Soloing - How To
This page is about improvising on electric guitar.
While their are several types of musical scales, the pentatonic scale has become very popular in several genres of music. For many famous guitar players, including Jimi Hendrix, it is the only scale they need to know.
Most guitar players know how to play a couple of barre chords. You can actually barre open C, A, G, E, and D chords. C-A-G-E-D spells caged, and the Caged System has been around since the early 1970's. 
Ex 1. The fret board image above shows 5 note patterns you can memorize. The square dots are root notes. These are pentatonic scale notes. Once you have memorized these patterns, you just shift the patterns up or down the neck depending upon the key of the song.
You might think you have to shift positions with each chord change, but you do not. You only have to know the root note of the root chord, to be able to solo overtop of any song.
Ex 2. The melodic pentatonic is the most safe to use, for just about any chord progression. Check out the resources available on this page.
Click on the link above and print it out for your reference.
