How To Play The Guitar: How To Solo More Creatively Playing Less

I remember a story I once read in one of Miles Davis’ biographies.
It was about a conversation between Miles and John Coltrane.
Miles was tired of Coltrane’s never ending solos and asked him to shorten them…to which Coltrane replied: ”I just can’t stop playing!” – Miles answered: ”Just take your sax off your mouth!”.

It’s easy.
I think as guitarists we have all been guilty to play too much, too loudly…

In my search for a more creative approach to improvisation, I experimented different strategies.
One thing that really helped me to play more creatively was to learn to ”not play”.

That’s right!

I’ll give you a a practical example:

Divide a twelve bar blues into three sections, each one comprising 4 bars.
Start playing the first 4 bars and then stop. After 4 bars, start playing again, and so forth. Invert the order. Rest 4 bars then play…

Pick up different bar groupings. Try odd combinations: play for 3 bars, rest for 2. Stop for 1 bar play for 3, etc…

You will soon realize that you can loosen up more, come up with more creative ideas and you will develop the ability to ”say” something interesting without even thinking about it.

You will also start listening to what your band mates are doing, what chords the bass player is outlining, the rhythmic ideas introduced by the drummer etc… you will also start suggesting ideas to the rest of the group.

However, this will take dedication and focus.

You should be working on this at least 30 minutes/practicing session.
You sit down on a comfortable chair, and practice all possible combinations. Try different types of accompaniment. One day you use a metronome, another day a sequencer, another day even no accompaniment at all!
Experiment with different styles as well…see what happens playing over a swing tune, then a Latin one and so forth.
Of course you should try this approach on different chord changes. Try “II V I” progressions and then see what happens with standards.

Important!
After you practice consciously, get up, make yourself a cup of coffee and chill…
Then spend something like 10 minutes playing just for the fun of it…

You’ll notice very soon how this approach dramatically changes your playing from the feedback you’ll get from who listens to you during your performances. People will feel that something is going on, a story being told…they’ll stop chatting to pay attention to your music…that is incredible experience, believe me.

I remember a rehearsal with a jazz big band years ago…
I didn’t like the conductor very much but he said something that I still remember:

“When you are improvising, imagine that you are getting paid for the notes you are not playing”

That is an interesting point of view … and a smart way to make more money

Francesco Amico
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