Enhanced Pop Song - Solo, Key & Outro

The Guitar Solo

Adding a guitar solo helps to add a more musical feel to a composition. The guitar solo needs to back up the feel and emotion of the song and there are various different ways to achieve this.

In this example the guitar solo is played over the verse chord progression. The guitar solo is written to follow the melody of the singing used in the verse, an idea used frequently by the likes of Nirvana. If you are not confident with composing or improvising you own solo, or if you don't know which scales to use to create a solo, then this is a great way to add lead guitar to a song.

This is the structure of the solo:

Changing key for the last chorus

A great way to freshen up a song is to raise the key of the chorus. This idea is usually employed at the end of a song, moving all the chords up one tone. In this example the new chord progression will come in after the chorus has been sung once in the normal key. If you are already experienced at singing over key changes you might like to move the entire last chorus up a tone, but it can be difficult to move between different melodies (such as the bridge and chorus) as well as moving keys.

The new and final chorus structure now becomes:

F#7

The 'Outro'

To end the song the intro lead guitar riff is reapeated, helping to create the impression we have returned to where we started. Remember, to play the riff we also need to move back down a key to where we started. This will create another interesting change between the altered chorus and the outro.

Enhanced Pop Song - Solo, Key & Outro

The Guitar Solo

Changing key for the last chorus

The 'Outro'

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