Plini
PRESENTS

How to Write a Melodic Prog Solo

Learn how to play like Plini.

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WHo it's for

Intermediate-Advanced

For die-hard prog fans and curious rockers. Sharpen and expand your soloing skills through the lens of prog.

Time

10 days

Plini will guide you through ten days of step-by-step instruction with interactive TAB and daily assignments.

Outcome

Craft compelling solos

You'll leave this class with a toolkit of techniques to play melodic prog solos and the skills to compose your own.

JUST THE START

Take the next step

Once you've mastered this course, keep learning with advanced Master Classes and guided practice plans.

What you'll learn

Over the next 10 days, Plini will break down how to approach the heavy sounds of prog with beautifully-lyrical soloing.

  • Learn to solo like Plini, Animals as Leaders, & Intervals
  • Develop your melodic voice through the lens of prog.
  • Capture Plini's tone with Neural DSP plugin presets.
How it works

Your guided learning pathway

This music-first course is designed to get you playing melodic prog solos right away. In each lesson, Plini breaks down one of his solos then guides you through exercises and jams to internalize what you learned in a musical context and apply it to your own compositional skillset.

Ever After

We'll get right into the music on Day 1 by learning a solo that sounds complex but is quite easy to get together.

In each day of this Master Class, you'll work on a series of drills so you can learn the concepts behind the licks rather than just copying what Plini plays.

Canvas

Up next, we'll push you out of your rhythmic comfort zone with a solo in 6/8.

This solo is a Master Class in how dynamics make all the difference in sonic storytelling.

Boomer

This solo will teach you all about the importance of articulation.

As any great guitarist will tell you, it's not about which notes you play, it's about how you play them.

Days 6 & 7. Frogtown Jam

Ready to continue leveling up with a new solo in 7/4? This one makes great use of space in the beginning, and will teach you about what goes into a great prog solo on the production side.

Days 8 & 9. Manifestation

When the prog track goes hard, sometimes all you need is a simple melody. We'll cap off the class with a solo over a quintuplet-feel rhythm section.

Day 10. Recap & Challenge

Finally, we'll review everything you learned and challenge you to compose your own prog solo!

Curriculum

Stay focused with this step-by-step learning program designed by our expert team of music educators.

10-Day Plan

Day 1

Kick off the class with a simple solo.

Day 1. Ever After

Your primary goal on the first day of class is to get a quick win with a relatively simple solo. You'll start by drilling the major pentatonic scale up one string and learning how to play drop octaves. From there, Plini will break down the licks he's using one by one until you can get everything up to speed.

Each lesson contains a phrase-by-phrase breakdown of what Plini's playing. When you start learning the solo, you'll already have drilled the concepts and techniques behind each lick so you can adapt them to your own unique style.

Days 2-5

Dig into two expressive solos as you continue to build out your prog toolkit

Days 2-3. Canvas

What's more prog than an odd time signature?! Today, you'll learn how to rip a solo in 6/8 – this open and wide-feeling meter leave plenty of room for expressive articulation and dynamic building, which is what you'll focus on as you tackle the solo in two parts.

Specifically, you'll work on sliding, bending, trilling, and tapping to polish your playing. You'll also borrow some notes from C Lydian / A Dorian to spice up the sound of your lead vocabulary.

Days 4-5. Boomer

There’s so much we can do with our existing harmonic and melodic information. Today, you'll tackle a whole new bag of prog tricks and put the focus on articulation. By getting into the cracks of articulating individual notes, we can get serious mileage out of common shapes like major pentatonic.

In addition to articulation, you'll work on hybrid picking and bends as you tackle this solo across two days of lessons. As always, Plini will walk you through his compositional mindset for the solo and break it down phrase by phrase.

Days 6 & 7

Learn a songwriting process to fuel your own solo compositions.

Frogtown Jam

With this soaring prog solo, you'll get an inside look at Plini's five-step songwriting process by learning how harmony, feel, and the rhythm section in a track can fuel inspiration when you're composing a solo.

Then, you'll dig into the B major pentatonic and E melodic minor scales as you tackle the solo phrase-by-phrase

Days 8-10

Tackle your final solo, review key concepts from the class, and compose your own prog creation.

Days 8 & 9. Manifestation

For your fifth and final solo, you'll work with a particularly complex prog track as your harmonic landscape. In this piece, Plini plays on the concept of yin and yang by using a simple melody to complement the complexity of the track.

You'll use simple pentatonic language, a splash of chromaticism, and expressive articulations to cap off the class with a bang.

Day 10. Recap & Challenge

For your prog soloing graduation, we'll review some key points from the past nine days of instruction and challenge you to compose your very own solo.

Student stories

Learn how How to Write a Melodic Prog Solo has helped real guitarists break through their playing plateau and realize their potential.

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James Harrod

United Kingdom

“One of the things that's been the most fun for me has been the SongSquad challenges... connecting with other people in the Pickup Music community on Instagram and just encouraging each other as we're learning songs and practicing.”

Vin Thomas

United States

"Pickup Music really helped me push my musical boundaries."

Wytse Hokwerda

Germany

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Monitor your guitar gains.

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Never run out of lessons to work on.

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Follow along with every note.

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Get an up close and personal learning experience.

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Members-only forum

Unlimited personalized learning support from our team of pro guitarists.

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