger.com) of the Doors, had blown us away by offering to play some guitar on those two tunes.

We have also been lucky enough to have John Densmore (www.johndensmore.com) play some drums on the CD and Paul Barrere of Little Feat (www.littlefeat.com) and Laurence Juber of Wings (www.laurencejuber.com) play guitar solos on the CD.  And hopefully my pal, Peter Tork, will play something for us, (www.petertork.com), but the remaining solos were done by either Cliff or me.

Cliff is a great guitar player and has played lead for many folks through the years, while I have been almost exclusively a solo performer, so I never had the chance to develop a solo guitar sense like he or these other fellows have.

So during the last solo I contributed to the CD, I was sort of stumped.    Nothing that I played had anything in it that thrilled me and as far as I’m concerned, if the solo doesn’t thrill you and have the feeling of architecture, destination and arrival, there’s no point in it being there.

So I sat there trying to come up with something and failing miserably, when I remember what I had written here about only writing as well as you play and that writing without an instrument can be very freeing.

I put the guitar down, ran the track from the solo spot and then when the solo section arrived, I simply sang the solo that I wished were there.   I didn’t have to worry about whether I had the chops or not, as you can sing anything in your head if you have nurtured your musical gift (and we all have it, believe me), only limited by your vocal range.

Well I sang a solo that I loved and then I picked up the guitar and learned it.  It sounded great and like nothing I’d ever played as a lead before.

So that’s my suggestion today.   When you have to do a solo, make one up with your voice and then learn it.   It’s very fun and very different than if you just play it.  

If you just play it, then you are limited to the way you play the guitar.  Try this sometime, you’ll like it.

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