Originally Posted by: SlickString
I know how they did it in the old days but we're all supposed to be so much better at 'finding alternatives' these days!

What do you mean by this? How did they do it in the old days?

I've only been playing electric for a year, and so take this fwiw, but I get into the zone when I am not trying to duplicate a solo, when I'm doing my own thing, expressing myself in the music and with just an idea of what I want to do.

Take Queen's Tie Your Mother Down. I do the first part of the solo by rote. Don't have much fun with it; I'm just repeating notes and trying to be precise. But in the second part, they dubbed in a slide solo. I don't do slide (yet), so on that part I just rip. And have more fun on that part than the first part.

For that reason, I don't spend time writing my own solos and be overly precise about them. I might work out parts that I know I want to hit at certain points, but they are like talking points in a presentation: I just need to get the point in, but the rest is ad lib.

So for me, getting in The Zone is all about freedom. Just feeling that music and playing what I feel. :)