Originally Posted by: Slashycoco

Hello everyone!

I need help with regards to the core training specifically blues and rock. I am aiming to be able to play a solo or improvise on licks so I practice on the two courses as I really like both genres. I really practice the licks and try to understand what I can(root note, repetition, rhythm). However when its time to improvise on the lick and play together with Anders Mouridsen, I just can'tseem to keep up. So I move on to the next lick that he is going to teach without being able to really jam and improvise on the lick. I then try to improvise on all the licks that i have learned but I fail.

My question is, should I keep learning new concepts and licks? Or should I stick to one lesson/lick until I am comfortable with it?

Also adding to the thread; learn songs and play along with them.

So many players skipped learning songs just for the sake of learning them (like I did) and completely miss out on the benefit of just learning playing along. You realize things like how these artists built themes by using licks and riffs.

It's like a vocabulary.; you don't speak in random freeform jazz improvisation, why would you play that way? You learn speech and patterns in order to communicate in a way people understand. Music is the same way. When you learn songs, it's a bit like mimicing your parents when you were a baby, you learn the 'language'.

You also see themes and ideas and how they are developed. Which, when looking to improvise, helps.

I am not a master improvisor because I spent many years being lazy and only learning songs when I needed to (like when I played in a band)...Mistake.