FM3 Need advice on lead playing for my song.

vejichan

Inspired
Need help working on playing a nice melodic line / motif over one of my songs that i made. But have no clue about theory or what to play. Need coaching and advice how to improve and which notes are incorrect. As well as how to fix it. The lead here is just improv and messing around. Please advise. Thanks
Listen to Paradise Is Lost RD15 by David Cho 2 on #SoundCloud
https://soundcloud.app.goo.gl/YRU3Z
 
That’s a massive topic that can’t really be learned real quick just to finish up your song. I consider it more of a life long labor of love.
My humble suggestion if you just need to get this done is just pay someone to compose a lead for you, or have a contest or something

btw the song rocks, nice job

and if you want to learn there are countless YouTube lessons you can watch to learn which scales will go with your progressions. the big picture for me is how to not use the scales incorrectly. my metaphor is it’s like building a sandwich. The chord tones (1,3,5) are the bread, meat, n cheese, the other diatonic scale tones are your mayo, mustard, n veggies. The rest of the notes that don’t belong in the scale are like jalapeños. can taste good at times. Use your ear as if it sounds good in the end that is most important.
 
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"Which notes are incorrect"? Does it sound good to your ears?
First, lemme say I like the song. I mean, really. Had my foot tapping and head bobbing right away.

As for leads, you do the same thing countless players before you have done: Take those 2 John Petrucci albums, the Metallica album, and the other 2 you say are all you listen to, and learn some of the licks from those solos.

If you wanna understand theory, then start learning about it. Take lessons if it's that important to you. But plenty of great guitarist write killer solos, without knowing theory. They use their ears. But it doesn't hurt to check out guitar magazines, and read the articles that dissect tasty licks, and why they sound good over the chords underneath.

Then, you start incorporating licks from guitarists you like, and the stuff you learn from other sources, and begin putting it all together into your own solos.

I'm sure you've heard something Petrucci has done in a solo, that just grabbed you. Pull up the tab, and learn it, and rip it off! Do enough of that, from enough different players and sources, and change it around to make it different, or easier to play, mix it up, and spit it back out in your own way. If you mix up enough diverse sources, you should end up with solos that start to sound like YOU.

Good luck.

Also- This is a lifelong journey. Never stop crafting your style. Just look at what Paul Gilbert is doing these days.
 
Thanks for all those advise. Yea struggling with writing catchy and melodic lead lines... i think i need to take a break and come back to it. But what i have hear , open to advise and suggestions.
 
btw my issue with theory is i don't know how to apply them in music. I might have learned the patterns and scales back in the day but never used or know how to apply them in my music. If anybody can offer some guidance on this would be appreciated.
 
Don't have time at this moment to play your song, but since you specifically mentioned "melodic", the key there is to target chord tones.

In other words, try to focus on playing notes that are part of the chords as you are playing over them.

Also key is phrasing. If you can write riffs you can already do this... Just apply it to your solos.
 
What about creating melodies with your vocals? Have you tried that? You don't have to be an A class singer, you could just hum or even whistle. If you're able to create a melody that way then the next step would be to pick up the guitar and transfer the melody to the strings.

Yup. Some of the best solos are both hummable and built off of the foundation of the vocal melody.

If you can't hum it, no one will remember it. :)
 
As a player with no theory too, and playing guitar for 46 years, your ear.from what I'm hearing you play doesn't sound like you have a problem. you have a good rhythm, ,have lead, harmony.;)
 
I would use EZ Keys for practicing licks and phrasing.A really handy tool.Figure out the key of the song, set the Key and BPM inside EZ Keys and drag any midi of choice, keep it in loop and then start pouring down my licks/techniques.The advantage of using EZ Keys is that you only have to know the Key of the song.The Chord Progression/Theory it can figure it out on its own.It won't teach you theoretical stuff but will let you know the type of chord progressions you can create with a Key.
 
It's also about how the melody/solo fits the rest of the song arrangement. If an arrangement is very busy and full of instrument parts, which your tune is, then you should consider a less busy melody.

Cheers,

Mats N
 
Damn dude, that's pretty fuckin awesome. I see from SoundCloud you've been writing and posting songs for years. From the sound of how powerful this mix is, to my ears anyway, it seems you know your way around recording.
It seems this song is not one meant for vocals, so other than a few places where it sounds a little "busy" (some drum beats seem to not fit with the music at times), I'd have to say you're there. Props!
 
Song rocks. You are doing great. Learn some arpeggios and play the right arpeggios over the chord it comes from...
 
Damn dude, that's pretty fuckin awesome. I see from SoundCloud you've been writing and posting songs for years. From the sound of how powerful this mix is, to my ears anyway, it seems you know your way around recording.
It seems this song is not one meant for vocals, so other than a few places where it sounds a little "busy" (some drum beats seem to not fit with the music at times), I'd have to say you're there. Props!

thanks, on and off most of my earlier projects were incomplete 30-40 sec riffs ideas but never progressed till last year during lockdown when i could invest more time and learned how to record and write songs.
Btw which time stamp in this new song would you say the drum didnt fit.. i'll swap them. I'm not a drummer and would need some advice.
thanks

 
Something that works for me is to put my guitar down and just sing something over the backing track. Sometimes I even write stupid lyrics for it. I will then try and duplicate it with my guitar. Keep playing it until it feels natural and then starts to embellish.
 
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