FAQs

What is Solo?

Solo is a highly focussed app for developing your note finding and visualization ability on the guitar. There is no time-based pressure and Solo reduces the cognitive load of having to choose which notes/intervals to play. As you get quicker at finding these ‘notes’ you will conversely get better at choosing them whilst improvising. Players of all ability levels will reap huge benefits from practicing with Solo.

‣ Using common progressions, Solo presents you with one chord symbol or scale at a time and asks you to find and play a series of notes based on their intervallic function.

‣ Solo listens to the notes you play, analyzes them in real-time, and doesn’t move on until you’ve correctly found each note by its intervallic function in the specified order.

‣ This process builds strong fretboard visualization for the most powerful, efficient and malleable way to know your way around the fretboard no matter how difficult the chord changes are. 

If you know your note names but struggle to learn new scales, play through chord changes or find yourself stuck in pattern based playing, practicing diligently with Solo will be transformational for your knowledge of the fretboard and subsequently your ability to outline harmony when you improvise.

What is Solo not?

We’ve designed Solo as the ultimate limitation exercise and practice tool for working solely on the harmonic aspects of visualisation, note finding and ear training.

As such, Solo puts aside the rhythmic and time elements of improvisation, allowing you to work at your own pace and concentrate only on finding and hearing the notes on screen.

Solo is not designed to develop any style specific language or vocabulary. Likewise, it won’t give you tons of large, multi-octave fingerings, diagrams or positions. This allows you to practice creatively and apply your knowledge to any style you’re working on, and Solo guides you through the hard work of developing it for yourself.

Will it work with my instrument?

Solo was designed by guitar players as a powerful practice tool for visualizing the fretboard; however, Solo works with any concert pitched instrument, including your voice.

Do I need to understand music theory or jazz harmony to use Solo?

Solo is useful for players of all ability levels. You do, however, need to understand some basic music theory, such as major scales and intervals, and have a reasonable knowledge of the note names on your instrument. You do not need a deep understanding of jazz harmony to get started using Solo.

What’s with all the numbers? What are intervallic functions?

Solo shows you a chord symbol or scale and asks you to find and play a series of harmonically related notes. These notes are presented as generic numbers that we call ‘Intervallic Functions.’ If you want to learn more about intervallic functions and why they’re so fantastic for improvisation, we have a great video for you to check out.

Why are there no note names?

For stringed instruments, and guitarists and bassists in particular, the most efficient way to visualize chords and scales on your instrument is to think in terms of generic numbers (intervallic functions) rather than specific note names.

Famously, John Coltrane practiced improvising over his seminal tune ‘Giant Steps’ by mapping the intervallic functions 1 2 3 5 (and many other structures) over each chord in the progression. 

Jerry Bergonzi, and many others, have used this method of mapping a series of intervallic functions over a variety of chord progressions in their educational material to great effect and it has become a standard practice method in jazz education.

Regardless of which instrument you play, thinking in generic numbers/intervals is an incredibly important way for musicians to practice and communicate with one another.

If Solo is always telling me what to play, how am I getting better at improvising?

One of the biggest barriers to improvising on guitar is finding and mapping out the relevant chord tones and scales all over on the fretboard in real time.

Solo is a highly focussed tool for developing this ‘note finding’ ability. There’s no time-based pressure and Solo reduces the cognitive load of having to choose which ‘notes/intervals’ you need to play. As you get quicker at finding these ‘notes’ you will conversely get better at choosing them whilst improvising.

As a unique and powerful ear training tool, Solo also develops your ability to not only visualize what you’re playing but hear it in real time too.

How does Solo know what intervallic functions to generate?

We’ve programmed Solo with all the knowledge behind the scenes to understand jazz and popular music harmony. Since Solo’s decisions are based on our own harmonic and improvisational approaches, you may occasionally see something that you might disagree with or would play differently. 

Rest assured that we’ve worked hard to make sure everything is harmonically acceptable and Solo isn’t asking you to play something that wouldn’t work in the real world.