Guitar Soloing ?

Question:I am writing a "solo" or lead part, over a keyboard chord progression. I have already decided that, unless one of you changes my mind, that it will be in the key of D and the chords and rhythm will be to the likes of "Pour out my heart" or a similar worship song. It has to be Christian music because this is a Christian event.
Now to the question. I understand that if the song is in the key of D I will have to play in the D scale. Most preferrably D Major Pentatonic because I already know that one. What I am wondering is if the chords are D-A-Bm-G, and I start the "solo" on D, do I have to start on the note D ? And if I keep playing do my licks have to start on the chord that the keyboard is playing at that time or can I start with the note D on the chord D, then play a bunch of junk and finish on the note G on the chord G ? If you don't understand what Im askin I will try to explain better...Im not very good at explaining my problem lol. Thank ya'll in advance.

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: I am writing a "solo" or lead part, over a keyboard chord progression. I have already decided that, unless one of you changes my mind, that it will be in the key of D and the chords and rhythm will be to the likes of "Pour out my heart" or a similar worship song. It has to be Christian music because this is a Christian event.
Now to the question. I understand that if the song is in the key of D I will have to play in the D scale. Most preferrably D Major Pentatonic because I already know that one. What I am wondering is if the chords are D-A-Bm-G, and I start the "solo" on D, do I have to start on the note D ? And if I keep playing do my licks have to start on the chord that the keyboard is playing at that time or can I start with the note D on the chord D, then play a bunch of junk and finish on the note G on the chord G ? If you don't understand what Im askin I will try to explain better...Im not very good at explaining my problem lol. Thank ya'll in advance.

If you're starting on a D chord, you don't necessarily have to start on a D note, but you do need to start on one of the 3 notes that make up a D major triad -- D F# or A. While you're soloing over the D chord, your solo melody should emphasize those notes. You can use other notes from the scale as "passing tones" to get you from one chord note to another, like D-E-F#, where the E is a passing note, or F#-G-A, where the G is a passing note, or you can use other notes from the scale as "neighbor tones" where you start on a chord note, go to a note not in the chord and back to the first note again, like D-C#-D or A-B-A, whatever.

Then when the underlying chord moves to A, you want to emphasize the notes of the A major chord in that part of your solo melody. Those notes are A C# and E. Again, you can use passing tones and neighbor tones to help make your solo melody flow more smoothly but the important notes of the solo that fall on the beat should be mostly notes that fit the underlying chord.

Likewise, when the underlying chord accompaniment moves to the Bm, you're going to want to emphasize the notes of the Bm chord: B D F#, and finally over the G chord, you'll emphasize the notes of the G chord: G B D.

All of the chord notes mentioned can be found in the D major scale, so you can use that scale throughout your entire solo. An alternative approach would be to use different scales over each chord -- so over the D chord you would use the D major (or D major pentatonic) scale for your chord notes, passing tones and neighbor tones; then when the underlying chord switches to A major you switch to using the A major or pentatonic scale to solo over the A chord; over the Bm chord, you'd use the B minor harmonic scale or B minor pentatonic; and finally over the G chord use a G major or pentatonic scale. Its a little more sophisticated way of looking at soloing, and gives you a few more choices of notes to use in your solo.

If you want your solo to sound good, since you have the opportunity, as you do, to write out your solo and learn it in advance, take advantage of that to come up with a cohesive MELODY that flows together from start to finish, has a beginning, a middle and an end and that makes sense and sounds good, musically. Don't just play a bunch of random, disconnected licks that don't have any relationship to one another -- that will sound like crap. Why would you want to play a "bunch of junk" as your solo???

That first answer is a great one!

I wanted to add my 2 cents.

A solo is a melody. A melody starts somewhere and ends somewhere else. In general, wherever you start a melody, a great place to end it is a fourth away. For instance, if you start playing your solo on a D note, then end it on a G.... which, perhaps unsurprisingly, fits with your chord progression.

You can play a "D" melody over every single chord, if you want.... as long as it sounds like it fits. Staying in safe notes, like the D major pentatonic, would be okay over every chord you've listed, although a bit of "danger" or "color" would be good, too.

Don't discard the idea of changing the rhythm, though. Syncopating or altering the rhythm of the solo as contrasting to the rest of the song is a way to take the song to a whole new place.

Saul