Why Learning Guitar Solos is The Key to Unlocking Better Improv

The not-so-secret shortcut to sounding like you know what you’re doing

A lot of guitarists want to improvise.

They know some scales.

They noodle around.

But somehow… it just doesn’t sound musical.

If that’s you, you’re not alone — and the fix isn’t more scale diagrams. One of the fastest ways to improve your soloing is to start learning actual guitar solos.

Not just for fun — but to build the vocabulary and phrasing you need to improvise confidently.

🧠 Why Learn Solos?

When you learn a solo — especially by ear — you’re doing more than just memorizing notes. You’re absorbing how great players:

• Phrase their lines (not just what they play, but how they play it)

• Choose notes that reflect the chords underneath

• Create tension and release with rhythm, repetition, and dynamics

• Use space and silence — something scale practice can’t teach you

  
  

In short: you’re learning how music actually works in real time.

This is the area of your guitar studies where you need to start thinking like a language learner.

🗣️ Think of Improvisation Like a Language

Improvising on the guitar isn’t that different from speaking a language. In both cases, your relationship with the skill boils down to two key elements:

Input and Output.

• Input = learning solos, listening to great players, absorbing phrasing

• Output = creating your own solos, improvising, writing ideas

  
  

Just like with language, you need a balance of both.

In the beginning, you need a lot of input — reference material, examples, and vocabulary — or you’ll have nothing to say.But once you’ve taken in enough input, the next step is regular output — putting those ideas into action.

Improvisation only starts to feel natural when you're constantly cycling between these two:

Absorb, then express.

Repeat that loop, and you’ll start sounding less like someone “trying to solo” and more like someone speaking through the guitar.

🔁 Vocabulary = Confidence

Improvising isn’t about being “random.” It’s like speaking a language. If you don’t have words and phrases you’ve heard before, you’ll struggle to say anything meaningful.

Learning solos gives you:

• Licks and motifs you can reuse and reshape

• An intuitive sense of what fits where

• A collection of tools you can draw on when the chord comes around

  
  

This doesn’t make you a copycat — it makes you fluent.

🎧 It’s More Than Just Notes

Even if you have the tabs, listening is crucial. When you internalize a solo by ear — or sing it before playing it — you start to:

• Feel the timing and swing

• Hear note length, articulation, vibrato, muting

• Understand where the player is playing behind or ahead of the beat

  
  

These are the things that make solos feel human — and they’re nearly impossible to learn from a scale chart.

🧩 How to Actually Learn a Solo

You don’t have to tackle a full 32-bar jazz monster. Start small:

1. Pick a solo you like — particularly a solo you feel one day you wish you want to create

2. Break it into small sections (1–2 bars at a time)

3. Listen first, then match it on your instrument

4. Play it slowly with a metronome or loop

5. Try using bits of the solo in your own improvisation

   
   

Once you’ve got it under your fingers, ask: What scale is this coming from? How does it connect to the chord underneath? What do I like about the phrasing?

That’s where the real growth happens.

🎵 Good Solos to Start With

Not sure where to begin? Depending on your style, here are some great solos to check out:

Grant Green - Green's Greenery (for Jazz players)

Led Zeppelin - Stairway to Heaven (for rock players)

Paul Jackson Jr. - Never Too Much (for R&B players) (my youtube playthrough here)

Here are some of my own solos I've broken down with PDFs available:

• My solo over “Sunny” – This solo uses a few different scales starting from A minor pentatonic, to more advanced scales like the diminished scale.

• Funky blues in B minor – This solo mostly uses B minor pentatonic in the first half, but moves into some more interesting concepts in the 2nd half.

  
  

  
  

  🎯 Final Thought

Learning how to improvise is no different than any other form of artistic output:

Reference, reference, reference.

You need a bank of ideas to pull from — and solos are one of the best sources out there.

So find a solo you’ve always admired — and start learning it today. Your future self will thank you.

✨ Want to Get Better at Soloing?

If you’re ready to go beyond scales and start building real soloing vocabulary, I’d love to help.

In lessons, I guide students through solos they actually want to learn — not just by helping them copy the notes, but by showing them how to put their own spin on it. We’ll break things down together, and then bring those ideas to life through mini duo jam sessions that build phrasing, timing, and confidence in a real musical context.

I teach private and group guitar lessons in Tokyo (Takadanobaba) — and online — in both English and Japanese. Whether you’re into funk, jazz, rock, or R&B, I’ll help you understand what’s happening under the hood and start improvising with confidence.

👉 Click here to check my availability and book a free trial lesson

Let’s build your soloing voice — one great phrase at a time. 🎸