Originally Posted by: BlackCatAlleyHey folks,
This is something i've been meaning to ask for a year or two now, but i've just never had the chance to. So here it goes:
[u]A little context:[/u]
I've been playing the guitar (both electric and acoustic) for around 13 years now. I started playing easy pop songs you would hear on the radio back in the day, then moved on to metal, and then after stumbling upon the blues i've never looked back since!
Now, when i started playing the blues it was just a simple 12 bar chord progression, and then i started learning lots of licks and details to add to my playing. It got quite repetitive, so i started learning blues songs by many of the great blues guitar players (some included solos, some didn't). Now, i'm currently learning travis picking on my acoustic. It's been a challenge but it's been an amazing experience and i've been getting much much better at the guitar and blues in general. Playing songs by doc watson. chet atkins and tommy emmanuel has been a lot of fun and i can't wait to learn more. I've really been jamming to some country blues - specifically country blues solos. I find the technique used and the sound that comes out of a telecaster to be beautiful. It's something i wish to learn in the future alongside blues rhythm and soloing.
[u]My question:[/u]
What i'm trying to ask is this: All my life i've been learning/playing covers note for note. I've learned many licks, learned different variations of the blues, but for some reason i don't know how to connect all of it. For instance, when a guitarist plays a solo, he/she does it effortlessly. They know what they want to play, and where to put their fingers on the fretboard to emit the sound they are looking for. Or when a guitarist wants to play rhythm, they would add all these different licks to spice it up a bit.
I'm wondering if anyone knows a way i could move from learning covers note for note to taking all those licks and rhythm guitar progressions i've learned throughout the years and making them into something of my own.
I don't know if i'm a little late to start learning this since i'm an intermediate to advance guitar player, but any advice or direction would be greatly appreciated!!
Thanks!
I think learning songs is a great thing and very helpful in learning guitar. The short answer is; gotta just fool around a little more.
In a way, that's kinda it. I'm much the opposite of what you'd described. I've been playing for decades, am a pretty decent player, but I've long been of the 'noodling' school. Sure, I learn parts of songs and licks etc. Then I would just noodle with these song bits to see if I could come up with a way to put some cool idea of my own from the licks I learned but in another context.
It's really just experiementing.
My wife gets peeved because I'll noodle out something she thinks is cool and not capture it on tape. I kinda do that all the time. It's more natural to me to learn but then try to do something with that little trick or lick but not try to be so structured about it.
My approach has shortcomings as I've been learning a lot of songs lately just to see what really good players and composers do that might makes their songs and playing special. I was a cherry picker. Only do what caught my ear and not really dig in further.
It's a balance but you do need to let yourself go and just goof off with your playing and when it strikes you, work on an idea you caught in a song and see if you can make it yours. This just allows you to see that what you learned from others can be molded by you in to something of your own. Recently, I co-opted a little Albert Lee for a pseudo-country lick of my own. Not easy for me to play correctly but that's the point, it's a pretty cool lick but it'll take time to really get it down.
The moral of the story is; these players screwed around a lot, made tons of mistakes but stuck with it until they got down their ideas. The certainty you see in the great players is borne from lots and lots and lots of mistakes, janky sounding riffs and a willingness to turn that hot mess in to something that works.
