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Supportact said: [my style is] probably more an accumulation of limitations and bad habits than a 'style'.
That said a lot of guitarists will start out with learning the minor pentatonic scale. Learn the shapes (or even just the first position to begin with) and play around with them over some backing tracks. Youtube is your friend here.
You might find that you end up just running up and down parts of the scale and that's fine to begin with as you'll be getting used to the shapes and getting your ears used to the sound but sooner or later you'll want to learn some licks. You can learn licks in isolation or you can learn some solos that you like and steal from them. Very few people truly improvise but instead we mainly rely on stock licks that they'll use to fit the song and what they want to express.
A couple of Justin Sandercoe's videos to help get you started if this is the path you want to take.
I'm going to link to a clearly structured series of lessons that will give you immediate practical learning and instant results for improvising.
It worked for me and I can not recommend it highly enough.
Start here for the basics & intro
:
http://justinguitar.com/en/BL-011-BluesBasics.php
Then continue through the BL- series of lessons.
If you know the pentatonic shapes / patterns, you can skip to the parts that are going to be the most useful re: your question, and those parts are where Justin teaches 5 licks for each position, and, crucially, how to use them to start improvising.
I will point those out in the series of links below.
The scales you need:
http://justinguitar.com/en/BL-012-BluesScales.php
5 licks to learn (it is mis-named on the site as Bends, it is about licks):
http://justinguitar.com/en/BL-013-BluesBends.php
The art of bending:
http://justinguitar.com/en/BL-014-BluesBends.php
How to use licks:
http://justinguitar.com/en/BL-015-BluesUseLicks.php
Keep going - the next scale pattern:
http://justinguitar.com/en/BL-016-MinPentPos2.php
5 licks for pattern 2:
http://justinguitar.com/en/BL-017-BluesLicks2.php
Linking patterns 1 & 2 to improvise:
http://justinguitar.com/en/BL-018-LinkingPos1Pos2.php
Introducing the 'blue note':
http://justinguitar.com/en/BL-019-BluesScale.php
How to play over an intro / ending:
http://justinguitar.com/en/BL-020-IntroEnding.php
Scale pattern 3:
http://justinguitar.com/en/BL-021-MinPentBluesPos3.php
5 licks for pattern 3:
http://justinguitar.com/en/BL-022-Pos3Licks.php
Scale pattern 4:
http://justinguitar.com/en/BL-023-MinPentBluesPos4.php
5 licks for pattern 4:
http://justinguitar.com/en/BL-024-Pos4Licks.php
Scale pattern 5:
http://justinguitar.com/en/BL-025-MinPentBluesPos5.php
5 licks for pattern 5:
http://justinguitar.com/en/BL-026-Pos5Licks.php
Linking all patterns:
http://justinguitar.com/en/BL-027-LinkingPositions.php
Adding some extra notes:
http://justinguitar.com/en/BL-028-DorianApproch.php
Some more licks:
http://justinguitar.com/en/BL-029-DorianLicks.php
Summary:
http://justinguitar.com/en/BL-030-PuttingItTogether.php
Further learning:
http://justinguitar.com/en/BL-102-ScaleChoicesInBlues.php
“Theory is something that is written down after the music has been made so we can explain it to others”– Levi Clay
How long do you practice for?
Have you ever wondered if this "guitar playing" is the main problem?
The ability to play has to come first. Are you able to already play the sort of guitar playing you want to improvise and "be like"?
The other thing, and it might sound odd, but why do you want to improvise? Just curious. Because if your ultimate answer is, "As it happens I don't really want to improvise," then that would go some way to explaining why you've not made progress with it. For what it's worth I don't improvise much; I can, but it's not something I particularly want to do. So I focus on my playing.
Practice. Every day.
Everything will improve after that. Absolutely guaranteed. You could make more progress in one year like this than in the twenty years of structureless non-practice you've already not-practiced. You would be astonished at the level of player you could become compared to where you are now.
And then improvisation will be possible if that's what you choose do do. Because you won't be able to improvise until you can play.
All you really need is:
1) a tuner (cos an out of tune guitar will always sound awful).
2) something like a metronome, and / or a piece of software like Transcibe! -- I.e. something which can help you practice (whatever it is that you are playing) slowly and which you can gradually speed up. Playing it right is the most important thing. And to play it right you've first got to be able to play it slowly.
Now, fair enough, lessons usually help, (for technical and psychological reasons), and having an idea where you're going helps too. But that part is not actually that difficult. I don't know what music you like but if, say, you like "classic rock" then that's what you practice. Pick simple songs of the sort you like and learn how to play them. And if it's taking too long then lower the bar: I.e. don't start with Rush; start with "All Right Now" sort of thing. Common sense.
People sometimes go wrong, get distracted, by a feeling of "I've got to learn everything." No you really don't. You learn what you want to play. If you don't like Blues or Funk then you don't need to spend time practising Blues or Funk. It will still be there for you to learn when you've got good enough at whatever you're mainly into. Basically, you've got to start somewhere so you may as well practice what you enjoy. Cos then you'll enjoy it and keep practising.
Don't dive in to those links just yet.
In light of what you have just said, you need to prepare yourself first.
That was me too .. and then I discovered Justin's lessons.
I went from zero to hero in no time!! lol
Seriously, given what you say here, you MUST start here and work through, making sure you have all the basics in place.
http://justinguitar.com/en/BC-000-BeginnersCourse.php
As you have played a long time, albeit unstructured, you will get through quickly.
Then, you MUST continue and work through here:
http://justinguitar.com/en/IM-000-IntermediateMethod.php
These additional parts will help you :
Technique work:
http://justinguitar.com/en/TE-000-Technique.php
Two suggested practice routines:
http://justinguitar.com/en/PC-501-BeginnersPractice.php
http://justinguitar.com/en/PC-502-IntermediatePractice.php
Both from this sections:
http://justinguitar.com/en/PC-000-Practice.php
And should help with the theory side of things. You'll quickly hear what works and what doesn't for you, theory is just a way of describing that, either to yourself or other people.
Also try this guitarteacher.com/2010/03/01/modal-jam-tracks-a-dorian-mode/
Also: Getting a looper and realising frustration IS NOT an invitation to feel bad, but an invitation to do stuff...
that stuff is great advice.
Improvisation is not composition. AND whatever anyone else says Theory has VERY VERY LITTLE impact on Improvisation. I'd argue it has very little to do with real composition either - it's just handing you a list of safe notes... whereas the reality is rhythm dictates where to play the safe notes, for all other occassions there's the "unsafe"/interesting notes.
If you want to get improvisation identify the parts of other people's music that you love and steal them. Where people bang on endlessly about modes and scales - they needn't - most of what you love about music is the rhythm, here, watch this!
... and of what's left most is the timbre of the tiny parts left after that there's technique and after that it's notes (of which there are several octaves on a guitar - two accessible per scale pattern AND ... Miles Davis (one of the most famous improvisors - deservedly, of all time) had a two octave range on his trumpet - so unlocking the entire neck isn't necessary to have all the notes available to Davis... it's a nice to have and a goal for the distance.
Some books I'd recommend are Victor Wooten's the music lesson (it's about the context of music), Daniel Levitin's This is your brain on music (again about the purpose and context of music) and Philip Toshio Sudo's Zen Guitar (it's about why we're doing it)
Figure out the why and the how comes naturally. To improvise you've got to make lots of mistakes (as Einstein says: anyone who's never made a mistake has never done anything of worth) so get used to making them AND more importantly learning from them and recoverring from them.
Justin Sandercoe is a really great guy, his lessons are full of insight and his understanding of the guitar and music - he explains things using modes and scales but is not beholden to them in his own compositions and back in 2005 when I fancied being a shredder and uber-theorist (three cycle of fifths to define modes of major, minor and jazz minor with interstials to show the relationships, anyone?) it was Justin who brought me down to earth - it's rhythm and knowing what notes you think sound good on the strong beats of the bar... that is all there is to it... nothing more.
(to be fair, it was me who told him to use youtube to viral market the site.. )
After running through that course of lessons I find I can now do some improv over backing tracks but what I found much cooler was when learning songs I knew what scale was being used and could often pickup the rest of the solo without tab because I had a choice of notes to start with.
Wow, someone who is in the same boat as me!
As a 43 year old who has been toying with the guitar for about 8/10 years I was getting frustrated.
I finally bit the bullet and started lessons with the intention of taking my grades.
The first thing I was taught was the Major scale and the modes of this scale. Bear with me on this as I know you say you struggled with scales.
Now I do not know off by heart all the notes in all the positions but I am working towards it, a good start is to know all the root notes.
Anyways, I bought myself a Digitech Jam master loop pedal, played a riff with the chords G, C & D and improvised over it. Using the G major scale I was able to make a reasonable noise which boosted my confidence no end. Then I started to venture out into the other modes and it still sounded good.
As mentioned above start slowly, use rhythm and just enjoy it!
The more time you spend playing the better you'll get.