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lots of the more or less standard guitar chord voicings that are easy to grab with the LH on a guitar neck are kind of hidden when confronting the linearity of a keyboard. Single note lines from Trumpet and even Clarinet books yielded guitar drills that greatly improved single note soloing capabilities, note choice, phrasing, etc. Many of the great jazz guitar players mention practicing Horn Solos on the guitar, this to better emulate the phrasing inherent in singing or playing a horn. That concept of playing a line, then the "pause to take a breath" before playing the next line really can change much guitar soloing for the better. You tend not to just keep on playing lines, lines, lines, which, in certain genres may be a good thing, but in others doesn't make for a solo that makes more coherent sense.




That's a great lesson Mac. I've often wondered why soloing of different instrument players sounds so different - for example horn vs. guitar. At least in part, it's obvious it's the layout of the instrument, and what notes are easy to reach and play. The guitar lends itself to shielding a player from knowing the notes in chords and keys because it's so easy to learn on voicing, and move it all over the neck to change to the corresponding chord in a different key. Also, the guitar having only 6 strings lends itself to tablature - again shielding... The piano does NOT allow this. It is not easy to write tablature for the piano that's as easy to read as guitar tablature. Having 2 hands lends itself to more easily fingered voicings with wide interval skips, and most likely, different chords. Also, on piano, some keys must be much easier to play than others given the difficulty of playing black and white keys at the same time (esp. when a fat middle finger has to play a white key next to a black key that's not being played, and the outer fingers are also on black keys).

Why horn solos sound so different harmonically than guitar - I've no idea, no knowledge. What other types of things do horn players easily do on their instruments that's difficult for guitar players, given the layout of both instruments ? I'm thinking maybe arpegios. I think horn players use these more than (many, not all) guitar players in general. Arpeggios are kind of hard to master on the guitar (if one's teacher does not emphasize and require it - which my early teachers really didn't).