Re: Wall-to-Wall soloist
Harry Avant ( havant@earthlink.net )
Thu, 13 Feb 1997 11:07:36 -0800 (PST)
Lawson wrote:
>I think we guitarists, coming from the rock tradtion often, think of
>these really long Hendrix-like or Santana like epic solos. I felt bad
>about my soloing because I just can't sustain any kind of good solo for
>more than a chorus, if that. Recently I've just focused on learning to
>play one decent solo on every tune I know. No harm in having the
>audience and band members wish I'd played more, I suppose.
>
Not all of us came from the "rock tradtion"!
Why do so many get upset about not being able to generate long (more than a
one chorus solo)? Listen to C. Christian's work. Back then a solo might be
4 or 8 bars and he made every note count. Check VanEps with the big bands
of yesterday. Short and to the point. I think soloing is like speech, in
that if you don't have anything worthwhile to say, saying more will not add
useful content.
Lawson, if you can't play/sound like Hendrix consider it a positive thing!
Harry