I have trouble attributing adjectives to notes. I've always had decent relative pitch (I could pick out Mary Had a Little Lamb anywhere on the fretboard), and with some work it became just about perfect. Absolute perfect pitch, however, is something I've only just been recently working on. I can tell a G is a G and not some other note because I hear it and just know it's a G, however, it's not because it sounds "bright" or "dark" or "stubborn" or "green" or whatever the hell they suggest you picture it as... I just listen and know it's a G. Why use adjectives?

I've never been a fan of using things to help you remember. Ex - My next biggest hobby after music and shooting pool is playing cards. I was working on a system to memorize every card that has been played (not to cheat at blackjack, but helpful in any game, like spades, for example). I purchased a Memory Improvement book which suggested that I had a mental picture to attribute to each card. Helpful? No way, instead of memorizing what card came out, you have to memorize the picture, AND memorize what picture belongs to what card. I don't even like the EGBDF = Every Good Boy Does Fine way of learning the musical staff. Hell, just take some time and memorize it. Don't memorize 5 WORDS when you can memorize 5 LETTERS insteaed... Sorry for the rant, I just woke up and I'm not a morning person.

Oh, and a final note about humming solos - I find that humming does NOT help me with creating solos, I generally am playing a bit faster than I can hum. HOWEVER, humming ideas does help me establish melodic motives and themes for songs, as well as helping me to mimic the singer in a call and response type fashion. It's a good way to come up with a melodic, slow solo. I mean, it's difficult to hum something bad over a progression - my mind won't allow me to hum anything that sounds stupid :)