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Break Free From The Same Guitar Licks!!
So you're like a lot of other guitar players who have played for a few years and have found your self in a comfort zone of over-used licks. There are many great ways to break free from this zone and chart out new territory filled with blazing new licks, rhythms, and techniques.
Let's start with one of the most important elements in music:
RHYTHM - you may feel like your knowledge and application of rhythm is very good. Well, are you well-versed in quarter notes and rests, eighth notes and rests, sixteenth notes and rests, dotted quarter notes, dotted eighth notes, dotted rests, quarter-note triplets, eighth-note triplets, and sixteenth-note triplets??
I didn't think so. First, you should start practicing some very basic quarter note and eighth note rhythms using just one note or one chord. Do this with the metronome set to 60 beats per minute to start. Once you feel comfortable mixing up those rhythms, then move to eighth and sixteenth note rhythms. Then try mixing up some quarter notes with eighth-note triplets. Now, add some quarter, eighth, or sixteenth-note rests to all of the above.
There is a great book out there, which I studied, called "Melodic Rhythms for the Guitar" by William Levitt. I highly recommend that you get this book if you want to expand your rhythmic vocabulary.
Now, lets look at your scale knowledge:
SCALES - how many scales do you know and in how many different positions can you play those scales? How many different techniques or patterns can you apply to those scales (hammer-on's, pull-offs)?
Check out Access Rock's Scale lessons to help:
Creativity - The sky is the limit when it comes to creativity. Sometimes creative thinking is spurred on by analytical thinking. Try combining different notes from a scale, use different rhythms, different bends or vibratos, or slides. Long slides, short slides, backwards slides. Check out Access Rock's Creativity in Soloing lesson.
Listen to different styles of music to take your head out of the norm. Check out some classical music, jazz, free jazz, pop, vintage rock (Elvis, Beatles), the list goes on and on....
Good luck and have fun!
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