Originally posted by beginner
To incedents happen:

So what do you practice when you practicew improvisation? How long have you playing the guitar?

Give me tips how i should learn these important guitar things and how i should learn them.

That's Incidents*
The thing about improvisation is that there are no rules, no laws, no boundaries, no time limits. There is a whole lotta' nothing, and you have to learn to make something out of nothing. That is one form of improvisation called "Free-Form", or as I like to call it "Space-Form". Other types of improvisation include improvising during solos (every solo I play is improvised, to some degree). I'm a lead guitarist in a Jam-Band, I'm not sure if you know what that means, but basically it means that the solos are longer, less flashy, and usually more in depth (If you follow "The Dead" route, that is). I pride myself on not being a flashy guitarist, when so many guitarists are. Occasionally I'll throw in some flashy Blues-Licks during the 2nd and 3rd sets, but that's only because every once in a while I enjoy that. You have to spend time with your instrument, learning as much as you can. It doesn't matter what you learn, as long as you are learning. I have a good technique, in that my pinky finger is as strong as any other finger on my hand, and I use all four fingers, all the time, whereas most guitarists' pinkies tend to be dead weight (don't respond en masse with "I use my pinky!!"; that's great, but you aren't everyone else).

I play alot of my solos on what you'd call the 'clean' channel. Distortion is nice, but most guitarists over-do it, because they want to sound like Jimmy Page or Hendrix (etc). Let me tell you right now; if you learn to solo with distortion, you will have bad habits. Guarranteed. Distortion covers up several flaws in guitarists' techniques; What I'm saying is, learn to solo on the clean channel first, make sure every note is there, and full of power. You may say "Well, it sounds weak when i have no distortion on....." You have to learn to make the notes powerful, and ring true. I personally guarrantee it, if you can make a clean note sound powerful (think John Lee Hooker, powerful...or think whoever you want, i don't care), once you put the distortion/overdrive on, it will sound much better than if you started out with distortion.

And lastly, look; Not everyone is meant to be a lead guitarist. There is nothing wrong with rhythm guitar, you might be the kind of person that would play rhythm guitar. The first thing you have to understand is that some people simply never grasp the concept of lead guitar, and will always play rhythm guitar. These are the people that spend 4-5 hours a day playing rhythm guitar, and become very good at it. You may be the type that plays lead, or maybe you're the type that plays both. Only time will tell.

~Incidents