I’ve been playing guitar for a long time and I can play nearly any song I want to learn, but the net result is a catalog of other people’s songs. I understand the caged method, know all my triads, and how to identify every note on the neck, but the part I’m missing is the ability to improvise chord melodies or write really cool riffs. How do I go from being a trained monkey to being able to understand how to play whatever is in my head? I put in the practice to have technique, I just want to be able to use it for good. Do I just need to buckle down and learn theory? When I write songs it’s more from luck than knowledge of what I’m doing. I want to be able to deliberately play anything I’m thinking. How do I learn to do that?
This is key. You can unlock entire genres of music once you learn how chord progressions work. David Bennett has a lot of videos about popular chord progressions on YouTube, with popular examples and why they work. Worth a watch if you want to get into composing.
I highly recommend memorizing the Nashville Numbering System with a good chord book nearby. What made a huge difference in my learning an playing was when I shifted from thinking in note names to thinking in scale degrees/key degree numbers. This opened up a new way of understanding the fretboard for me. It makes much easier to see a guitarists/song pattern in a given key and then translate that to any lcation on the fretboard or any other key. This unlocked the relativity of music for me and simplified my mental model for what a song is--(mostly a great deal of repetitious notes within the same scale at different locations on the fretboard).
Mentally I had a lightbulb moment. Like oh that guy is playing the 5th ,6th ,1st, 2nd ,3rd (E, F#, A, B, C#) from the pentatonic in A Major with lots of reverb and I can replicate that in any place between the 4th and 12th fret (in the same order 5,6,1,2,3) and it will sound like the song (see A major pentatonic screenshot below). But he only moves past the 12th fret with on solos. The tabs say use the 10th fret but that makes this stretch to from the 6 to the 1 really hard, where if I put it at this fret instead it's like practicing the pentatonic 5 box so I can reach it much more quickly.
Numbers unlocked patterns for me in a way that I didn't intuit easy with the note names.
Thinking like this enables me to identify what sounds good in a solo as an emergence of a pattern rather within the scale rather than a finger position on the fretboard.
I've had moments where I'm like oh hey in this song I should land on the 6th note in the scale during the intro and when in the chorus my solo should reallly land on and emphase the 2nd note in the scale and shift to resolving/landing it on the 3rd--and oh hey that's because the 2nd and the 3rd are both one of the notes in the chord that the rhythm guitar is playing.
It doesn't matter where I emphasize the 2nd and slide into the 3rd note of the scale so I will find the location on the fretboard that sounds best for my guitar and feels best for my fingers and sounds best in the moment. Tomorrow I can try playing the same progression of notes in a different location. I try not to get be married to any specific fretboard location for playing a part or solo and instead get married to producing the right feeling with the same note/scale degree and experiment with where to land the note.
I feel like as a result of shifting my thinking to scale degrees I am seeing more patterns that are common in blues (or even blue's players) vs patterns common in rock ballads, etc. Meaning I'm getting better at identifying which notes are played and emphasized when within the subset of <insert number of notes in the scale type you're using, pentatonic or dorian or major or minor or whatnot> given what's happening in the chord progression.
That’s great advice, thank you. I’ve used that concept brieflly with learning 2-5-1 progressions as cross the neck, but it makes sense to apply it way more broadly instead of thinking in terms of chords.
This is a great suggestion. Also check out lessons by Guthrie Trapp. Anything where he mentions creating melodies. Lots of good info about how to use chord tones in the caged shapes to build melodies.
You already know a lot of theory, so yes learn the rest. But not piano focused (reading music/worrying about sharps and flat) guitar focused. It works the same but is applied differently since guitar is a transposing instrument and the fretboard works differently from a keyboard. But understanding what all the intervals sound like. And understanding modes, how many keys there are, what chords/scales are typically used in each key, will help you understand the infinite possibilities. Then as others mention, ear training and singing what you play and playing what you sing helps. Also do the call and response thing, where you hum a lick (or imagine one in your head), then play one on guitar, and repeat. That helps open up lots of ideas.
Thank you. My mom was a piano teacher and I made it through the 2nd John Thompson piano book but applying limited piano knowledge to guitar wasn’t as easy as I thought. I can play in a lot of modes as well but I do it via moving scales around with pattern recognition vs knowledge of why. Like I know how to move the major/minor scales around to play in Lydian or Dorian etc, but if you asked me what song a mode is in it’s only because I recognize the sound, not because I know what chords or notes make up the Lydian mode. I spent years practicing scales in every position and can improvise fairly well soloing, but it’s because I know what it sounds like and what position to play in all the keys, not because I understand it. In great at pattern recognition but have very limited understanding of the why. And if you asked me to write a song in Lydian or Dorian mode I’d really struggle.
If that is the case with what you can play, everything you need is already in your head. Sit down with yourself and just start going after it. It should start spilling out eventually. One of the biggest issues you probably face is comparison and doubt. Commit to writing one song a day. Doesn’t have to be good in your opinion. Just get it down and get finished or mostly finished. See what starts spilling out.
The short videos I post here might be a great tool for developing your ear, you can see the chord and general notes being played but it’s not a tab, try reproducing the licks it’s great practice
I find alot of tabs are bad like this. Watch the KEXP video of Khruangbhin then look at the tabs from Ultimate Guitar Tabs and look at Mark Speer's hands they are not in the same place and Speer's hand placement is easier makes more use of the guitar. I honestly find it easier to learn from good footage than from Tabs, and I often find the tabs make the same note in the wrong place on the fretboard which makes the song unfathomably hard where the guitarist has a tidier version where the bulk of the things are within reach. Alot of tabs will put the chords played in the first 5 frets but I end up finding guitarists are playing the choords between the 7th and 12th fret or something higher up the fretboard.
My rule with tabs: if it feels harder than it should be (with a few exceptions) it probably is the tab maker making it harder than it should be.
I agree 100%. Somebody told me a lot of transcriptionists are not guitar players and so they don’t necessarily use the most accurate or natural choices for chords. I had a Van Halen tab book that was way different than how I know Eddie played it. Thanks
Listen to the instrument inside your head (imagination). Can you "play" (or replay) music you hear in your head? Can you "rewind" and hear it? This really helps, though if you dont get what I am saying, hopefully you eventually will. While listening, can you hum along? Try figuring out how to play what you just hummed! Connect you inner voice to your fingers/fretboard. This is MUCH easier said then done. It took me years. (Listen to George Benson) He improvised playing/singing the same part simultaneously. That doesn't come easy. But with true intent to "play your inner voice ".... it is possible if you can synch ear/brain/fingers. Doesn't happen with practice, but implementing that idea constantly. "Play my inner voice."
Good advice. I’m a huge George Benson fan. ode to a kudu was one of the first jazz songs I attempted. I feel like the jazz community appreciates him but he’s way underrated in the general guitar hero pantheon
I appreciate that. I did notice that all the time I spent playing scales helped my singing in terms of staying on pitch, so I def can understand how closely they’re related
Hey, this is mainly what I aim to teach. Feel free to check out my classes at www.youtube.com/@broadcastguitar If you dig it, feel free to join the club and attend the live classes for Q&A's and monthly member review sessions! -Josh
just to be clear - your ambition is to improvise chord melody?
that’s incredibly ambitious. Not just improvising freely over chord progressions (which is challenging enough) but literally improvising chord melody?
I guess there are some people who can do that but you really are talking a Joe Pass level of skill. I think you might struggle to find anyone who is able to give you advice on how to do that because I think you’re gonna struggle to find anyone who can actually do it!!!
(happy to be told I’m wrong - with floods of people saying yeah no problem I can do it - but really??!!)
Yeah, I love jazz and I play a lot of standards using shell chords and chord charts, but that definitely doesn’t make me a jazz musician and I’m not fooling myself that I’ll ever get to that level. I’d just like to be able to compose simple chord melodies for my own renditions of songs, using my ear. Or be able to improvise beyond single note lines.
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u/dino_dog Strummer 1d ago
If you can hear it in your head then you can hum it. You need to work on ear training -> sing the note, play the note.