Do More With Less
There are an infinite number of things to learn on guitar and I love discovering and teaching as many as I can. But it can also pay to go small sometimes. Periodically limiting the number of elements you use in a practice session or a project is a great way to open the door to creativity and expansion.
Start Really Small!
What can you do with just one note? If you turn on a metronome or backing track and hold yourself to improvising with just that note, in time you will start to make music with it. You’ll play it as a long note or a series of short and shorter ones that you play both staccato and legato. You’ll play whisper-soft and brashly loud and everything in between. You’ll bend the rules as you bend the note and you’ll discover syncopations that you didn’t know existed.
What Next?
When it’s time to go graduate from one note, try five notes (or really, six in the pattern below), with the pentatonic scale. Cue up a jam track and use the ideas you generated with the one-note exercise to improvise. Limit your choices to the notes in one octave of the scale. If you don’t already know a pentatonic pattern, try this one.
The red dot designates tonic, or the key name. So, if you want to play in the key of A, you would play this pattern in the second position. Likewise, you would use your first finger on the 5th fret and your fourth on the 8th to play in the key of C.
Even if you know all of the patterns and you’re experienced with soloing, creating a small container for improvising is a good way to force yourself out of old patterns. And if you’ve never soloed before, you’ll be amazed at how much you can do—and how much fun you can have—with just a little time and a few notes!
Want to know more about scales and improvising? Check out one of my favorite books, Learning to Play Lead Guitar. Also, be sure to take advantage of a free month in the Virtual Studio and enjoy the lessons the lead playing category there.
