Originally Posted by: hdoran

I felt the same way for a long time (and sometimes still do). So, here is what I have done and recommend as an option. First, steal one lick from a player. I just recently did this with the lick

Chris Schlegel has this lick at about 0:14 found at this lesson.

https://www.guitartricks.com/lesson.php?input=16551&s_id=1219

Learn this one lick (or one you like). Do nothing more than play this one lick over and over again until you have it down. Then, add in your own variaitons on the lick. Change the tempo, add in a slide, hammer on, change the bend, add or subtract a note, and so on. Just take a tried and true lick and squeeze as ,uch out of it as you possibly can.

Don't try and move up and down the fretboard with more notes. Adopt the philosophy that less is more.

I have done this for about the last 6 month learning one small lick at a time and then adding in my own flavor to each lick.

Now I have a set of go-to licks at different parts of the fretboard but I can play each of them in a different way so I can get a lot of mileage from each lick.

I saw a BB King interview where he says he thinks of soloing like walking through a neighborhood. He visits one part of the fretboard (neighborhood) and stays there for a while, then moves to a different neighborhood and hangs out there for a while and so on.

In the end, I have become more successful when I just stopped trying to learn too much. I decided to learn one and only one lick and how to add variaiton to it. I only started adding in more licks once I was very proficient with the first one.

I think this is great advice!!! It wasn't a concious decision, but this is the approach that eventually worked for me.

Adopt the philosophy that less is more.

^^^ YES!! I need to remind myself of this. When I listen back to things I've played, it's not the speedy things that jump out at me as "that was cool", inevitably it's something else...some rhythmic thing, clever note sequence, etc. Most of us want to play faster...and that's cool. Rather than think "once I can play fast, THEN I can play", embrace what it is you can do at the moment and be creative with it...use the less is more approach.

Thanks for sharing that BB King quote...hadn't heard that. I had to laugh because I've found myself doing that on longer jam tracks. I've also found myself in "strange neighborhoods" and discovered some interesting things.