I've been playing guitar for more years than I care to remember and most of that time has been spent learning songs. Over the years I've learned some quite challenging solos, but all I've really learned is where to put my fingers and when. What I'd really like to be able to do is just put on a random jam track or join a jam, and simply improvise. I've started trying to do this, but I think I'm hitting a way. I Know my 5 Pentatonic shapes, I can add the notes from the minor scale, I can move around the neck reasonably well, and I know a few nice licks in each position, but when I improvise, it largely just sounds like mindless noodling in a scale. It strikes me that what I'm really missing is melody, but I can't find an obvious way of getting that into my playing. I've heard people say 'follow the chords' but if I put on a random jam track or simply join a jam, I only really know what key I'm in, not the chords.
Are there some general rules I should be following for incorporating melody? Are there things I can focus on and practice with this?
My 'model' for the approach I want to take is Adrian Smith as everything he does seems to be based on melody and then he throws in a few flashy licks to keep things interesting and impressive. It seems to me that if I can get more melody into my playing, this would be a very workable approach as I already have the basic scale shapes and some licks. I can't find any courses that I can buy that covers this, so any help and advice would be gratefully received.
Comments
So first learn to recognise what chords are being played in their interval sense .... for example your standard blues would use the 1, 4 and 5 ..... a common pop / rock song will often be something like 1, 5, m6, 4
The reason I say interval sense is because this is not key dependent. If you know the chord has just changed from the root key chord (tonic) to the 5 chord then it doesn't matter what key you are in, you just go to the 5th scale degree in that key. So if the first chord was A and then you hear it move to the 5 it's moved to E ..... if the first chord was G and you hear it move to the 5 then it's D
Once you know how to recognise what chords are being played you can then target note within those chords that will sound pleasing. The most common notes targeted by melodic players like Gilmour and Knopfler are the 3rd and the 5th and they generally bend or slide into these notes as the chord changes. That's what sounds pleasing, when the solo is in harmony with the chords.
This is an amateurish video I made demonstrating how easy this technique is once you know what chords are being played and what the notes are in those chords.
As far as pentatonic positions etc I would forget all about those. Just think in terms of notes and intervals and don't let you hands fall into those positions as when you do you generally find it fits but it's not that interesting melody wise
Apart from those with great ears and exceptional natural melodic sensibilities (Chet Baker instantly springs to mind and he allegedly had next to NO understanding of musical theory!), there are things you can do to help improve this.
Make being melodic your default position when you play. As soon as you start noodling STOP. Play slowly, take your time, absorb and internalise the sound you’re producing. Imagine how the next note is going to sound before you hit it. Do this over a single chord vamp, then gradually include more chords.
Playing 1, 3 & 5 also seems to be important, and unless I'm mistaken, isn't this essentially a triad? I keep hearing that melodic players use triads but I've never been sure how to use them. Finally, while I know scale shapes, would it help if I took the time to learn more about the CAGED system? As that seems to be based around chord shapes, doesn't that mean that using this technique would help me to target the triad notes of 1, 3 & 5?
C D E F G A B C
So your 1 is C, your 3rd is E and your fifth is G .... so a basic C maj triad is C-E-G
Now transpose that theory into G maj
G A B C D E F# G
Your triad is now G-B-D
To make a maj scale minor flatten the 3rd, 6 and 7th by one semitone
In use a lot of players will often incorporate arpeggios made from the 1, 3 and 5 into their solo's .... the first solo of comfortably numb does this a lot, sultans of swing solo and fills are mainly arp based .... shredding is pretty much all arps .... moving to outline the chords
As others have already said - target chord tones.
Tension and release - for instance, over an A chord, play an F# note immediately followed by an E, or maybe B followed an A. Gives a sense of resolution.
Pentatonic noodling - as you’ve already mentioned this can sound dangerously like just going up and down scales. So skip strings or notes to avoid this.
Don't feel you have to fill every available space. Leave gaps.
This was initially for transcribing ,but it can kinda help you to find melodies by imagining what you could sing over it
A lot of people get into the habit of learning a scale then playing that scale as improvisation ....but in its raw form it's still just a scale iff played as you would a scale ....
Honestly you could play full good solos just on 2 strings with good phrasing
That comes from your head, not your fingers. From the OP, it sounds like you’re thinking about scales and guitar shapes rather than thinking about what would sound good - that’s precisely why you get something dull out of the guitar.
Supportact said: [my style is] probably more an accumulation of limitations and bad habits than a 'style'.
Also, this works regardless of what level of theory or fretboard knowledge you have, whether it’s just 1 pentatonic box or total harmonic and fretboard domination!
Babies and young children learn to speak by imitating what their parents say. Mama, Dada, etc. In school they learn that these sounds can be written down using combinations of 26 letters. Thus concepts and ideas can be communicated to others. And they learn that a small change in the letters used can mean something completely different. C-A-T can become B-A-T by changing one letter. But to communicate something, speech or writing, WORDS are used rather than individual letters. Apart from the 'A', most words are combinations of letters drawn from the 26 letter alphabet.
The parallel with music is obvious. We have many musical scales and music is created by using notes from a scale. What I suggest is that you create music words from the music scale, music words that can be used whenever the situation demands. To create the words, I suggest you play a CD of some music that is 'slow' in chord changes. I use a CD of The Fureys & Davy Arthur and try to supplement the harmonies with my own. Any that I think work, I write down on Tab sheet. A musical word can be anywhere from a single note to six or seven notes in length. If the word works and makes sense, transcribe it into other keys and see if it works in the octave region of the guitar.
I doubt if most 'improvised' music is truly off the cuff, but a number of music words can give the listener the impression that you are improvising. Which would happen if you played the music words in different combinations.
To compile the words I use real music as I find backing tracks to be boring and soulless. And definitely not inspiring. Ten or twenty music words will give you lots of scope to improvise.
As I said at the beginning, people don't speak in letters, they use words. Thinking in this way might wean you off endless playing of scales and hoping that some useful sounds will emerge, give the creation of music words a go and let us know if it works for you.
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