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Glite Dictionary
🎼 For one performer 🎸 A performance alone 🧑‍🦯 Alone ✈️ A flight alone ✈️ To fly alone 🎸 To perform alone
to solo

to solo

3 4.2
To play a musical part alone during a song or concert
  • verb
  • /ˈsoʊloʊ/
translation icon : tocar un solo
  • He soloed on "Waiting on a Friend" for the Rolling Stones' Tattoo You because Mick Jagger heard him at the Bottom Line and called him up.

Here's an example of soloing over sea locry.

Examples

  • During the concert, she decided to solo the first verse to showcase her vocal range.

  • He has soloed with the Boston Pops and the Toronto, Montreal, and Winnipeg symphony orchestras, the National Arts Center Orchestra, and the Calgary Philharmonic.

    Blog text (27)

  • Each work should have a title, and all players should be given a chance to solo.

    Academic text (1996)

  • At the point where the bass should solo,

    Fiction book (1993)

  • When he had to solo or play for an audition, he was a wreck.

    Fiction book (1994)

  • I think he is soloing better than he used to.

    Blog text (13)

  • She had been chosen to solo with the Pittsburgh Pops.

    Fiction book (2000)

  • He soloed over a harmonic progression that we provided.

    Academic text (2013)

  • He soloed, picked up the tempo, sang fast with them, and then slowed it down, leaving everyone off with an "Oh yeah!" that raised shouts and clapping.

    Fiction book (1992)

  • Different sections (SATB) take turns soloing over a twelve-bar blues progression, as the chorus performs a choral comp pattern.

    Academic text (2004)

Synonyms

to fly solo
vsto solo
  • Informal
14 4.8

To act or work alone without help from others

is used for performing music alone rather than general independent action

Antonyms

to collaborate
96 4.6

To work with other people to reach a shared goal

Phrasal Verbs

to fly solo
  • Informal
14 4.8

To act or work alone without help from others

Compounds

solo homer
  • Jargon
1 6.5

A home run hit when no one is on base that scores one run

shred guitar solo
  • Jargon
7.9

A very fast guitar solo that shows great skill

solo blast
  • Jargon
6.4

A home run with no other players on base that scores one run

Solo man
  • Specialized
9.9

An extinct early human known from fossils found in Java

How Improvisational

to improv
  • Informal
3 6.2
to jazz
1 4.2
to solo
3 4.2
to interpret
15 4.1
to play
∞ 1.0

Surface Forms

solo infinitive
soloed past
soloed past participle
soloing present participle
solos third person singular

Etymology

Solo comes from the Latin solus, meaning 'alone'. To solo in music is to play or sing a part by yourself, so you perform without others.