I have two Travelling Wilbury's albums and George's guitar is etherial.

This is Noel. Reverb's at maximum an' I'm givin' 'er all she's got.

elreydlp wrote:

Noel wrote:

I have two Travelling Wilbury's albums and George's
guitar is etherial.

He was in a band before The Wilbury's called the
Beatles. You should check 'em out.

HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA ROFL! Best line of the day. Period.

This is Noel. Reverb's at maximum an' I'm givin' 'er all she's got.

I have always had a love/hate relationship with solos. Growing up in the 80's, my impression of solos were the typical 80's wanking up and down a scale with little heart and even less of a genuine musical purpose within the structure of the song. They were always more of a showcase for the individual and coming from a concert/jazz/marching band background, this was just never my approach to music.

Over the years my opinion has changed a bit but I am still not the biggest fan of completely improvised solos. I prefer them to have some sort of a set structure that really fits the piece and is placed in order to add dynamic effect.

I have never been great at soloing anyway. Frankly, I just never spent enough time during my formative years of learning guitar concentrating on my scales. I have improved over the years but am still quite behind, taking into account how long I have been playing.

We have recently added a re-arrangement of Haulin Hearse by The Ghastly Ones to our set and the original song contains one of my favorite solos of all time. I have tried my best to grab the general feel of the solo, while adjusting it to my own abilities.

Anyway, I suppose the gist of this post is to say that I am a much bigger fan of bands writing music as a 'piece', much like classical music, and creating solos when they are needed among the overall structure and feel of said piece, not as a means to display one individual member's abilities.

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Noel wrote:

Remember the dance in Back to the Future? The scene
where Michael Fox's character plays Johnny B, Goode? He
solos like his guitar hero (Eddie Van Halen?) and gets
so carried away and lost he grinds to a complete halt,
unable to get back to the song, having completely
forgotten he was playing it.

That's my nightmare; starting something I can't finish.
It's why I carefully learn every tune and strive to
perfect my performance of them. It's also why I have
trouble playing different arrangements. I have a LONG
WAY to go.

Some musicians seem to have so many musical phrases in
their heads that they they have no trouble stringing
them together to fit whatever they're playing. Others
play the same few phrases in everything they do. I
can't do even this yet, so I won't criticize anyone who
can. I have to memorize all the guitar parts to even
stand a chance of getting through a tune.

The original question was whether or not surf music
needs or should have solo sections in their
arrangements. Isn't that the same type of question as
whether surf music can have lyrics? Sometimes it works
and sometimes it doesn't.

All this is IMO. I'm just getting started and don't
know a lot. I wonder what the icons of surf would say?
Maybe, just play it and hear what happens?

If you're going to be concentrating strictly on surf, I wouldn't sweat the solo much. Most surf tunes get along fine without them. I haven't been playing surf for very long, and when I started I just concentrated on the rhythms and melodic riffs...those are hard enough if you're not used to the genre. Most of the guys on here have more experience than me and could probably play circles around me...but this is my advice based on what's worked for me so far. I found Pipeline and Surf Rider to be fairly easy to learn, also Out of Limits. Keep plugging at it..it's never too late to start. I'm 47 and have only been playing surf for six months or so. My background is mostly blues, thus my preference for improvised soloing over composed. No disrespect to the late Mr. Harrison, but give me Albert King any day.

dp wrote:

diddley diddley diddley waaaaahhhh wooooo grroooooo
didleeedidleeedidelwooogwooogwoogwoooooo
choooooooooooooo....

You type like I play. lol

This is Noel. Reverb's at maximum an' I'm givin' 'er all she's got.

The rule should be to not suck and don't try to sound a way that you would think makes you sound technically sound. Take a solo that means something more than that and it will show.

DannySnyder wrote:

JakeDobner wrote:

The rule should be to not suck and don't try to sound
a
way that you would think makes you sound technically
sound. Take a solo that means something more than
that
and it will show.

Huh?

To summarize, solos are too often just wanking. Think more about how it compliments the feeling/mood of the song.

Noel wrote:

Jetking and Rev,

Thanks for your advice. It's good advice. If it were
easy everyone would be as good as Segovia, Chet Atkins,
Carlos Santana, James Burton, Wes Montgomery, Les Paul,
SRV and Dick Dale.

I've got a long way to go and a lot less time to get
there. And there are no short cuts. My guitar is
calling.

Noel

Segovia, of course, said that the elctric guitar was an abomination and that, although Django Reinhardt was pretty clever, managing with so few fingers and all, that wasn't guitar playing. Talented as the old guy undoubtedly was, I've never had much time for him since hearing those comments. I mean, being a master of the classical guitar is very clever and everthing, but it's got nothing to do with surf music

Los Fantasticos

Last edited: Apr 24, 2011 06:11:26

Rules in music are like scales. They may be a good starting point, but they inevitably restrict what can be done creatively. I suspect many of you who have been soloing/improvising a while don't stick to a scale. Any note can be correct, if you know how to use it!

Rev

Canadian Surf

http://www.urbansurfkings.com/

Nokie is indeed fine. I really like what Eddie Angel does. It reminds me a lot of Link's playing. And there's this Ivan guy who's pretty good.

Rev

Canadian Surf

http://www.urbansurfkings.com/