In a writing/improvising rut

Haych

Not really sure if this should be in technique or elsewhere - I am NOT a technical player by any means.  I had lessons for a number of years but my right and left hands refuse to play together to make me anything of a technical player.

My main issue is the music itself - I am sh!t at improvising or coming up with anything musically original and thinking out of the box.

I have plenty of ideas for writing songs but when it comes to stitching them together, and particularly writing 'solos' (although I hate the term) I am the most awful guitar player in the universe.  I can sometimes come up with some really great ideas but they happen once in a blue moon and only when Saturn is out of phase with Alpha Centauri.

I can often 'hear' the ideas in my head but they seem to have the wrong map of my central nervous system and get lost and then piss off down the pub instead of finding their destination to my fingers.

How can I change this?  What can I do to inject some inspiration into my writing and improvising?  

Part of the problem I think is muscle memory - the old fingers know where they like to be and what sound will come out when they're there.  Breaking that comfort zone is proving difficult.

I have thought about taking lessons again but finding the time and opportunity is really difficult at the moment so I can't really commit to anything.  There are some online courses I've seen which look good and I'm willing to pay but to be honest that takes discipline I don't seem to have - which is why I prefer 1:1 lessons as I have somebody expecting me to do something

TIA

viz

Write music on the piano?

Haych

viz said:

Write music on the piano?

Would love to, sincerely, and I am trying - mostly it's a case of translating parts I've written on guitar and it's a veeeeeeeeeeery slow process.  I think I'm a few decades from being able to write a 'solo' on keys though lol.  

stratman3142

Haych said:

...My main issue is the music itself - I am sh!t at improvising or coming up with anything musically original and thinking out of the box...

Maybe you just need to loosen your sh!t filter and be less self critical.

I just churn stuff out, and half the time I'm thinking this is sh!t. But I usually see it through to a conclusion, as evidenced by my various entries and backing tracks to the monthly challenges. Some things I grow to like and some not. Perhaps some of it is sh!t (to some people) but I'm having fun

Lestratcaster

It will help to know where the root notes of the key you're playing in across the neck. Then sorta build intervals from there, if its a major key you'll want to know the 3rd and 7ths. Listen to how the greats phrase solos, BB King, Stevie Ray, Gilmour, etc etc. You don't necessarily have to be technically flashy to play solos. Melodic solos are my personal favourite, played with feeling. Rhythmical variation is good, don't always start your phrases on beat 1 of each bar.

The more you write the more you experience, and improve. Your first songs are never going to be the best! As you listen back you can learn where to improve certain parts. It really helped me to analyse other people's songs and understand what they were doing, not to copy them but to take ideas and turn them into my own style.

DulcetJones

I read about this technique a while back and tried it, still do it off and on now:    Have a recording device handy and turn it on when you first pick up a guitar each day.  Forget it's there and start warming up while looking out the window, or at the TV, whatever.  Turn it off after a few minutes or so and don't listen to it until the next day.  Almost everytime I do this I hear myself playing something I really like that I had no idea I played, I then zero in on it and build a song around it.  As for solos, I prefer to tap into a good knowledge of scales and improvise.  Not everybody gets on with this approach though.

jeromegreenday

Hi Tia,

My advice is simple and maybe some help :-/ Get a looper pedal, record a rhythm part and then just loop it back and spend 20minutes jamming over it, mess up, hit 20 wrong notes but you'll start to hear certain notes you like and build on that. A quote that has ALWAYS stayed with me was Sting 'I'm here to play whatever sounds good - I'm not here to play some reverse appreciated 16/17th's timescale solo and impress you with speed, im hear to play what sounds good and if a 4/4 time scale solo sounds good I'll play that' Or words very similar.

viz

Haych said:

TIA

jeromegreenday said:

Hi Tia,

My advice is simple and maybe some help :-/ Get a looper pedal, record a rhythm part and then just loop it back and spend 20minutes jamming over it, mess up, hit 20 wrong notes but you'll start to hear certain notes you like and build on that. A quote that has ALWAYS stayed with me was Sting 'I'm here to play whatever sounds good - I'm not here to play some reverse appreciated 16/17th's timescale solo and impress you with speed, im hear to play what sounds good and if a 4/4 time scale solo sounds good I'll play that' Or words very similar.

Great advice!

By the way, I think TIA means ‘thanks in advance’

thecolourbox

If you can hear it on your head then hum it into an audio recorder, £20 dictaphone should do the trick

bingefeller

I was chatting to Ron Jarzombek about composing used my his 12 tone system and he suggested getting 12 picks / sweets / balls and write each of the 12 notes on them.  Put them into a jar, shake it up and lift out 4.  Use those 4 notes to write a riff.  Lift out the next set of 4 notes at random and do the same.