Guitar solos feeling uninspired? Learn how you can breathe new life into your licks and make sure your solos always sound like they’re going somewhere

Yes, yes, we are aware we’ve just been looking at improvising solos and that “creative soloing” might appear to be just a little bit similar... but bear with us. This next idea takes you a step further. 

Think of it as a more developed approach to improv if you like, but it’s also something to employ when writing longer solos. Here, we’re going to take a basic C minor pentatonic lick and demonstrate three ways you could adapt the idea to take it somewhere new. 

Recycling ideas and globalising concepts is a great way to maximise your vocabulary and make sure your solos always sound like they’re going somewhere. 

Example 1. The basic lick

This is our basic lick. It uses the C minor pentatonic scale and has a simple, memorable melody. The use of string bends and finger slides helps to bring the idea to life. 

Example 2. Changing the harmonic content

If we move our basic lick down three frets, a C major pentatonic version can be produced. Blues guitarists are fond of shifting licks around to make major versions with ease.  

Example 3. Add in target notes

We can add in target tones and flavour notes in to spice up our basic lick. Here we are adding a D note. This D doesn’t appear in the C minor pentatonic scale, but it sounds great. 

Example 4. Changing style

With a change of tone and phrasing, we can adapt the basic lick to fit other styles of music. Here we’re using octaves and a neck pickup to beef up the sound. Use downward thumb strokes to get a jazz-style delivery.