Anyone else get that thing with improvising .....

axisus

Where you regurgitate the same old garbage for months on end, sometimes just casting the guitar away as it's soooooooo uninspired ...... then out of the blue you hit a purple patch and for a few days it seems like someone else is playing, and so much cool stuff falls out of your fingers ...... then before you know it, it's gone and you are back to dire stuff.

Note: this is all 'relative' to my standard, so the purple patches aren't actually amazing, just a few levels up on my usual stuff.

JAYJO

Effortless Mastery by Kenny Werner . If you have not read it i would recommend you get a copy. even if yo don't use the exercises its a great read. 

sweepy

I try and sing the melody in my head, not always easy but it’s important to have a sense of space as well as the individual notes, if that makes any sense, 

relic245

For me, a different sound usually gets me out of the rut. 

I tend to play one guitar for a while. At the moment it's my tele and the 335 has been hanging on the wall for months. I know when I do pick up the gibson again I'll play completely different things. 

The HX-FX has made a difference too. I have a very simple set up with it but every now and then change the flavour of overdrive that I'm using. Not radically different but just a slightly different sound seems to perk my ears up and open up new possibilities. 

flying_pie

The number of times I've improvised riffs  being delighted with the end result... only to discover they are in fact existing Rammstein or Metallica riffs I already knew but in a different key

JezWynd

I have it with my all my playing. I live in a repetitive rut for months relieved by occasional flashes of comprehension that lift my playing up where it settles into its new rut. Rinse and repeat ad nauseam. Ploughing that rut is important though, it fixes the knowledge in your mind and fingers (that's what I tell myself; who am I kidding?!)

Snap

Yes, very much!

@jayjo I bought the book just now, cheers for that.

JAYJO

Snap said:

Yes, very much!

@jayjo I bought the book just now, cheers for that.

i am re-reading my copy. I never got around to using the cd. Maybe this time. Hope you enjoy it. its a keeper imo.

Springywheel

If I find myself stuck in a creative rut, I’ll start listening to some music I’m not too familiar with and learn it by ear, then write out a bunch of drills based on that music to help me break out of fingerings/patterns I’ve become too accustomed to. How familiar are you with modes, other than major and aeolian? I’ve been spending time learning them recently as well as more exotic scales and they usually help keep my improvisations interesting (to me anyway). Something I’ve been working on is switching modes throughout an improv, sometimes within the same lick. I guess the most common form of this is the major/minor switch in blues, but you can also go from Dorian to Aeolian, Phrygian to Dorian, Major to Mixolydian, Lydian to Major etc. Sounds better when this is done all within the same confined space on the fretboard. Obviously this depends on the chords being played.. I sometimes like to keep my backing chords stripped back, i.e. with just a root, fifth and octave, at least during the a solo as this allows more room to manoeuvre 

thomasross20

I honestly prefer composition.

WiresDreamDisasters

Yes I get this. William Burroughs once said he threw away 80% of everything he ever wrote. It's just part of the process for me. Write loads of stuff, only use the good bits. Takes a long time, but it's fun when you get to the end of a song and you remember all the nooks and crannies you explored with it.

(ooo, and indeed errrr, missus)

rossyamaha

There are a few of the things I’ve found work that are really simple and cheap but very effective. 

Learn sax lines. Not too far away from guitar but very useful to steal. 

Jam with tracks online that are totalky out out of your comfort zone but learn a scale that fits with it. Different keys are also useful in this. I always had a hard time playing in non guitar friendly keys. This helps. 

Change yiur string gauge. Going heavier makes you play different. Slows you down and makes you think more. 

Use a guitar for something its not not intended for. Shred on a 335. Metal on a tele. Country on a Strindberg. You get the idea. 

LastMantra

I play mainly pentatonic stuff ('cause that's what I like!) but usually when I pick up my guitar I just try to play the notes in an order or in a way I've never played them before.

That's if I don't already have something in my mind.

Jalapeno

JAYJO said:

Effortless Mastery by Kenny Werner .

It is good, but a lot of Budhist theory can make it hard going.  Not the easiest font either.

See also:

Zen Guitar

Improvise for Real

The Inner-Game of Music

Legba

I have'nt played in bands for years... but I do think playing with other guys can get you out of those uninspiring ruts... on a few occasions I do, as they say... " Fall down the stairs and land on my feet!" and wonder; how did the hell I just play that and normally can't reproduce it at will!  The wonders of guitar playing eh!

Funkfingers

In my late teens and early twenties, I used to crib heavily from the Mickey Baker Jazz guitar tutor book. My failure to work through the exercises correctly often took me into previously unexplored territory.

WiresDreamDisasters said:

It's just part of the process for me. Write loads of stuff, only use the good bits.

The Rolling Stones' modus operandi when preparing to record an album is to record EVERYTHING at the pre-production sessions. If Keef stumbles across a great idea, it is captured for posterity. There is no need to trust to memory. He just has to relearn it a few months later. The idea should also have been recorded at a quality level that, if necessary, could be spliced in to a full-on recording.