Are your guitar solos written impulsively, or with much procrastination?

I think its safe to say that for every guitarist, we try our best to be "an accomplished solist." I'm not talking about just playing a few fast ditties here and there, I'm talking about capturing the same intensity on our own, to feel inspired from our own work just as we do when listen to our favorites. To get to that point, it takes alot of time and knowledge. But what I'm getting at is, when are you at your best, and how do you write your best guitar solos? Is it a rather impulsive process, or does it take alot of time, piece by piece.

Personally, I don't feel that every song calls for a solo, I know that alot of us feel that the song is unfinished without one, but perhaps the reason it has taken us so long to come up with something is because we are trying to go against the workings of time, (to go against our original plan.) Lately, most of my best solos have been written in the moment, and before I have the time to be too critical, I tend to put them away until my mind is at ease. Its great when we actually have the opportunity to take our time when writing a solo, but half the time we put so much pressure into the writing process that we change our original idea for the song, and thats not always a good thing. I think that its best to go with our instincts when writing a solo, (because all that really matters is what we think, its never shoul be a competition.)

-Joseph

In a short answer..........I agree! hehe

Well...

The solo depends on the song (how wise :D).


As u said it is not necessary to play an extremely fast solo - a great guitarist (kinda like jeff beck) and good friend of mine, who´s solos r the best i´ve ever heard, once said to me:
"I only play fast when i´m running out of ideas!"

Not every technical brilliant player is a brilliant musician too. A good solo depends on how the player and the solo interacts with the song - there r songs that only need a few, well-placed tunes. It is very important to develop your own style, sound and identity - there r enough "clones" running around allready :)

C ya!

-=[Azrael]=-

My solos are well procrastinated and thought upon before they are actually written. I try to come up with stuff off the top of my head, and sometimes it works. But most of the time I sit down and write everything out plan it, think about it, and do it. But if I'm jamming with someone else on a blues type song, I can come up with stuff off the top of my head. But it's rock songs that give me a hard time. Know what I mean?

*I'll be working on a lead and I'll play a riff that will stand out (As in what I think goes well with THAT song) and then I will work on developing "intro" and "exit" licks around that riff, so that the lead builds and drops (as good production skills dictate) into a nice flowing lead that shows emotion and thought....THEN, I play it back about 10 million times over about a 2 week period and then try a few variations of the whole lead.....I'll usually get about 3 leads that are similar, but have a different "flavor"......USUALLY, one will stand out above the others and thatz the one that gets burned..... :D

Originally posted by LEEtheV
THEN, I play it back about 10 million times :D

When it comes to solos, I used to sit back and totally analyze the process (which is needed to a certain extent), because believe me I'm very much a perfectionist. But Ive noticed when I don't think about it much and just naturally play with the tape recorder running, thats where my best material comes. Because once you take off just enough pressure, and just let the song be whatever its going to be, thats when the real magic comes through your speakers...

-Joseph