Bread:
The reason I’ve learnt to play the guitar is because there’d always be some new music being created in my head ever since I was a kid but I didn’t have the skill to bring it to life so I learnt to play the guitar; idk why guitar, I just happened to want to play it.
But we all have the initial phase and I too did for the last 18 months and will be for an year roughly before I can go nuts. I had a lot of trouble transcribing what was in my head.
I still do and I need to work on it a lot.
Cheese:
Until 3 days ago, I couldn’t improvise. I’ve learnt the minor pentatonic scale like every other beginner out there and tried to do ‘something’ but it sounded like random notes (as expected). 2 days ago, my dad was out of town and I had to take care of the shop. The traffic was dry so not much work and I was exhausted (from watching youtube videos all day). I came home for a cup of coffee (just a street away) and there wasn’t any coffee powder left so I thought, let’s practice until the milk boils. Limited time to practice is not bad after all (this was the only limited practice time day in my whole life lol) it forces us to use it effectively; I thought to myself and put the strap on and was playing unplugged in the kitchen.
I don’t know what I played but I remember I was improvising some small licks and adding chords here and there, it wasn’t bad. I practiced for maybe 20 mins max.
I had fun it was good.
Bread:
Today when I was practicing to improvise, I noticed something. I couldn’t produce what I think in my head but something different happened. I plugged the guitar in to the amp sim and started playing with relatively clean tone. Tried some licks. No thought whatsoever. It felt okay-ish. I put the flangum pedal on Deplike today. It sounded nice. I started playing some licks in the middle box of the Am pentatonic scale and I was ‘in there’, it started sounding really good. I wasn’t thinking about what I was gonna play this time. No backing track but still it was in the pocket, the phrases were good and the tone was sweet and I put many small phrases together (I always looked at music as a language). I pushed and went up the neck. It was the best improv session ever.
Wtf are you tryna say lil dude?
What I’m saying is that just like I spent the evening playing whatever, just like magic (I know it’s not magic, it’s just mental gates lifted), I am a better improviser than what I was 3 days ago. Random notes to pleasant phrases. It might not be much in the grand scheme of things but it’s a big leap.
Why I’m putting it out here is with the hope that some other player who’s as lost as me will find their sign if they’re stuck with their practice rut playing the same solo, sale riff they learnt 4 months ago.
Now I won’t be disappointed after practice, I can have fun.
Cheers!
