For this week’s solo, I decided to go with No Rain by Blind Melon.
I was a kid when this song came out, and I remember thinking how cool the solo sounded. Funny enough, I’d never actually sat down and learned it all the way through until this week.
I started by counting out the bars and figuring out the underlying chords.
The harmony moves from E to D, giving the solo a Mixolydian feel. The way I thought about it was as the A major scale, but with E functioning as the tonal center.
It starts off with a repeat of the intro theme, with a slight variation. Then it moves into the signature triplet run.
As simple as the notes are in this section, it was quite a challenge for me to play them cleanly, at tempo, and in time.
I started slowly to get the pattern under my fingers, then gradually increased the speed. I focused on keeping every note clean and articulate.
Pros Play Cleanly
Playing cleanly is something I’ve really been working on this year. It’s something I heard Nashville session guitarist Tom Bukovac talk about in his guitar course.
His point was that a professional guitarist needs to play even simple parts as cleanly as possible. No string buzz, proper placement of the finger in relation to the fret, and each note ringing out for the proper duration.
Then the solo moves into the sliding triplet run, which I have always loved the sound of.
Running a scale up and down one string is great practice for learning how to move around the neck and shift positions cleanly.
Again, the triplet feel and slides at full tempo took some work to play cleanly.
The solo finishes up with some minor pentatonic runs in B minor, which I was not expecting.
But after playing with it for a while, I realized how good it sounds over an E Mixolydian progression.
I actually created a loop of the chords using my Ditto Lopper and did a few improvisation sessions using only B minor pentatonic to see how far I could take the idea.
I’ll definitely be stealing that in the future for any jam that has a Mixolydian feel.
The last couple bars also have a really cool pentatonic run that I’d never played before, but fell naturally under my fingers.
I’ll be stealing that pattern too.
The solo ends on E, the tonal center, which neatly brings the listener out of the B minor pentatonic sound and back home to E Mixolydian. Target the chord tones and you can’t go wrong.
The bass line during the solo adds quite a bit of interest, and learning it for the backing track was fun.
It keeps the solo moving forward, even though the harmony only uses two chords.
Stay Smooth
With the backing track created, I worked the triplet sections over and over until they started to feel natural under my fingers.
Muscle memory plays a big role in lines that move this quickly.
Keep it smooth. Keep it loose.
No unnecessary tension in the arms, wrist, or neck. Use a light touch on the fretboard. Press down only hard enough to get the note to ring clearly.
That is a challenge for me.
I have always pressed really hard on the frets, and a couple years ago a guitar instructor pointed out that I was gripping the fretboard much harder than I needed to.
That creates unnecessary strain and fatigue in my fretting hand. It also limits how quickly I can move around the neck.
Since then, I’ve been focusing on pressing down as lightly has possible.
I think that habit may be one of that things that held me back from playing quick runs like the ones in this solo.
Want to play along?
Get the backing track I used for this week’s solo, plus the next solo and practice notes each week.
What I Learned This Week
- Keep it loose. To play the quick triplet runs cleanly, I need to keep my picking hand relaxed while using a light touch with my fretting hand.
- An unexpected pentatonic can open new sounds. The B minor pentatonic run at the end surprised me, but it works really over the E Mixolydian harmony. I’ll be using that idea in future improvisation sessions.
- Repeating triplets can create momentum. A repeating triplet section can be a great way to add energy to a solo without just filling space with random notes. I’ll be taking the patterns I learned from this solo and moving them up and down the neck during my practice sessions.
Two solos down, 50 more to go.
See you next week!
