October 9, 2025 • 29 mins
What makes a guitar solo truly musical? Is it technical prowess, scale knowledge, or something deeper? In this revelatory exploration of improvisation, Steve Stine strips away the technical complexities to focus on what really matters: creating authentic guitar solos that respond to what the music is asking for.
Forget about simply memorizing more scales or arpeggios. Steve challenges the conventional approach to improvisation by emphasizing the crucial connection between your ears, brain, and fingers. "You have to practice improvising," he explains. "You can't just practice exercises all day long and learn more scales and more fretboard things and then expect that your improvisation is going to get better." This simple but profound insight shifts the focus from accumulating knowledge to developing musical intuition.
Through practical demonstrations across multiple backing tracks—funk, rock, major key ballads, and blues—Steve reveals how different musical contexts demand different approaches. For groove-based music, connecting rhythmically becomes paramount. For major key compositions, melodic awareness takes center stage. Throughout all examples, Steve demonstrates how to break free from predictable "boxes" where phrases all have the same shape and motion, offering instead a more speech-like, expressive alternative.
Perhaps most valuable is Steve's explanation of balancing "connected" playing (locked to the rhythm) with "free time" playing (momentarily detached from strict rhythmic constraints). This interplay creates the dynamic tension that characterizes the most engaging solos from legends like Robin Ford and Gary Moore, who could "play nice and melodic and then all of a sudden rip something out and then go back in."
Ready to transform your approach to improvisation? Whether you're struggling with connecting to the groove, creating varied musical phrases, or finding your authentic voice as a soloist, Steve's insights provide a clear path forward. Check out the GuitarZoom Academy for personalized guidance on your musical journey.
Links:
Check out the GuitarZoom Academy:
https://academy.guitarzoom.com/
- Steve’s Channel → https://www.youtube.com/user/stinemus...
- GuitarZoom Channel → https://www.youtube.com/user/guitarz0...
- Songs Channel → https://www.youtube.com/user/GuitarSo... .
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Steve (00:00):
Hey Steve Stine from Guitar Zoom Academy here.
Thank you so much for joiningme Today.
I'm gonna be talking about someof the crucial things I think
about when it comes to soloingand try and make this a little
bit easier for you to understandwhat approaches to take when
you're trying to actuallyimprovise over something.
Oftentimes, what happens asguitar players is we're so
(00:21):
locked into scales and arpeggiosand all these kind of things.
You know all these kind ofthings, and not that any of
that's bad, it's all great butwhat I want you to think about
is more than just which scaleyou know pentatonic versus
diatonic or something like thator you know, knowing your whole
fretboard or something like thatis what is the music asking of
you and how do you respond in away that sounds authentic, that
(00:45):
sounds real, even if you'relimited on your knowledge or
you're limited on yourvisualization of your fretboard
or something like that.
And so I want to give you somethings to think about, and I've
got a number of things writtendown here.
If you're listening to this asa podcast, you'd be able to find
the video to watch what'shappening here on YouTube, so
you can always do a search forthat.
(01:05):
But let me start at thebeginning here.
So for me, the most importantthing is when you're given a
musical situation, you have toask yourself what is this asking
of me?
Is it more of a groove-centrickind of song, where I need to
worry about my rhythm and thatsort of thing a little bit more
my connection rhythmically tothe music or is it something
(01:29):
where I need to really be awareof trying to connect on a
melodic sense?
And there's a million differentsituations here.
But what I did was I went out onSpotify and I just found a
couple of backing tracks that Iwanted to use as examples for
you.
So I apologize if the audiolevels change a little bit.
You know the Spotify tracks orwhatever, but you'll get the
idea.
(01:49):
So what I want to start withhere is it's a funk track, a
funk backing track that I foundon Spotify, kind of cool.
Okay, now let's listen as itkicks in.
Okay, so this is in C minor.
(02:12):
Okay.
So I haven't practiced these oranything.
(02:51):
I've just kind of found somethings that I thought would work
.
So this is a prime example of atrack where what you really want
to try and focus in on ismaking a connection to the
groove, okay, the beat, and thenworry about your phrasing.
So in tracks like this,anything that's kind of less
(03:16):
about melody and more aboutgroove, you want to try and
think about how you can craftideas on your fretboard, even if
it's just in one position onthe fretboard.
That's entirely up to you.
But you know, not just playingwhat I like to call boxes.
Boxes are when you go, you knowlike everything is the same
(03:38):
size, the motion is kind ofalways the same.
It's just going up or goingdown.
You know you're always startingon the same beat.
You need to be really you needto be careful.
And again, before I even getinto all of this, remember, in
order to develop a good sense ofimprovisation, you need to
practice improvising.
You can't just practiceexercises all day long and learn
(04:02):
more scales and more you knowfretboard things and then expect
that your improvisation isgoing to get better just because
you're learning more things.
You have to actually practicethe art of improvisation to make
this work.
So it should become part ofyour daily routine is just
working on practicing and itshouldn't be a different backing
track and a different key witha different tempo and different
(04:24):
chords every single day.
You have to find things thatkind of appeal to you, that fit
your practice, fit what you'recapable of doing, and then sit
and nurture those and getcomfortable with those and you
might have a couple of differentbacking tracks or whatever.
That's perfectly fine.
But the problem I find a lotwith guitar players is that
they're just constantly tryingto do everything and they're
(04:46):
never really settling in insomething If you're not you but
just anybody.
If some popular guitar playeris a bluesy kind of player, they
spend most of their timeplaying in the blues realm.
They're not always playing in ametal realm where if you're a
metal guitar player, you spendmost of your time in the metal
realm.
Now I get, you might want to dodifferent things and that's
great, but you need to nurtureeach one.
(05:09):
So in this particular trackI've got C minor here.
That's what we're in.
So now, whether or not it'spentatonic, whether or not it's
diatonic, I can use all of thosekinds of things if I have the
capability.
But what I need to worry aboutmore than pentatonic or diatonic
is can I create phrases thatmatch and connect to the groove,
(05:32):
so a tempo?
In this case the tempo is alittle fast.
So do I have the physicalskills of being able to play
Ba-da-bum-ba-bum-bum-bum-bumLike I like to scat sing in my
mind.
So, as I'm listening to this,my fingers can't do the work.
(06:00):
If my brain doesn't know whatit wants my fingers to do, it
has to start with your thoughtprocess and then trickle down to
your fingers onto the fretboard.
So it's very important that younot only practice the
physicality of playing, but yourability to make music as a
human being, right?
So as you're listening to thistrack, I might not even play
along at first.
(06:21):
I'm just getting used tothinking about different sized
phrases starting in differentplaces, right, like a singer
might do, or like a trumpetplayer might do, or a saxophone
player might do, and it takestime.
But as I'm listening to thistrack, you know I don't just
want to go Now.
That in itself as a phrasecould be cool, okay, but then
(06:46):
I've got to follow it up withsomething different.
So there needs to be ajuxtaposition of tempos starting
points, stopping points,repetition.
Those are the kind of things Iwant you to think about, more
than just knowing my entirefretboard or knowing the notes
on my fretboard.
Again, those are all greatthings, fretboard, or knowing
the notes on my fretboard.
Again, those are all greatthings, but we need to focus on
is can I create some sort ofgroove that's engaging, that
(07:09):
connects to this music as I'mlistening to it?
Let me try it again.
Thank you See.
(07:51):
So first things, first isconnection of the groove.
The second thing is startmaking phrases, sentences of
different sizes that start andend in different places.
You don't have to makeeverything monumental and play
something.
It takes time to learn how toplay with a groove, but I like
to tell people that if you canactually learn how to play to
(08:27):
the groove, connect to the tempo, to the subdivision of the beat
, like I'm doing right now,that's half the battle, like in
almost any situation rock, blues, you know, ballad, all that
sort of thing.
It's just which I'm going toshow you in just a second here.
But as the tempos get slowerand slower it becomes harder to
(08:47):
do that, because at these fastertempos we've got more
availability to be able tocreate that connection Again, if
we can actually do ittechnically and all that sort of
thing.
So that's my first example isfor you to try and get used to
thinking about connecting to thegroove, okay, and then, once
you've got that connectionhappening, start thinking about
(09:09):
scat singing, creating phrases,that sort of thing.
If you've heard me talk aboutmeandering before, that's a
great technique to practicemeandering.
It's a great technique topractice toering.
It's a great technique topractice, to develop your
ability of being able to playwithin a position on the
fretboard and get creative withyour motion.
So you're not just going up anddown Again, nothing wrong with
(09:32):
that, you can do that.
But if you do that all the timeit gets monotonous and it gets
boring for both you and for yourlisteners.
So you need to think about thata little bit.
Now I'm going to move on to asecond one here.
Again, I don't really know muchabout these tracks, I just
found them this morning.
But let me play this one.
This one's called G minor funkyrock.
So let's look at this one.
See what's a little bitdifferent here.
(09:54):
So obviously the key Okay.
So more rock and roll here, butstill a groove Ba, dum, bum,
(10:27):
bum, bum.
Okay.
So you know, because it's it'smore rock there.
Again, I think they're probablypretty much the same in terms
of my approach.
You know, obviously in here Ican get a little more, maybe
aggressive with the rockattitude of you know all of
these kind of you know that kindof stuff, playing more fast
(10:48):
things.
If you've got that available toyou, you know playing guitar.
Let me say this too In both ofthese realms, as we go through
all these tracks, you're eitherconnecting to the rhythm,
connecting to the groove, whichyou need to learn how to do.
You've got to learn how toconnect to that groove and then
(11:08):
be able to execute that fromyour brain to your fingers, to
your fretboard.
But the other thing that you dosometimes is you'll play in
what I like to call free time,which is just letting go.
You're not just playing quarternotes or eighth notes or 16th
notes or triplets or somethinglike that.
You're just kind of letting itgo and doing this.
Let me show you an example.
So if I was doing somethingthat was connecting, and then
(11:30):
I'm going to disconnect and playfree, watch this, that's
connected.
Right Now I go to Somethingfaster.
(11:58):
So in that part I'm not reallyfocusing on connecting to the
rhythm, I'm just playing.
Now I might still be connectingto the rhythm, because it's
hard not to sometimes, but thepoint is that when you're doing,
you're not really thinkingabout connecting to that groove
at that point.
The problem is, if you neverconnect to the groove, it sounds
(12:20):
like you're disconnected to themusic.
And that's what happens with alot of players is that they're
trying to improvise over thingsand they're not finding the
groove, or the groove's a littletoo fast.
You know they found the wrongbacking track or whatever the
situation might be.
They don't know their positionwell enough on the fretboard, or
again, there's a myriad ofthings that can be remedied.
That might be a problem.
But the problem is is if youdon't ever connect to that
(12:43):
groove, it just feels likeyou're not connected to the
music.
Right, so you've got to learnhow to connect to the groove and
then, if you decide you want todisconnect and play more free,
that adds another element ofuniqueness and musicality, and
then you reconnect again.
You see, there's a bigdifference between never
connecting.
(13:03):
It's just like melody, like ifyou're just playing through a
scale and hoping that the notesyou're playing connect to the
chords.
Sure, sometimes you're going toget it and it's going to go.
Oh, this is why people say well, sometimes when I jam to things
or improvise to things, itfeels great, and then other
times I'm just completely lost.
Well, that's why?
(13:24):
Because you're getting luckysometimes and then you're
getting unlucky other times, andthe goal isn't to be lucky or
unlucky, it's to have the skill.
So, when it comes to melodywhich we'll get to in a little
bit the key here is is know whatyou're trying to do, like.
That's the point of practiceand learning right To progress
forward and to learn how thesethings actually work.
So, if I go to the next one now, the next one's a complete
different shift.
This is playing in major, wherethe other two, because they were
(13:47):
more funky, I was playing morein minor.
Now, again, that's anotherconversation in itself, but it's
not doing as much, okay, it'sslower, okay, there's obviously
(14:12):
some chord changes there that Iwould want to figure out, which
I haven't done yet because Ijust threw these in.
But let's think about this.
So, if I was to take this andstart trying to play over it
with the groove context so Iknow it's in G major, okay,
(14:51):
sounds okay, okay, but what am Imissing?
Well, because it's in major, Ireally need to worry, especially
because it's kind of slow likethis.
I can do all of that.
There's nothing wrong with anyof that, okay, but I need to
think about trying to make aconnection to these chords, and
in order to do that, I need toknow what the chord changes are.
And then I need to be able togo to my guitar and start making
some sort of connection tothese chords.
And again, there's a dozen waysyou can do this, depending on
(15:15):
your learning process.
You know what makes sense inyour brain, whether it's coming
from more of a theoretical angleor more of a visual angle.
There's lots of ways to do this, but the first thing we need to
do is think about what thechord changes are.
So it starts on G, we know that.
Then it goes to E, minor, right, and then here it goes to
(15:36):
probably C, c, and then to Gback, and then probably D.
So I might do some other stufflater, but let's just start with
that.
So it's G, e, minor, c, g, d,okay.
So now what I want to do isbecause it's slower and it's
major, I want to start thinkingabout how I could make some
(15:58):
connection to those chords in amelodic way.
So here comes G.
Now I'd have to think to myselfwell, what do I know about the
chord G?
And then how do I, and transferthat onto the guitar.
Okay, so you might know G is G,b and D, because you know your
theory.
But if you don't know where G, band D are on your fretboard in
(16:21):
one place, two places, 10 places, whatever it might be to
actually start creating themusic, because you know scale
shapes, probably, if you'relistening to this.
But do you know where the notesare that you're looking for
inside those scale shapes?
You see, that's where thedisconnect can happen.
So what I need to be thinkingabout is here comes G.
So now I could do, you know, Icould go to G, and then here
(16:44):
comes E minor, go to an E, andthen here comes C.
Now I'd have to know that C isright here.
Right, c is not a pentatonicnote, you know, in terms of G,
major pentatonic.
But I'd have to be able to findit, you see.
(17:05):
So that's the process that youwould take if you didn't really
know how to do this.
You just start with basicthings like just connecting to
the uh, the root of each chord.
That's okay, nothing wrong withthat at all.
So one thing that I would do isI would I would find a position
on the guitar and then I'dstart thinking about not just
groove in this case, but tryingto make that melodic connection.
(17:26):
So let me try this a little bit.
Let me show you just a littlebit, and if you're listening you
can.
You won't see, but you can hearwhat I'm doing here.
So here comes our track, herecomes E, minor and here comes C.
(17:46):
So I'm connecting to a C rightthere, a C chord, there's our G
chord, there's our G and our D.
(18:07):
Here comes G again.
Maybe I do something kind ofsame.
Here comes C, again G, d.
So you see, I can move betweenthe groove idea that I had
Whoops, I dropped my pick.
I could move between the grooveidea that I had before to this
(18:32):
melodic idea.
I would probably start with amelodic thing Again fast, slow,
high, low.
This is entirely up to you andit depends.
Like I wouldn't start thisthing going, like that would
sound ridiculous, right, becausethe song just started.
I need to ease into all ofthese things.
So I'm listening to the music.
I'm thinking to myself what isthe music asking of me?
Because this is more slow,major.
(18:53):
I'm listening to the music.
I'm thinking to myself what isthe music asking of me?
Because this is more slow major, I'm going to have to make some
sort of melodic connection.
This is why people find majorharder than minor, because minor
you don't really have to do asmuch of that most of the time.
I'm just being honest.
Major you have to be able toconnect melodically more, which
means you've got to know alittle bit more about your
fretboard.
You've got to know a little bitmore about your fretboard.
(19:14):
You got to know a little bitmore about musicality theory in
some capacity.
Okay, now let's take a look atthe next one.
The next one is a hard rock,fast guitar.
There wasn't a lot of optionshere on Spotify that I could
(19:40):
find with the groove thing.
I could try and make some somesort of melody to that.
But because it's fast, it alsogives me the opportunity to do
the shreddy thing right.
You could be doing more stufflike this, right, but you
(20:02):
wouldn't have to.
You could start off doing stuffwhere it's more group-oriented.
Now, if you guys have the skill,you can double that.
Okay, it sounds like it's likea.
(20:23):
Well, let's figure it out here.
So we've got E to B.
Okay, so it's going from Eminor to C to A minor to B minor
or B major, one of the two.
So if I was doing itmelodically I'd start thinking,
(20:44):
okay, so let's connect to thosechords.
So here comes E minor I'm goingto just do something like that
to connect to B minor.
Here comes now A, b.
I'm going to just do somethinglike that to connect to the
computer.
Here it comes Now A, b, c.
Something like that would begreat, and I could combine all
(21:06):
of these ideas.
I just don't have to do it allin the first five seconds, right
, I can span these out as I go.
I could start nice and slow witha melody, doing some groove
things, start doing some shreddythings again, whatever works
for you, okay, so this issomething to think about a
little bit.
I'm going to keep going here.
Hopefully you're you're notgetting bored.
The next one's going to be aslow rock ballad.
(21:28):
So let's listen to this oneagain.
Again, I don't remember whatthese words are.
Okay, so definitely minor.
Right, it's not rock in termsof the last one, it's more of a
minor kind of.
(21:52):
But because it's slow like this,if I think about the groove,
let's focus on the groove for asecond.
Just looking at the groove, see, because it's a little bit
slower, it's a little bit harderto make connection to just that
(22:14):
groove.
Okay, so oftentimes whathappens is, as the song gets
slower, your free time playingbecomes a little bit more
prominent.
So let's think about this alittle bit.
As this keeps going, I canstill connect there, but and
(23:03):
free, see.
So this might be a nicesituation where I could kind of
move back and forth between kindof locking into that groove a
little bit, but because it'sslow I can't stay there.
I'm going to have to do alittle more free time with it.
Okay, now moving into blues,just again.
All of these concepts that I'mtalking about we go through on a
(23:24):
regular basis inside GuitarZoom Academy.
If you're interested, you canalways head over to
GuitarZoomcom, check out theAcademy, you know, sign up for a
consult, see if it's somethingthat you're interested in.
But when we go to blues again,blues is going to be a little
bit different.
If I do a traditional 12 barblues here.
So it's an A, there's yourgroove, there's my D chord.
(24:04):
Back to A.
Here comes E, d, d, e, f, g, e,f, g, e, f, g, e, f, g, e, f, g
(24:39):
, e, f, g, e, f, g, e, f, g, e,f, g, e, f, g, e, f, g E, f, g,
e, f, g, e, f, g, e, f, g, e, f,g, e, f, g, e, minor together
to create these blues phrases,right.
But if I went to something likeminor blues, minor blues
changes.
Let's do a slow minor blueshere.
I don't know what key this isin, We'll figure it out.
E minor Now, if I was so,that'd be connecting to the
(25:22):
groove and there's nothing wrongwith that.
That's great.
Now let's try and do a littlefree time, guitar solo.
(26:03):
See how I can move back andforth between those realms of
locking into the groove.
Free time, again, because ofthe players that I like, the way
I've learned how to play.
I love the Robin Forty, garyMoore play nice and melodic and
(26:27):
then all of a sudden you kind ofrip something out and then go
back in.
That kind of thing.
That's what I like Doesn't meanthat anybody else has to like of
thing.
That's what I like, doesn'tmean anybody else, you know, has
to like that, but that's what Ienjoy.
And then connecting to those,those chords as they're moving
along.
I can do that not all of thetime, but sometimes to make sure
I'm connecting to those chordsand, you know, giving homage to
(26:49):
those chords as they're comingacross, and then other times I'm
just jamming.
So that's the beauty of minoris minor allows you to do more
of this freestyle thing wherewhen we were doing that funk
thing, I got to connect more.
It doesn't mean I can't do freetime.
There's no rights or wrongs tothis stuff.
It's just what works.
What is the music asking of youand how can you connect as a
(27:12):
musician, as a guitar player,the music asking of you and how
can you connect as a musician,as a guitar player, so it sounds
and feels musical to you and toyour listener.
You don't want to validate itafterwards.
Going well, it didn't soundvery musical because of A, b and
C.
They don't want to hear that,they just want to hear music.
So it doesn't matter how smartyou are or how many scales you
know or all these other things.
(27:33):
You have to learn how toconvert all of those thoughts
into something that translatesinto music.
That's what's important.
All right, so take care, staypositive.
Hopefully this helped you alittle bit and be sure to check
out the Guitar Zoom Academy Ifthis kind of thing is what you
(27:54):
want to learn how to do, but youstruggle with the whys and the
hows and all that kind of stuffto get there.
I guarantee you we can get youthere All right.
So take care and I'll talk toyou soon.
Hey Steve Stine from Guitar Zoom Academy here.
Thank you so much for joiningme Today.
I'm gonna be talking about someof the crucial things I think
about when it comes to soloingand try and make this a little
bit easier for you to understandwhat approaches to take when
you're trying to actuallyimprovise over something.
Oftentimes, what happens asguitar players is we're so
(00:21):
locked into scales and arpeggiosand all these kind of things.
You know all these kind ofthings, and not that any of
that's bad, it's all great butwhat I want you to think about
is more than just which scaleyou know pentatonic versus
diatonic or something like thator you know, knowing your whole
fretboard or something like thatis what is the music asking of
you and how do you respond in away that sounds authentic, that
(00:45):
sounds real, even if you'relimited on your knowledge or
you're limited on yourvisualization of your fretboard
or something like that.
And so I want to give you somethings to think about, and I've
got a number of things writtendown here.
If you're listening to this asa podcast, you'd be able to find
the video to watch what'shappening here on YouTube, so
you can always do a search forthat.
(01:05):
But let me start at thebeginning here.
So for me, the most importantthing is when you're given a
musical situation, you have toask yourself what is this asking
of me?
Is it more of a groove-centrickind of song, where I need to
worry about my rhythm and thatsort of thing a little bit more
my connection rhythmically tothe music or is it something
(01:29):
where I need to really be awareof trying to connect on a
melodic sense?
And there's a million differentsituations here.
But what I did was I went out onSpotify and I just found a
couple of backing tracks that Iwanted to use as examples for
you.
So I apologize if the audiolevels change a little bit.
You know the Spotify tracks orwhatever, but you'll get the
idea.
(01:49):
So what I want to start withhere is it's a funk track, a
funk backing track that I foundon Spotify, kind of cool.
Okay, now let's listen as itkicks in.
Okay, so this is in C minor.
(02:12):
Okay.
So I haven't practiced these oranything.
(02:51):
I've just kind of found somethings that I thought would work
.
So this is a prime example of atrack where what you really want
to try and focus in on ismaking a connection to the
groove, okay, the beat, and thenworry about your phrasing.
So in tracks like this,anything that's kind of less
(03:16):
about melody and more aboutgroove, you want to try and
think about how you can craftideas on your fretboard, even if
it's just in one position onthe fretboard.
That's entirely up to you.
But you know, not just playingwhat I like to call boxes.
Boxes are when you go, you knowlike everything is the same
(03:38):
size, the motion is kind ofalways the same.
It's just going up or goingdown.
You know you're always startingon the same beat.
You need to be really you needto be careful.
And again, before I even getinto all of this, remember, in
order to develop a good sense ofimprovisation, you need to
practice improvising.
You can't just practiceexercises all day long and learn
(04:02):
more scales and more you knowfretboard things and then expect
that your improvisation isgoing to get better just because
you're learning more things.
You have to actually practicethe art of improvisation to make
this work.
So it should become part ofyour daily routine is just
working on practicing and itshouldn't be a different backing
track and a different key witha different tempo and different
(04:24):
chords every single day.
You have to find things thatkind of appeal to you, that fit
your practice, fit what you'recapable of doing, and then sit
and nurture those and getcomfortable with those and you
might have a couple of differentbacking tracks or whatever.
That's perfectly fine.
But the problem I find a lotwith guitar players is that
they're just constantly tryingto do everything and they're
(04:46):
never really settling in insomething If you're not you but
just anybody.
If some popular guitar playeris a bluesy kind of player, they
spend most of their timeplaying in the blues realm.
They're not always playing in ametal realm where if you're a
metal guitar player, you spendmost of your time in the metal
realm.
Now I get, you might want to dodifferent things and that's
great, but you need to nurtureeach one.
(05:09):
So in this particular trackI've got C minor here.
That's what we're in.
So now, whether or not it'spentatonic, whether or not it's
diatonic, I can use all of thosekinds of things if I have the
capability.
But what I need to worry aboutmore than pentatonic or diatonic
is can I create phrases thatmatch and connect to the groove,
(05:32):
so a tempo?
In this case the tempo is alittle fast.
So do I have the physicalskills of being able to play
Ba-da-bum-ba-bum-bum-bum-bumLike I like to scat sing in my
mind.
So, as I'm listening to this,my fingers can't do the work.
(06:00):
If my brain doesn't know whatit wants my fingers to do, it
has to start with your thoughtprocess and then trickle down to
your fingers onto the fretboard.
So it's very important that younot only practice the
physicality of playing, but yourability to make music as a
human being, right?
So as you're listening to thistrack, I might not even play
along at first.
(06:21):
I'm just getting used tothinking about different sized
phrases starting in differentplaces, right, like a singer
might do, or like a trumpetplayer might do, or a saxophone
player might do, and it takestime.
But as I'm listening to thistrack, you know I don't just
want to go Now.
That in itself as a phrasecould be cool, okay, but then
(06:46):
I've got to follow it up withsomething different.
So there needs to be ajuxtaposition of tempos starting
points, stopping points,repetition.
Those are the kind of things Iwant you to think about, more
than just knowing my entirefretboard or knowing the notes
on my fretboard.
Again, those are all greatthings, fretboard, or knowing
the notes on my fretboard.
Again, those are all greatthings, but we need to focus on
is can I create some sort ofgroove that's engaging, that
(07:09):
connects to this music as I'mlistening to it?
Let me try it again.
Thank you See.
(07:51):
So first things, first isconnection of the groove.
The second thing is startmaking phrases, sentences of
different sizes that start andend in different places.
You don't have to makeeverything monumental and play
something.
It takes time to learn how toplay with a groove, but I like
to tell people that if you canactually learn how to play to
(08:27):
the groove, connect to the tempo, to the subdivision of the beat
, like I'm doing right now,that's half the battle, like in
almost any situation rock, blues, you know, ballad, all that
sort of thing.
It's just which I'm going toshow you in just a second here.
But as the tempos get slowerand slower it becomes harder to
(08:47):
do that, because at these fastertempos we've got more
availability to be able tocreate that connection Again, if
we can actually do ittechnically and all that sort of
thing.
So that's my first example isfor you to try and get used to
thinking about connecting to thegroove, okay, and then, once
you've got that connectionhappening, start thinking about
(09:09):
scat singing, creating phrases,that sort of thing.
If you've heard me talk aboutmeandering before, that's a
great technique to practicemeandering.
It's a great technique topractice toering.
It's a great technique topractice, to develop your
ability of being able to playwithin a position on the
fretboard and get creative withyour motion.
So you're not just going up anddown Again, nothing wrong with
(09:32):
that, you can do that.
But if you do that all the timeit gets monotonous and it gets
boring for both you and for yourlisteners.
So you need to think about thata little bit.
Now I'm going to move on to asecond one here.
Again, I don't really know muchabout these tracks, I just
found them this morning.
But let me play this one.
This one's called G minor funkyrock.
So let's look at this one.
See what's a little bitdifferent here.
(09:54):
So obviously the key Okay.
So more rock and roll here, butstill a groove Ba, dum, bum,
(10:27):
bum, bum.
Okay.
So you know, because it's it'smore rock there.
Again, I think they're probablypretty much the same in terms
of my approach.
You know, obviously in here Ican get a little more, maybe
aggressive with the rockattitude of you know all of
these kind of you know that kindof stuff, playing more fast
(10:48):
things.
If you've got that available toyou, you know playing guitar.
Let me say this too In both ofthese realms, as we go through
all these tracks, you're eitherconnecting to the rhythm,
connecting to the groove, whichyou need to learn how to do.
You've got to learn how toconnect to that groove and then
(11:08):
be able to execute that fromyour brain to your fingers, to
your fretboard.
But the other thing that you dosometimes is you'll play in
what I like to call free time,which is just letting go.
You're not just playing quarternotes or eighth notes or 16th
notes or triplets or somethinglike that.
You're just kind of letting itgo and doing this.
Let me show you an example.
So if I was doing somethingthat was connecting, and then
(11:30):
I'm going to disconnect and playfree, watch this, that's
connected.
Right Now I go to Somethingfaster.
(11:58):
So in that part I'm not reallyfocusing on connecting to the
rhythm, I'm just playing.
Now I might still be connectingto the rhythm, because it's
hard not to sometimes, but thepoint is that when you're doing,
you're not really thinkingabout connecting to that groove
at that point.
The problem is, if you neverconnect to the groove, it sounds
(12:20):
like you're disconnected to themusic.
And that's what happens with alot of players is that they're
trying to improvise over thingsand they're not finding the
groove, or the groove's a littletoo fast.
You know they found the wrongbacking track or whatever the
situation might be.
They don't know their positionwell enough on the fretboard, or
again, there's a myriad ofthings that can be remedied.
That might be a problem.
But the problem is is if youdon't ever connect to that
(12:43):
groove, it just feels likeyou're not connected to the
music.
Right, so you've got to learnhow to connect to the groove and
then, if you decide you want todisconnect and play more free,
that adds another element ofuniqueness and musicality, and
then you reconnect again.
You see, there's a bigdifference between never
connecting.
(13:03):
It's just like melody, like ifyou're just playing through a
scale and hoping that the notesyou're playing connect to the
chords.
Sure, sometimes you're going toget it and it's going to go.
Oh, this is why people say well, sometimes when I jam to things
or improvise to things, itfeels great, and then other
times I'm just completely lost.
Well, that's why?
(13:24):
Because you're getting luckysometimes and then you're
getting unlucky other times, andthe goal isn't to be lucky or
unlucky, it's to have the skill.
So, when it comes to melodywhich we'll get to in a little
bit the key here is is know whatyou're trying to do, like.
That's the point of practiceand learning right To progress
forward and to learn how thesethings actually work.
So, if I go to the next one now, the next one's a complete
different shift.
This is playing in major, wherethe other two, because they were
(13:47):
more funky, I was playing morein minor.
Now, again, that's anotherconversation in itself, but it's
not doing as much, okay, it'sslower, okay, there's obviously
(14:12):
some chord changes there that Iwould want to figure out, which
I haven't done yet because Ijust threw these in.
But let's think about this.
So, if I was to take this andstart trying to play over it
with the groove context so Iknow it's in G major, okay,
(14:51):
sounds okay, okay, but what am Imissing?
Well, because it's in major, Ireally need to worry, especially
because it's kind of slow likethis.
I can do all of that.
There's nothing wrong with anyof that, okay, but I need to
think about trying to make aconnection to these chords, and
in order to do that, I need toknow what the chord changes are.
And then I need to be able togo to my guitar and start making
some sort of connection tothese chords.
And again, there's a dozen waysyou can do this, depending on
(15:15):
your learning process.
You know what makes sense inyour brain, whether it's coming
from more of a theoretical angleor more of a visual angle.
There's lots of ways to do this, but the first thing we need to
do is think about what thechord changes are.
So it starts on G, we know that.
Then it goes to E, minor, right, and then here it goes to
(15:36):
probably C, c, and then to Gback, and then probably D.
So I might do some other stufflater, but let's just start with
that.
So it's G, e, minor, c, g, d,okay.
So now what I want to do isbecause it's slower and it's
major, I want to start thinkingabout how I could make some
(15:58):
connection to those chords in amelodic way.
So here comes G.
Now I'd have to think to myselfwell, what do I know about the
chord G?
And then how do I, and transferthat onto the guitar.
Okay, so you might know G is G,b and D, because you know your
theory.
But if you don't know where G, band D are on your fretboard in
(16:21):
one place, two places, 10 places, whatever it might be to
actually start creating themusic, because you know scale
shapes, probably, if you'relistening to this.
But do you know where the notesare that you're looking for
inside those scale shapes?
You see, that's where thedisconnect can happen.
So what I need to be thinkingabout is here comes G.
So now I could do, you know, Icould go to G, and then here
(16:44):
comes E minor, go to an E, andthen here comes C.
Now I'd have to know that C isright here.
Right, c is not a pentatonicnote, you know, in terms of G,
major pentatonic.
But I'd have to be able to findit, you see.
(17:05):
So that's the process that youwould take if you didn't really
know how to do this.
You just start with basicthings like just connecting to
the uh, the root of each chord.
That's okay, nothing wrong withthat at all.
So one thing that I would do isI would I would find a position
on the guitar and then I'dstart thinking about not just
groove in this case, but tryingto make that melodic connection.
(17:26):
So let me try this a little bit.
Let me show you just a littlebit, and if you're listening you
can.
You won't see, but you can hearwhat I'm doing here.
So here comes our track, herecomes E, minor and here comes C.
(17:46):
So I'm connecting to a C rightthere, a C chord, there's our G
chord, there's our G and our D.
(18:07):
Here comes G again.
Maybe I do something kind ofsame.
Here comes C, again G, d.
So you see, I can move betweenthe groove idea that I had
Whoops, I dropped my pick.
I could move between the grooveidea that I had before to this
(18:32):
melodic idea.
I would probably start with amelodic thing Again fast, slow,
high, low.
This is entirely up to you andit depends.
Like I wouldn't start thisthing going, like that would
sound ridiculous, right, becausethe song just started.
I need to ease into all ofthese things.
So I'm listening to the music.
I'm thinking to myself what isthe music asking of me?
Because this is more slow,major.
(18:53):
I'm listening to the music.
I'm thinking to myself what isthe music asking of me?
Because this is more slow major, I'm going to have to make some
sort of melodic connection.
This is why people find majorharder than minor, because minor
you don't really have to do asmuch of that most of the time.
I'm just being honest.
Major you have to be able toconnect melodically more, which
means you've got to know alittle bit more about your
fretboard.
You've got to know a little bitmore about your fretboard.
(19:14):
You got to know a little bitmore about musicality theory in
some capacity.
Okay, now let's take a look atthe next one.
The next one is a hard rock,fast guitar.
There wasn't a lot of optionshere on Spotify that I could
(19:40):
find with the groove thing.
I could try and make some somesort of melody to that.
But because it's fast, it alsogives me the opportunity to do
the shreddy thing right.
You could be doing more stufflike this, right, but you
(20:02):
wouldn't have to.
You could start off doing stuffwhere it's more group-oriented.
Now, if you guys have the skill,you can double that.
Okay, it sounds like it's likea.
(20:23):
Well, let's figure it out here.
So we've got E to B.
Okay, so it's going from Eminor to C to A minor to B minor
or B major, one of the two.
So if I was doing itmelodically I'd start thinking,
(20:44):
okay, so let's connect to thosechords.
So here comes E minor I'm goingto just do something like that
to connect to B minor.
Here comes now A, b.
I'm going to just do somethinglike that to connect to the
computer.
Here it comes Now A, b, c.
Something like that would begreat, and I could combine all
(21:06):
of these ideas.
I just don't have to do it allin the first five seconds, right
, I can span these out as I go.
I could start nice and slow witha melody, doing some groove
things, start doing some shreddythings again, whatever works
for you, okay, so this issomething to think about a
little bit.
I'm going to keep going here.
Hopefully you're you're notgetting bored.
The next one's going to be aslow rock ballad.
(21:28):
So let's listen to this oneagain.
Again, I don't remember whatthese words are.
Okay, so definitely minor.
Right, it's not rock in termsof the last one, it's more of a
minor kind of.
(21:52):
But because it's slow like this,if I think about the groove,
let's focus on the groove for asecond.
Just looking at the groove, see, because it's a little bit
slower, it's a little bit harderto make connection to just that
(22:14):
groove.
Okay, so oftentimes whathappens is, as the song gets
slower, your free time playingbecomes a little bit more
prominent.
So let's think about this alittle bit.
As this keeps going, I canstill connect there, but and
(23:03):
free, see.
So this might be a nicesituation where I could kind of
move back and forth between kindof locking into that groove a
little bit, but because it'sslow I can't stay there.
I'm going to have to do alittle more free time with it.
Okay, now moving into blues,just again.
All of these concepts that I'mtalking about we go through on a
(23:24):
regular basis inside GuitarZoom Academy.
If you're interested, you canalways head over to
GuitarZoomcom, check out theAcademy, you know, sign up for a
consult, see if it's somethingthat you're interested in.
But when we go to blues again,blues is going to be a little
bit different.
If I do a traditional 12 barblues here.
So it's an A, there's yourgroove, there's my D chord.
(24:04):
Back to A.
Here comes E, d, d, e, f, g, e,f, g, e, f, g, e, f, g, e, f, g
(24:39):
, e, f, g, e, f, g, e, f, g, e,f, g, e, f, g, e, f, g E, f, g,
e, f, g, e, f, g, e, f, g, e, f,g, e, f, g, e, minor together
to create these blues phrases,right.
But if I went to something likeminor blues, minor blues
changes.
Let's do a slow minor blueshere.
I don't know what key this isin, We'll figure it out.
E minor Now, if I was so,that'd be connecting to the
(25:22):
groove and there's nothing wrongwith that.
That's great.
Now let's try and do a littlefree time, guitar solo.
(26:03):
See how I can move back andforth between those realms of
locking into the groove.
Free time, again, because ofthe players that I like, the way
I've learned how to play.
I love the Robin Forty, garyMoore play nice and melodic and
(26:27):
then all of a sudden you kind ofrip something out and then go
back in.
That kind of thing.
That's what I like Doesn't meanthat anybody else has to like of
thing.
That's what I like, doesn'tmean anybody else, you know, has
to like that, but that's what Ienjoy.
And then connecting to those,those chords as they're moving
along.
I can do that not all of thetime, but sometimes to make sure
I'm connecting to those chordsand, you know, giving homage to
(26:49):
those chords as they're comingacross, and then other times I'm
just jamming.
So that's the beauty of minoris minor allows you to do more
of this freestyle thing wherewhen we were doing that funk
thing, I got to connect more.
It doesn't mean I can't do freetime.
There's no rights or wrongs tothis stuff.
It's just what works.
What is the music asking of youand how can you connect as a
(27:12):
musician, as a guitar player,the music asking of you and how
can you connect as a musician,as a guitar player, so it sounds
and feels musical to you and toyour listener.
You don't want to validate itafterwards.
Going well, it didn't soundvery musical because of A, b and
C.
They don't want to hear that,they just want to hear music.
So it doesn't matter how smartyou are or how many scales you
know or all these other things.
(27:33):
You have to learn how toconvert all of those thoughts
into something that translatesinto music.
That's what's important.
All right, so take care, staypositive.
Hopefully this helped you alittle bit and be sure to check
out the Guitar Zoom Academy Ifthis kind of thing is what you
(27:54):
want to learn how to do, but youstruggle with the whys and the
hows and all that kind of stuffto get there.
I guarantee you we can get youthere All right.
So take care and I'll talk toyou soon.
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