For inspriation....

When you seem to not be able to come up with any new riffs,licks, or progressions...what do you turn to for inspiration????

Usually I will look up tabs for a song and learn it, that way I am doing seomthing different.

I'd keep improvising till I get something interesting that I'd use it as the base to build other riffs on it.

If nothing interesting seems to float around , then I'll stop pushing myself ... Certainly there would be a better day for writing in a couple of weeks or something.

For me , if I tried listening to some music or playing it , it get stuck in my head and everything I come up with sounds similar to someone else's music , and I prefer being original as far as I can.

[Edited by SLY on 03-29-2003 at 07:04 PM]

I go to a place that inspires me, and play.

Usually, I'll look for a different sound (effect) to get me going. Being a gear-head, I always come up with some new creative licks while I'm messing around with my guitar processor.
-Bob
http://guitar-wav.com

I'm Not taking the piss here at all, listen to bird song! If you rip off some bird you wont' get sued...
My personal favourite's probably the European Blackbird (Turdus Merula) but there are excellent birds to listen to worldwide.
Some birds can sing two different notes at once? They produce their songs from their SYRINXes, V shaped fork in where their bronchus splits into the two pipes called bronchi which lead to their lungs. The muscles of each bronchus can produce different notes. Some can even sing one note whilst modulating the other.
What's more I'm sure that a lot of bird song is built on recognisably consonant scale forms, I think a musical ear is something common to birds and humans alike, perhaps this is only to expected given that for a particular length of resonating material particular harmonic overtones are more natural anyway.

I would just sit with my guitar and thinks of all the ideas i have, and mixed them. Kind of my favourite pastime.

Originally posted by u10ajf
I'm Not taking the piss here at all, listen to bird song! If you rip off some bird you wont' get sued...

Cool , thanx for the legal advice dude ! :D

LOL

if ya need inspiration you should listen [in order] to
ritchie blackmores rainbow
elegant gypsy Al Di Meola
ceremony Spooky tooth
any early genesis album
The first doors album


this all may be an aquired taste for people but it works for me [especially when stoned] but then again im stuck in a timewarp,i play classical guitar and i like jazz/fusion so it shows how unhermit like i am

Cool!
Who are your classical influences? Favorite peices to play?

What fusion guys do you listen too? Do you like other forms of jazz too?

The most inspiring thing for me is:

Buying a new guitar *L* everytime i do that i come up with new stuff - sadly i dont do it too often :(

Watching Concert-videos. IT inspires me big time when i see a great guitarrist doing stuff live. got myself the satch DVD "live in San Francisco" and its most inspiring.

Buying a new Album. Everytime i buy a new album its also ful of inspiration.

Yeah, i've gotten real into collecting video's/dvd's over the past couple of yrs. The Satch one is real good, and it was filmed real nice too. I also recommend;
Stevie Ray Vaughn, Live at the El Macombe (sp?)
Paco de Lucia, Shadows and light

I couldn't tell ya... When I get some inspiration, I'll let you know :)

that's pretty cool....is the video still available?

For me there's 2 ways of getting inspiration. One is to start listening to stuff other than your normal fare. If you usually just listen to rock and blues I recommend country, jazz, folk and flamenco as the best sources of inspirational fretwork. Way back, I just used to listen to metal/hard rock speed merchants. Since then Ive found a lot more to inspire me by listening to country pickers like Albert Lee, Jerry Reed and Chet Atkins. Some of the top progressive bluegrass flatpickers are also pretty awesome, especially Dan Crary and Tony Rice. Also dont just listen to current and recent stuff but try and trace your way back to the originals like Charlie Christian, George van Eps and Django.

Second approach I use is to try all sorts of different tunings. If you're one of those who just sticks with EADGBE you're missing out big time. Recommended listening? anything by Leo Kottke, Martin Simpson, Don Ross or John Renbourn for starters.

cool noone has ever thought my influences were cool [oh yeah i can only go online every saturday so if i take ages to reply dont think im being anti social]wow now im gonna go on and on and on about my music taste.

i like a lot of brazillian players like Garoto and anything by Heitor Villa Lobos. theres not a lot out there for classical guitar unless you know where to look. Segovia is god.i like all the typical Bach,Paganini,Beethoven. Choral music is great [eg Britten,Vaughn Williams etc].

Fusion i like Al Di Meola and John Mclaglan [typical choices] john schofield is great. I love the bass playing of Jaco Pastorias all stuff like that.

i love all the old jazz and blues players as well i like anything like that. i also like rock and metal but i prefer this kinda stuff althogh mahogany rush kik ass . i let rock and roll be in my off stage [and sometimes on] antics[ive crashed cars and stuff likethat] rather than be my musical focus.

i know ican go on and on but im not its cool that someone else like fusion and classical .is there any player/band someone could turn me onto cos i need more influences? anyone else got different influences?

its great when players who start with rock [like me] get into more styles i find where i live all the guitarists are very very closed minded.they all want to be nirvana [who are great but there is more]i was wondering what age all you guys are and what age you started cos i started at 12 and im 18 now. and ive been playing all day everyday [well at least 6 hours everyday] for like 6 years. anyone else do that or are there any natural virtuosos here? i got a friend whos been playing 3 years and hes become a god its scary especially seeing as when he started he could work out songs by ear. i wish i could do that

wow!
Frank Marino and Mahogany Rush, there's a blast from the past. The live album is still one of my favorite rock albums, wish I still had a copy.
As far as good fusion players, I don't have a whole lot of time to post right now ( I'm at work)but Mike Stern was always one of my favorites.

You might want to take a look at this series of articles:
http://www.guitarnoise.com/songwriting.html
It's probably better general songwriting/inspiration advice than I could ever come up with on my own.