So many guitar players have the same problem. We spend time practicing and learning ideas, concepts, and techniques, but we never spend time teaching ourselves how to apply them. I am sure the majority of you have learned a new scale and can play it on the fret board in several positions yet when it comes time for improvising or using it in a musical context, you seem to be lost! I can’t over stress the importance of learning how to use everything you learn right away.

Anyone can teach his or her fingers to use a scale, but the act of applying is what seems to be overlooked. A great way I have taught myself to use different aspects of guitar playing is to write something with what I have just learned during the process of learning it. It is also important to study all aspects of the topic you are learning. Not only should you learn a scale, but its corresponding chord formula as well. Know how each part of what you are learning can be applied in your composition and relate to the music.

Let’s be realistic, it is not hard to find someone that can play the guitar well. What separates professionals from the rest is that they can CREATE music, not regurgitate it. Sure, it doesn’t hurt you to sit in your room and transcribe an Yngwie or Dream Theater tune but the reason they have had successful careers, and many other talented guitar players have not, is that they can apply their knowledge and create. If you spend lots of time learning songs, don’t just learn the notes, learn the whys? Understand why the particular guitar player uses the notes he or she does over the chord. Learn how these notes complement the overall composition of the piece. Know how everything relates to each other.

Many guitarists spend most of their practice time learning other player’s licks. The problem with just learning licks is how to apply them in your own solos. The result for most players is that the licks usually sound premeditated and out of place, like the particular cool lick or phrase was forced into a solo or song. Listeners can tell when you are copying someone else’s style or sound, so if you learn how to create your own phrases you will not be dependent on copying someone else again. You will be CREATING your own unique music and when it comes out it will be you!

Don’t feel that you have to be at a high level of technique or understanding of theory to begin to write songs. Some of the most celebrated pop artists of our time had little knowledge of music theory and average technique. They just knew how to apply all of their knowledge into their music. They CREATED. Taking the time to put improvising and song writing into your practice schedule is well worth it.

Here is a little exercise that may help start you on the process of creating your own licks and phrases. Let’s say you are working on a five note A minor pentatonic sequence and your notes are C, D, C, A, G, E in that order. Create a pattern or sequence with these notes. After you have memorized this sequence, move it to all of the places it is playable on the guitar neck. After you have accomplished this you can start to apply it to several different scales. For example, you can take the same fingering sequence that you were using for the pentatonic sequence and transpose it to an A Dorian scale and the notes you can choose from are A, B, C, D, E, F#, and G. You can change the D from the pentatonic lick and move it down to a B and you have now created a new lick using the same sequence. Do you now see how limitless your options are? There are so many different scales to which you can now apply this concept. Once you feel you have exhausted your current scale knowledge, you can then apply the same concept but rearrange the fingerings to the sequence. As I said before, your options are limitless. Be creative.

It is common sense that the more you do something the better you become at it. So if you are struggling with your improvising, yes learning a new scale or reading how and when you should use what you already know doesn’t hurt, but nothing would be better than actual practice of improvising. Again, the act of DOING is what gets most guitarists. All of us have some idea of what we must do, but most of us never DO it. Consistently applying the information you have amassed already will allow you to be prepared for the time when it will really matter. Application is key.

timmgibson@yahoo.com
© 2006 By Tim Gibson. All Rights Reserved. Used By Permission