Scott Paul Johnson

Community Challenge 88 | Play a Solo to this Jam Track

Added 2025-03-25 17:00:11 +0000 UTC

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Hi Everyone,
I'm trying something a little different with this Community Challenge. I've attached two jam track files below - one is short (under a minute) and one is long (over 2 minutes). Pick whichever one you feel like and do one of two things:

1. Practice improvising a solo over the track and record an improvised solo once you get comfortable with the track.

2. As you're practicing, keep track of the lines you like and try to "write" a solo based on those lines. This wouldn't be improvised, but a collection of phrases and riffs that you memorized and organized

Essentially, I don't care if you choose to completely improvise your solo or memorize a series of riffs and melodies - the goal is to play a solo in a way that feels fun to you.

Watch my youtube video 5 Levels of Soloing and find a comfort zone for yourself. Level 1 or level 2 is completely acceptable for this challenge, but those of you who have been around for a while working on music theory might want to try level 3 or 4 soloing. If you want to try level 3 or 4, try to sit down and map out example phrases on paper based on my Melody Making series or my CAGED Soloing series. I also go over this kind of thing in the video above.

I wrote out the progression incorrectly in the original post of this video, it's actually in the key of A Minor, using a i v VI progression (Am Em F)

Have fun and post your solos to the Community Forum