Guitar Shape Shifter Curse (Part 2)

In Guitar Shape Shifter Curse part one we discussed why it’s a good idea to break away from our “safe zone” in music, why we should be listening to new ideas all the time and always learning new things. In this post I’m going to explain some ways in which you can get out of your current musical rut, or break through that plateau in your technique.

If your guitar playing is starting to sound a but “samey” then you need to go back and really listen to not only what you’re playing, but how you’re playing it. If it’s a chords or speed issue, is there any way you could improve your technique to make things easier? There are plenty of resources on my website dedicated to helping you with your technique: my blog articles on technique, guitar exercises, or head over to my YouTube channel. However, if the problem lies with the sound and overall style of your playing, then it’s a whole different issue. What should you learn next?

Exercise One- The Lick Learning Game

This is the first technique I would use if I found myself getting stuck in a rut musically. Set yourself a genre, or even a band or guitarists will do; now learn 10 new licks or riffs from your chosen genre. The licks have to be entirely new to you and (this is the fun part) you have to be able to use them in a solo, in context. This simple exercise can lead to you discovering new scales and techniques that you never new existed before. It does help alot if the licks are ones that you like the sound of- in fact I’m making that a rule! If you’re a rock guy I dare you to listen to some Jazz, find 10 licks that you like the sound of (they don’t have to be guitar licks, that’s part of the beauty of it), learn them and how to use them…then…(and this is the great part) then you have to use them back in a rock context.

This is easier than it sounds. Say you found a lick from a Jazz Saxophonist played over a II-V-I Jazz progression in A minor -sounds complicated, right? Well, yes and no. Break it down into separate chords and you might have Bmin7b5 – E7 – Amin7. Sure are some crazy sounding chords there. So just take the part of the lick over that A minor (i.e. the last chord). You can then “copy and paste” that into your own playing whenever you have an A minor chord- of course, you don’t have to do it every time, just every now and then. This will allow you to create your own licks based on, maybe a fusion of the A minor pentatonic and the “some-crazy-jazz-sax” scale. You don’t even need to know what the name of the scale is, just that it works over an A minor. By all means analyse it further if you like, but you don’t have to. Later you will start to notice the intervals that you like the sound of, that the Jazz guy was using, but until then just go with what sounds good.

Exercise Two- Identify Quick-Fire Licks

These licks aren’t all a bad thing, unless they are overused. Go and listen (via YouTube, if you must…*sigh*) to “Free Bird” by Lynyrd Skynyrd (that is spelt correctly, and I think my spellchecker just exploded trying to analyse that one…) and go to the solo at the end if you want to hear rapid-fire licks in action (I say the end, it takes up the latter half of the song!). These are the “instinctual” licks for most rock players, and here they are used well. When you’re playing something fast that doesn’t require much thought using these repeating licks is a no-brainer (not even sure if I intended that pun…), and I actively encourage their use in the right situations.

So what’s the problem? The problem is when we use only rapid repeating licks there’s no room for melody. Melodies have to be thought about, and they’re the most musical part of your soloing technique inventory. So what you need to do is identify those licks that you fall back on in your playing, the ones that you rely on when you’re uninspired, and try and minimize their use. The things I’m talking about are those classic pentatonic licks as seen in “Free Bird”, but it also includes sweep picking (no real thought, just arpeggios), and scale runs. If you use them only where necessary you will find that their impact is greatly increased.

In Conclusion

What I want you to take away from this article is that you really need to be an active listener of your own playing. You need to be able to see yourself as a musician in an objective light. Don’t just tell yourself that your style is “Rock”, “Metal” or “Jazz”, that’s not enough. I want you to be able to see who you are beyond that, beyond the genre. The genre you play in shouldn’t and doesn’t change or define who you are. So what’s your real style?

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December 12, 2009 at 12:00 pm | Guitar Technique and Exercises, Practicing and Practice Routine | 1 comment

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