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Sammy J

Improvising

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I'm trying to practice my soloing. How does one sound like their playing music when improvising? I feel like I'm just playing random notes of a pentatonic scale with the backing track even when I try to play the chord tones. I try to come up with licks on the spot, however they do not sound like music. 

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I can’t say that I have a good answer to this as I’ve been trying to address the same issue myself. I’ve spent quite a while learning guitar solos that I like and trying to identify handy licks and riffs to, er, borrow. I also try and analyse the solo to see what’s being played over the underlying chord. And finally, I try and get a melody in my head and play that, then extemporise around it.

At least, that’s what I try to do. Results are patchy at the moment but I do get the occasional “ooh that was nice” bit and not always by accident.

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Repetition is the key for me.

I've spent a long time looping solo sections of backing using common chord progressions, then indulging in focussed noodling.... like regular noodling, but concentrating on sounding good against the chords, phrasing in a meaningful way, and getting the whole section to feel complete, as if it's going somewhere, and making a statement within the chosen number of bars. I feel I'm just getting to the point where I can just go for my first choice and it sounds ok, then I can try and refine it.

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