14 seconds
Today, I started writing a 14 second solo. I would’ve never thought it would be so hard to write a 14-second solo. Basically, the progression underneath is simple enough: D/F/C/Gm.
The major problem I had was building the solo. I already knew I was going to play D Aeolian over it, but I found myself facing a challenge. How do you actually tell a story in 14 seconds? The solo goes on top of a bridge-like intermezzo which lasts only 29 seconds in total. In the first part of the intermezzo, I play the first part of the progression (A/F/C/Gm) to get the groove going. But that only leaves me the last four chords to actually play around. And I have to keep in mind that immediately after the solo, the songs slows down again to half the speed of the intermezzo. So had to end the solo in a way that would prepare for the slowdown. So, while the solo had to be interesting enough to listen to, it also needed to prepare the listener for the slowdown …
I managed to come up with something that’s at least one line of a story waiting to be told.
Click the link to listen to Little Girl - the solo.
