OK, Mr. "Music Theory" - tell me how to play a guitar solo

Can you give me something more concrete.. an example - not just the name of the theory..

or...
stay on the internet and download guitar tabs like the 20,000,000,000 other guitarists in the world

Melodies in general tend to work best when they move by stepwise motion, though. Most of them are based on major or minor scales; I'd practice playing those for a few days until you can play them at a reasonable tempo before trying to create a melody (mostly to get your fingers used to moving around on the neck of the guitar and to get better acquainted with where the notes fall on each string).

I can't help much more without knowing the tuning of the guitar. I will say, though, that your melodic options are probably limited by the fact that you're only using a couple of strings and a couple of frets.

Also, ignore andy, as learning scales and music theory can point you in the direction of a particular sound you want faster than screwing around with the guitar (studying modes is particularly good for this).

Regardless of whether you decide to go for technique & theory (which is fine) or listen to andy's fuck-around advice (which is also fine - in fact, I imagine the middle ground between these two lands of opportunity is where you might wanna move), you might have to expand the width of your playing zone a tad.

Yeah, what Dan said.

The problem is, it just sounds so fucking boring... My question is really (and sorry for not being more clear) is there some kind of method - or is everyone really just playing randomly (within the pentatonic scale) and just sounding better than I?

In other words, I don't think the notes I play sound bad next to each other .. But I can't seem to decide when to play a quarter note versus a whole note versus a bunch of sixteenths - and if I play DDEGDCADG, maybe it would sound better to play DGCAGGGDE(bend)A ...

I mean, the obvious answer is, "experiment and find what sounds good." But the purpose for calling to task the music theorists is, there must be a theory/method/formula for improvising (on any instrument.)

....

and to respond to what David R & Dan said about expanding my range .. yes, maybe .. But I hear other musicians playing in a narrow range and sounding more interesting. I limit myself to a narrow range because I'm not comfortable going broader - it's just more unrelated and sounds worse ...

Pick an established guitarist or two whom you'd like to emulate -- someone maybe with less virtuosity but a knack for the kind of solos you'd like to play (or similar overall style of music). Learn to play part of a favorite solo by ear (or transcribe it if you read notation). This is for study, to see what the ingredients are; it's not about reproducing the same solo when the spotlight shines on you.

Learn to play the vocal melody for the verse. You can use that as a starting point for improv. solos. Vocal melodies break naturally into phrases, because singers have to breath. You don't literally have to "breath" with the guitar, but it will help give your solo a more effective shape if you develop a sense of phrasing.

Learn the chord structure for the verse -- what would you play if you were doing a rhythm part and a singer took the verse? You can develop melodic ideas based on chord structure -- e.g. a return to a previous chord might suggest a return to the same melodic idea (maybe an octave higher or varied in some other way).

For inspiration, burn incense or candles, or if you're really hard core set your guitar on fire and play like you mean it!

(One of these tips is a red herring.)

Imitating the vocal melody is urgent and key advice. Actually, pretty much everything Paul in Santa Cruz says is urgent and key advice (and seems to be my advice taken out of the classroom and filtered through a guitar player).

.. So if I took it underwater, I wouldn't need scuba gear? ahaha

..Thanks for the advice tho, really....

Basically, learning scales and chords isn't a bad idea, but don't be tied down by them.

I think knowing some basics is necessary - but some experimentation may lead to interesting ideas. And before Dan Perry has a stroke, I'll concede that after (or alternating with) this(these) experimentation period(s), it's useful to learn more about theory to avoid having to rediscover something that the rest of the world already knew.

Another thing: at some point, it's important
to learn some music theory, if only so you can
communicate with other musicians. I've been frustrated
in the past, playing with a decent guitarist who
doesn't even know what a bar or measure is.

Also: until you feel you can improvise a good
sounding solo, don't be afraid to play
pre-determined solos. May seem like the easy way
out, but if you do it right few can tell the
difference.

..anyway, all in good fun, sez I -- yarrrrgh.

sound advice. or three times to let 'em know you meant it. this actually works.
I'm a fan of the one wrong note solo, but you can't do it for every song

1) playing the vocal melody note for note, a la "Smells Like Teen Spirit"
2) turning on all my pedals and throwing my guitar on the floor

Remember when Limp Bizkit was going around to every Guitar Center in America and holding auditions to replace Wes Borland? That was kinda the same thing.

http://image.allmusic.com/00/amg/cov200/drc300/c363/c3639042bx6.jpg

It's kinda hard to tell from the pic, but his thumb is on the side of the fretboard--which significantly limits the distance the other four fingers can reach--and he doesn't use his fourth finger at all.

Dear Yngwie: I often get stuck inside a scale (e.g., Dorian, Lydian, Phrygian, etc.) and my fingers just go up and down that scale. So I wonder if you've got some hint about how to overcome this? Also, can you please tell me some exercise that will increase my speed? ([name deleted], Gothenburg, Sweden)

Yngwie says: "Both of these questions I get asked a lot of the time. The first one is difficult to answer, because it is really a question of creativity rather than skill. Anyone can learn the notes of the scales from a book or a teacher, but deciding what to do with them actually depends on what you hear in your head . . . your musical inspiration. I can't teach anyone how to do that. All I can say is to play with your ears open--if you don't like what you hear, try something else. About speed, I never used any specific exercises to build speed. For me, it took just playing for hours a day, becoming so familiar with the instrument that I didn't have to think about where my fingers were going next . . . and maybe that answers the first question, too!"

Wow, thanks nick. I've been trying to play this properly for ages but never noticed that. Should make it a lot easier to sing properly

LEARN THE MODES
why? cos this will show you how scales map all over (up & down) the fret board. starting from scratch, when you figure out what part of the pattern you're in you can work out anywhere else to go!
you'll also learn how intervals sound within the pentatonic framework of modes and how chromatic deviations (from the modes) can enhance melody even further

also - LEARN HARMONY
cos then you'll know how intervals sound over root notes, which is crucial to how solos sound

LEARN RHYTHM
mostly it's not about how many notes you can play but how they fall rhythmically. syncopation (Craig David's guitarist, much discussed here for the racial issue, got away with a -fab!- highly-syncopated single note riff on "What's Ya Flava") or lack thereof (on the beat).

write your own songs - there's maybe no better way to learn than to try to figure out what chord or note to go to next "to get that sound in your head". then it's your sound and when you run across it next time it will be familiar, automatic even.

record yourself playing chords or stick on someone else's song
and play along with it to work out what notes/licks you like best

even if you've done all this and added years of playing, don't expect great solos/melodies to drop in your lap every time. greats like Hendrix and Jimmy Page would often record mulitple solos for a track and pick which one they liked best (multitracking sure helped here!)

does any body know of definitive books on this sort of stuff? i guess (ugh) 'the mathematics of the fretboard'.

Best guitar and bass books I have ever come across.

A half dim chord (notated similar to above, but with a vertical line throught he degree symbol) doesn't have that double-flat note, just a regular flatted 7th. in A, it would be A - C - Eb - G.

Yeah, I guess I coulda been simpler with that.