Soloing over power chords?

[Jaganath]

Ok, I'm at that special time in my life where I need to write my first solo for an exam piece - I'm excited and scared and more than a little clueless.

The piece is in the style of 'Led Zepplin - Smoke on the water' and the solo part is 8 barres long (4/4 time/110bpm) and the chord sequence is:

G5 C5 Bb5 C5
G5 C5 Bb5 G5

Now I'm only famililar with the Minor Pentatonic Scale and the Minor Harmonic Scale and I'm struggling to put together something that sounds good.

Does anyone have any suggestions on ways to go about putting this together to blow the examiner's socks off

[TwilightOdyssey]

Re: Soloing over power chords?

One cool thing you can do with this particular progression is modulate keys.
For the G5/C5 chords, there are two keys that share those notes:
G Maj and C Maj ... You also have their relative minors: E Min and A Min.

For the Bb5, you can use any key in the Cycle of Fourths because they all have Bb in them. I would suggest starting with F Maj or Bb Maj.

So, for the melody/solo line, you could do something like this:

Progression: G5-C5-Bb5-C5
Melody/Solo: G Major or G Mixolydian Scale - C Major Scale - F Major arpeggio - E Minor arpeggio - D Minor arpeggio - C Major arpeggio

... Anyway, that's what I just played on top of this progression here at home, and it's at least a good starting point.

Explore the melodic possibilities, and once you have a lock on some ideas, don't be concerned about breaking the rules and playing notes not found in that particuar key.

Hope this helps!

[Jaganath]

Re: Soloing over power chords?

Now this is why I love this place - so much knowledge

I'm going to print out all the suggestions I get - take them home and get busy learning the scales/arpeggios I don't know.

[Davey]

Re: Soloing over power chords?

TO, my head just exploded

[Alvin Lee Fan]

Re: Soloing over power chords?

One cool thing you can do with this particular progression is modulate keys.
For the G5/C5 chords, there are two keys that share those notes:
G Maj and C Maj ... You also have their relative minors: E Min and A Min.

For the Bb5, you can use any key in the Cycle of Fourths because they all have Bb in them. I would suggest starting with F Maj or Bb Maj.

So, for the melody/solo line, you could do something like this:

Progression: G5-C5-Bb5-C5
Melody/Solo: G Major or G Mixolydian Scale - C Major Scale - F Major arpeggio - E Minor arpeggio - D Minor arpeggio - C Major arpeggio

... Anyway, that's what I just played on top of this progression here at home, and it's at least a good starting point.

Explore the melodic possibilities, and once you have a lock on some ideas, don't be concerned about breaking the rules and playing notes not found in that particuar key.

Hope this helps!

Holy sh#t!!!

I'd just pound on the guitar till something cool fell out (or off )

[tone4days]

Re: Soloing over power chords?

i thought it'd be cool to imply some chromatic passing tones in the 2nd measure ... instead of chugging over C5 for 4 beats, think of it as C5 for 2 beats then B5 for 2 beats, then land on the first beat of the third measure on the Bb5 ... you can do the same going up .. in the third measure, play Bb5 for two beats, then B5 for two beats, landing on the first beat of the fourth measure square on the C5

it could also be cool to imply a major tonality for the first four measures, then a minor tonality for the second time around ... with a power chord, you can take some license with the 3rd of the chord ...

have fun

cheers
t4d