“A George Benson, or John Mayer, or B.B. King, or Albert King solo, you can almost sing it”: Isaiah Sharkey on what he learned about guitar soloing – after playing with the likes of John Mayer, D'Angelo and Paul Simon

If there's one thing that Isaiah Sharkey knows how to do on guitar, it's play tastefully.

And throughout his years as connoisseur of the instrument, whether as a solo artist, as part of D'Angelo's lauded Vanguard on Black Messiah, or as a sideman and session player to the likes of John Mayer, Chris Martin, Corinne Bailey Rae, Keith Urban, and Paul Simon, he has come to realize the magic ingredient for concocting a good guitar solo… and it's simpler than you may think.

“One thing I found out, playing with different artists, is when you're looking at the front row [when] you're on stage, and you're seeing these people sing melodies or sing [a] solo from the record, that means something,” he says, in an interview with Reverb – his Ritter Princess Isabella jazz guitar in hand.

“A George Benson, or John Mayer, or B.B. King, or Albert King solo, you can almost sing it. The complexity is in the fact that you're thinking of it as the human voice, and it's something about that that connects to the soul and energy of other people.”

How Isaiah Sharkey Makes His Guitar "Sing" Like a Vocalist - YouTube

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As Sharkey explains, it's “definitely taking the ego out of it all”. While it's easy to show off the breadth of your chops, the nuance is asking yourself, “What does it [the song] call for? What is the moment? What's gonna make the moment shine and stand out and make people feel good?”

He continues, “And if it makes you feel good, then that's all that matters. And my dad used to always say, ‘What comes from the heart reaches the heart.’”

In an interview with Guitar World a couple of years back, the in-demand session ace talked about the difference between playing guitar and being a guitarist, and why he's never chased the prospect of being a celebrity player.