Alright, I need some help. I`ve been playing violin for some years and a few months ago I joined a worship band in my church with my electric violin. Most of the time I just play by chords and harmonize alot but everyone keeps giving me solos which just playing by chords isn`t gonna cut it. Any tips on just soloing off the top of your head?

I have played with my church`s worship band for a couple years, at first it was hard and nothing I played seamed to fit with the songs but it has gotten better. Now I just use the chords to tell what key the song is in and I just kind if pick up the melody. There are a few other violins too and we harmonize with eachother sometimes. I guess it just takes practice. Try playing christamas charols and other songs that you know the melody to really well just by ear. Try playing them in different keys. After you are able to pick up the melody you can try to add interesting rythms and bowing. Just harmonizing by reading the chords is a good place to start

Last year at my school we actually had a 2 day workshop with an improvisational cellist, and it was really fun. At the concert there was a section where we could take solos, and 3 or 4 people did including myself!

One thing you can usually rely on is the scale of the key you are in. This is pretty basic, but helps. Obviously, if you are in the key of C and on an A major chord, you wouldn`t play C, but C sharp, unless it as an A9+. Practicing making melodies usually helps, and depending on what kind of music you are playing, grace notes can add a lot to the music (this applies especially to piano). Basically, trying out all kinds of stuff when you practice is the way to find out what sounds good.

-Tim

I dun know what works best for u, but I feel that feeling and following the chord cycle works pretty well for me. And I work my improvisation from there. And most imp, learn to listen and `interact` with the other parts/instruments. If not yr imporovisation will lose the ` live touch`...and the whole band will be quite dull. The music will only sound nice when all the instruments interact while improvising.