Thanks for the pointer on strike-through Toby.
I must give the Aerosmith a listen.
@TheMadman_tobyjenner @DavidP
Loved Rounds 2 and 3 you guys. Toby, that’s an awesome tone, and the 3/4 timing is excellent. David, yes perhaps overdone but I really liked the whammy bar. I took the whammy bar off my strat, been thinking about putting it back on, you convinced me!
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Yes that’s a great idea for a list. You forgot Frampton Comes Alive though 
A lot of good entries here for the improv bin! Really cool. Rather than comment on any particular entry I thought I would offer a few general observations:
- Try and say something. A pretty good challenge in three notes or less.
- Keep it to a minute or less. You should be able to do your “thing” in that time frame and also give your session a clear beginning, a middle and end.
- You are limited to three notes, but why limit yourselves to the same three notes in same the location? Use the fret board and play that same riff and same notes in another location.
- Use the cliches and embellishments that the founding fathers of guitar have passed down to us from the stone tablets of yore. The hammer-ons/offs, etc. Slide into one or more of those notes or some such.
- As previously mentioned by sir @Richard_close2u , start the phrase on a beat other than the one beat. Mix it up, shake it up, stir it up, Baby!
- Change your tone somewhere in the ruckus. Turn down your tone knob, change pickups, kick on a different pedal, alter your pick attack.
Again, this is just my worldview. You are all doing great, so hats off.
I would share my most sparse lead here but that would be four notes, which I think is a better playground because most of the “boxes” on the fret board are primarily four note boxes.
I now return you to your regularly scheduled plinking.
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That’s more like it David, you’ve found wiggle stick goodness - but don’t abuse it! One little trick you could try that I used to do is bend up, keep the bend up and drop it down using the wiggle stick and then let it down with the bend but only as a passing note. Your tremolo picking was good, you’re starting to find you voice now, keep on building up these new ideas and how you use them! Definitely a great step forward 
Thanks for the feedback Mari and taking time to listen.
Guess with just 3 notes you have to think outside the box. Simples.
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…Or 3/4 of a box.
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I like your input, Clint, this in particular. When I was trying this over the last week I was thinking about how do I tell a story with these notes. I hadn’t quite figured it out, and then when I sat down today to record something the entire idea of trying to say something flew out the window. Next time. Hopefully.
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Repeating myself from above, I found this to be a lot harder than I thought it was going to be. I recorded an attempt anyway. There’s 1 stray note, and the bend and the timing are iffy in spots, but here it is. Interesting watching back I did get a couple of ideas on what I should have done in certain places where I did something else altogether. Maybe that would have been the story that in retrospect I intended to try to tell but then totally forgot about.
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Mari
Pick one of the longer backing tracks to figure that out. It will give you time to think and discover the phrases that work for you. Then apply them to the shorter BTs.
Edit- just seen you’ve posted a response to the challenge. Literally about to turn the lights out, so will listen in the morning.
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Just have fun. That’s the important thing. You guys are all sounding good!
Here’s me telling a story:
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Know that feeling well. The books open on the page you want, you lean over to hit the record button and a breeze blows the pages over further down the chapter without you noticing !
Nicely done Mari The tone worked well with the BT and there was a good range of technique and phrasing. Funny only 3/4 notes and we all sound like we are playing something different.
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Thanks Toby, this little exercise seemed like a good one to pull me back in.
Definitely!
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@Mari63 Thanks Mari. I think at this stage I am more learning ‘words’, perhaps just ‘letters’ and still to put together sentences and a short paragraph. Was a godd exercise to get used to playing while holding the whammy bar all the time … I’ll say I was searching the ether to try and find Jeff Beck to try and channel some whammy magic. Like everything else, probably lots more ways to use it, that just the way I repeatedly did … but did I say it was loads of fun listening to its effect 
As for Frampton Comes Alive I know it is considered a classic and have listened to it, though mainly for Show Me the Way … LOVE that song. I also like a little Jackson Browne, the song Running on Empty specifically, but mostly that California west coast rock (including The Eagles) is OK, not unplesant, but doesn’t get me super fired up.
@CT Thanks Clint, appreciate the support and encouragement. Lots of good thoughts on how to continue to improve and develop. In due course I may learn some of those classic licks that can be played in one position and do a similar ‘milking it’ exercise.
@DarrellW Thanks Darrell. Oh yes, this most certainly was over doing the wiggle stick. My reply to Mari in this reply refers 
Not quite following the bend with wiggle stick idea. I assume the tremolo picking was that one moment of playing a lot of much shorter notes on the same string. Ever onward
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@Mari63
Glad you joined the party, Mari. I though you were sounding pretty good, lots of different techniques. In particular liked the double-stops and slides.
Now it takes one to know one … maybe some more breathing room between phrases?
The tone was really really clean, perhaps a little something to fatten it up just a wee bit. I think it would help give the bends a little more body.
Look forward to round 2 as we all continue to come up with something to say and to say it 
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Thanks David. Tone and breathing room, if I could only sort that out!
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Great job to all who have participated so far, this is a thread I have been watching with interest. It is definitely interesting to see each person’s take on using such a limited range of notes. I have been trying it out myself for around a week and I find that I always get a bit stuck in a rut, and resort to resolving onto the root note. My exposure to any of the blues lessons doesn’t go beyond Justin’s Beginner Blues Solo. I probably need to do some focused listening to blues ideas to choose something different. Glad that it was not just me that felt the need to do the DP riff.
Going to try different backing tracks to see if that helps move me in a different direction.
I will persevere, I am having fun, but would prefer my mind to make the sound a bit more varied.
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Phil, yeah had to add a little 'Smoke
As to resolving to the root at the end of a lick, that’s fine. The other interval to end on is the 5th, which you are bending to. Well worth mixing and matching the BT but if you are starting out, the slower BPMs may be better. But even at 120 you don’t need to be picking on every beat or half beat. One or two notes per bar will work fine. Have fun and maybe share at some point and if you have not done so already check out the Active Melody lesson that David posted in the opener.
And to add to this Phil, you can also resolve to the D if ending the phrase over the Dm7 chord in the BT. I think the C also be tried when ending a phrase over the Am. But my understanding is that resolving to the root note is usually most effective so you have the option of the A and D when playing over Am and Dm7.
But I’m not expert, so @TheMadman_tobyjenner please correct any theoretical errors in my reply.
And in case some other folk may be reading, I need to emphasise ‘if it sounds good, it is good’