My philosophy
Philosophy : Not a bloke called Phil....
Mostly our thinking is ,especially in the early day’s, if we learn a new scale we will be a better guitar player.This is not necessarily true but it will help take away the barriers that prevent you from being one. Rather more importantly in my mind is the creative way with which we approach our playing. But how do you practise creativity, it seems that as soon as we try the creativity then seems to evade us.When I close my hand around the butterfly it becomes “dust” so to speak. I have found and encourage when teaching, curiosity really helps with this. When you are comfortable with your chosen scale you may be trying to master, be curious start to add some chromatic notes and slide in or up to the correct note within that scale.This helps with altering the timing of your run as well, for example not starting on the One as in Jazz or BeBop. Ted Green brought this to my attention and it works well with rock and blues . Add some large intervals, going backwards as well as forwards are all desirable. Don’t be afraid of mistakes we start to make less of them as the years go by and sometimes we have a happy accident.......
In order to defeat one’s enemy, one must first observe them..........
What do I mean by this ?
Often we can proceed with our practice regime and even sometimes the way we unconsciously view the world without seeing opportunities to improve upon them. We must always be willing to review your beliefs.
"The Things I used to Do, I won’t do Them Anymore" - Guitar Slim. 1926-1959
Years ago I would create a run or solo for a piece that I was working on and
become aware that a small part was not as clear or as concise as I would have
liked. I would then begin working on just that small section but after reassembling the complete piece the “Fluff” was still there that I had not realised at the time was when I had worked on the isolated part I had started with what is a normal Intuition on a down stroke! But when put together with the rest of the solo I would arrive at this particular section on an up stroke but when playing these parts at high speed It can pass un noticed . A seemingly simple observation but unless it is pointed out to you or you become aware of it may become part of common bad practice .