Good point. Another way to look at it could be to actually look at the life of a note and analyse how each note starts 'lives' and ends. It could start by picking, tapping, hammered on to, pulled off on to etc. The middle of the note could be how it it bent or shaped by effects, or vibrato and the end is, well, how you choose to end the note.

Pick a solo, or a short excerpt from a solo and work out each note's life and how combinations of notes have different effects on the general music. Rather than just playing notes in any fashion sometimes its good to experiment with things like this. I'm sure I read an article in guitar world years ago about this. Hope it makes sense.