How Does A Guitar Player... Just Play???

Hey guitarman, welcome to guitarnoise! I think what you're talking about is improvising. There are many lessons on this and it involve scales. :)

Scales, man, it's the scales.

I'm sort of the opposite of you I guess. I can't play a whole lot of songs but can make lots of stuff up on the spot or come up with melodies. It's just sooo much easier for me to create something than it is to play something somebody else wrote. I guess that's because there's no set standard of how it should sound, I determine that.

Blah, I need to practice more....

I don't know how well I can explain, but I'll give it a try. For some it comes easy others it take lots of hard work, dedication, and determination. Speaking for myself it's second nature mainly because thats how I originally began playing guitar. Improvising to the radio and album's in those day's. Then I moved on to expanding my knowledge with the academic side. Only to find my self forgetting everything I know till the next line comes along.

It's really not hard to. Mainly spending time practicing, studying, and partying. It's a combination of things all added together which Will product positive results. Building up a personal repertoire of everything from songs to scales and anything in between. On top of all of this, you'll have to use your imagination. Then pick and choose what will reflect your musical character.

Kept things pretty simple, your choice of technique, passing tones, phrasing , timing is what can make the difference. One of the things that I see far to often is guitarist invariably try to play far too many notes in their guitar solos. The key to a great guitar solo often lies as much within the space between the notes as it does with the actual notes. Achieving results takes patience, commitment and a great deal of focus.

The pace of the journey can generally seem slow and often caused your mind to wonder. Believe that you will succeed, and you will.

Joe

No new tips to add, I just wanted to welcome you to the musical madhouse.

Achieving results takes patience, commitment and a great deal of focus.

I think thats the answer: No shortcuts!

I appreciate all the help and cool welcomes. Now where do I start? I like blues, rock, hard rock, metal, etc. What type of scales do I need to practice to "improvise" and just "jam"?

Hi, and welcome to GN. You might want to click the ling in my signature.

Steve Vai does some really cool stuff in that head-cutting duel... but if you're talking about that crazy shred thing Ralph Macchio does at the end, that's a variation on Paganini's 5th Caprice.

Seriously, though, that stuff is at least a few years off, even for you - you'll remember enough from your old lessons eventually, but the rest of it is practice, practice, practice.

Guitar man,

I've been playing a little over two years and I just reached the "just play" level. As a couple others have said, it's all about scales.

I'm a hard rock/metal guy and I think if you learn the following scales you will be on your way:

1. Major Scale
2. Pentatonic Minor Scale

Once you know these two like the back of your hand you will be able to just move up and down the fretboard intuitively without thinking. That's what I do.

And it's funny...I started off trying to learn other people's songs and now I hate it. I'd rather mess around and improvise...you end up creating good stuff.

KY

Well I'm one of the people that can't just play but want to. One of the things I'm working on is ear training. It's supposed to help with putting what's in your head onto the guitar.

i think blues really helps with improvisation. 8)

i think blues really helps with improvisation. 8)

Yeah, I started out with pentatonic blues shuffles. Just spending that first twenty minutes soloing over a song was the single biggest jump I've made in my playing.

I know that I am NO where near being able to improvise yet.. But, like others have said, I would really like to learn to.

I am getting better and better at my scales but one thing I dont understand is how you move up the fretboard.. Up as in higher numbered frets. Not sure if I am making sense.

Jim

Does anyone have any cool sounding stuff out there that they could share? I know with tab, there is no sense of timing, but some metal improvising tab would help. Thanks.