5/7/25 How to Play a Groove-Based Solo

So many jazz students struggle with soloing and with improvisation. What should I play? Should I have a strategy or just wing it? Are there tricks to good soloing?

But many jazz students ignore one of the simplest answers to those questions: Try playing rhythm instead of lead.

Think like a rhythm guitar player, not a lead guitar player. Stop trying to “solo” and just jam with the rhythm section, using “micro-improvisation” or small variations, rather than what you
may think of as usual soloing.

Rhythm playing is all about repeating infectious riffs—finding those chord voicings and rhythm hooks that keep you coming back for more.

So, rather than search for something to solo about, a subject to spark a musical conversation, take a minute and just listen to the rhythm section. Then find a way to answer something. Find a little riff that you can repeat periodically, as a dialogue, a give and take with something in the rhythm section.

Don’t try to create a solo. Just create a riff.

Lean into the rhythmic emphasis. Think of it as a rhythm with pitches, as if you were playing it on a percussion instrument.

Most people find it easier to be creative and playful with micro-improvisations as an entry point to more typical melodic improvisation. They may not even think of it as improvisation, just as variations on a riff. But it is definitely improvisation, and can open the door to many new and valid improvisational ideas.

​This is a lower stress way to solo, and often where there’s less stress, there’s more music.