Adding feel to your soloing
Back in day 1, Melanie and Sam talked about feeling or feel as one of the major factors required to become a convincing neo-soul guitarist.
Developing your feel is tough because it's inherently subjective.
Three key factors to neo-soul feel
- Articulation: This involves how you choose to play a melody or chord progression. Extended techniques like slides, shakes, and vibrato come into play here.
- Saying something meaningful: Neo-soul guitar isn’t about showing off your chops. It’s about making your ideas crystal clear for everyone to enjoy. Catchy melodies and infectious rhythmic ideas will do you wonders.
- How does it sound?: Neo-soul guitarists often play with a smooth, silky, and warm tone. When playing chords and melodic ideas think about the tone that you’re getting from your guitar. Try using the neck pickup or roll down the tone knob for extra warmth!
As you go through each exercise today, ask yourself if you’ve added all three devices for maximum feeling.
Some new additions...
In these upcoming exercises, you’re going to see the addition of two new features.
- Adding the 4th degree of the scale to your major pentatonic scale
- Shakes and double shakes as new techniques that Sam will take you through.
E major pentatonic, plus the 4th in the upper octave
Exercise 1. Slide up
Adding the 4th to the scale along with a slide will take your sound to the next level.
Sam’s top tip: Adding a slight bit of vibrato can make a world of difference to ending or starting a phrase.
Exercise 2. Shakes
These shakes aren’t chocolate or strawberry, they’re neo-soul flavor! Check them out.
Exercise 3. Double shake
We’ve ordered two shakes to go.
Sam’s top tip: Using a lighter touch on your left hand will make it far easier for you to perform quick movements across the fretboard.
Jam
Awesome playing, you’re killing it so far!
You’ve really put the ‘soul’ in neo soul today. Nice work! See you in Day 7 for your final lesson.
