Soloing Process, Improv, & More— Virtual Guitar Camp!

intermediate guitar Free lesson

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About this lesson Tabs & MP3s Need Help?

Legends in any field will tell you that mindset is key to success, and playing bluegrass guitar is no exception. But you might feel lost—what DO you even think about when you're building (or improvising) a solo?

If you've ever sat down to build your own break and felt unsure of where to start, this session from my 2025 Virtual Guitar Camp is for you, going step-by-step through the thought process behind a solo you can be proud of!

Doublestops Improvisation Scales Tony Rice

Tabs

pdf Old Home Place- Nashville Number System Chart

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pdf Old Home Place- Basic Melody

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pdf Old Home Place- Chord Tones

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pdf Old Home Place- Melodic Improv

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pdf Old Home Place- Adding Licks

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Gear from this lesson

Gallagher Guitar Co. Bluegrass Bell Custom Large Soundhole Dreadnought Guitar With Case (Serial #4505) View in store →
Token Large Triangle A3-50 Flatpick View in store →
Martin & Co. MTR13 Retro Monel Nickel Acoustic Tony Rice Signature Guitar Strings View in store →

Lesson Discussion

7 replies Continue discussion

Ben Clark Leader · 7 May

https://banjobenclark.com/lessons/soloing-process-improv-more-virtual-guitar-camp-guitar-intermediate Legends in any field will tell you that mindset is key to success, and playing bluegrass guitar is no exception. But you might feel lost—what DO you even think about when you’re building (or improvising) a solo? If you’ve ever sat down to build your own break and felt unsure of where to start, this session from my 2025 Virtual Guitar Camp is for you, going step-by-step through the thought process behind a solo you can be proud of!
Michael Mundew · 9 May

Wow, the shirts and the hair in that video clip, I think that is what my playing is missing. Although I don’t think I could grow my hair like that anymore.
Mike Larsen · 9 May

adding chord tones is what i was missing. i could sound it out and then think wow that basic but adding those tones is a lightbulb moment.
Kimia B · 10 May

This was very helpful! I am picking the guitar back up for our gospel band and having been trying to learn solos. This is going to help me a lot!
Largiader Markus · 11 May

Hi Ben, will these tabs be available as tabledit files as well? That would be great!
Ben Clark Leader · 11 May

I don’t think I have these in TEF, sorry! Don’t know what happened to them.
Erwin Bauwens · 16 May

Wow, great lesson ! New for me was to keep the chord shapes (and inversions) in mind when soloing. That’s a great tip ! Gives you notes that you can never be wrong with (if that’s a sentence, sorry, I’m Belgian )
David Sanderson · 7 Aug

This really helped me a lot.More like this. Thanks, Keep up the good work.

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