Many students come to me after having learned a bunch of pentatonic or blues scale soloing patterns…
And they wonder why their solos still don’t sound very good 🙁
But the reality is that they haven’t taken the time to master any one area of the fretboard, so nothing *sticks* and sounds confident for them.
In this video, I’ll show you how I approach practice for myself and my students, and I hope that you’ll see there is a better way to learn small areas of the fretboard and put them together later.
14 replies to "Fretboard Freedom With Limits"
He’s right. Taking Small bites are the most effective in memorizing, retention and application or execution. Overloading the brain is counterproductive. It’s just a fact. Good advice in this video. Not so much a lesson as a coaching video. Still worth the time to watch.
You in the Heritage Square shopping mall / strip?
‘The Blues teaches The Blues’
Stole that from a Motor Learning guru Volleyball Coach Bill Neville. And a great reminder. I come here for new info or techniques or rut-busters and the only way they stick is to play the music. I need to spend more time playing and give myself a chance to learn what I have been taught!
After more than a decade of learning from you, and applying it all to jamming to canned music of the greats, you just presented the great summation; putting it all in creative context. many thanks, Griff.
Great advice Griff, thanks a lot.
Hard to follow there things without tab.
This isn’t about that, there’s no particular lick or anything to learn here. It’s about taking one thing that you know, and focusing on making more music with it. Then trying another pattern you know, and another, and so on. If you haven’t learned any of the patterns yet, then I’d suggest starting with my 4 Note Solo pattern.
Am always impressed by your collection of guitars, Griff. They all have their place for different blues styles but I do wonder if you have a favorite — if you had to pick one.
Honestly, I’d hate to have to pick just one… But of all the guitars I own, my sunburst Suhr Strat is very special to me because my wife bought it for me not long before we were married. That guitar and I have been on thousands of stages together and the frets are on their last legs, but if anything were to ever happen to that guitar I’d be crushed.
Very good lesson, thx. Feel like I’m starting over
Thanks for the informative video, I get caught up in
scales, patterns, etc. and trying to learn them and
sometimes find it hard to just make music. Thanks
again!!!
Nice video. I’m that guy you are talking about who has spent countless hours learning scales, arpeggio’s and licks and then struggles to do anything with them. I just recently learned this Paul Gilbert shred lick that is 43 notes long. It sounds cool, but I haven’t figured out what to do with it. :-). I like your idea of spending more time jamming to tracks but limiting yourself to a pattern or melody. I’m going to try that today during my practice session.
Finger snake 1,000? I love that scale.
Excellent video! A “lightbulb” moment for me! I agree…..we all get overwhelmed with patterns, scales etc. and diligently practicing them as they are instead of taking the time to just play “with” them. That’s where the “fun” part of playing is……..making your own licks and finding out what works and what doesn’t…….and filing it in your memory.