September 29, 2005

Does this sentence contain any words that you have never seen before?

I am sure that it doesn’t. As a matter of fact, think about the last book or magazine/newspaper article you read. Any new words there? Possibly, but you can always whip out the dictionary and look up the meaning.

What’s the point of asking these questions? Well...think of all the books, articles, etc. that have been written using the same old words over and over again, yet think of how many different stories have been told with the same old words.

By using the same old words in different orders and combinations, authors have been able to, and will be able to write an infinite variety of stories and tales to capture our imaginations.

But what's this got to do with playing guitar solos?

Learning to solo is a lot like using words to tell a story. The more words you can have in your vocabulary, the more stories you can tell.

Consider the following list of words.

1. The

2. A

3. Big

4. Little

5. Dog

6. Ran

7. Fast

8. Slow

How many sentences cam you make out of these words?

Here are a few I came up with.

1. The dog ran.

2. The big dog ran.

3. The little dog ran fast.

4. The big dog ran slow.

5. A little fast dog ran slow.

There are many more. These are just a few of the possibilities and there are only 8 words here. Now pretend that each of these words correspond to a lick you know on the guitar. You can take these licks, combine them and recombine them just like words to make sentences, the sentences go together to make paragraphs and the paragraphs combine to make a story.

I hope you can gather from this the importance of expanding your vocabulary. How do you do this? There are many ways to expand your vocabulary that include ways that we have discussed before.

Learn scales. I believe that a serious study of scales is essential to playing great guitar. Learn licks by your favorite players by using the resources available on the internet, the many books that are available and by using your ear to figure out licks for yourself. Get a teacher or a friend to show you some new ideas.

Imagine how your playing would change if you learned just one new lick a week. That would give you 52 new ideas to combine and use to create solo ideas. Look at how many we made with just 8 words. What could you do with 52?

Last but not least, (possibly the most important) take what you learn and find a place to apply immediately. Jam with friend or play along with recordings. But use what you have learned right away so you can internalize it, make it your own, and have ready when you need it.

My new book Pentatonic Power is a great way to expand your vacabulary. It’s a day by day lesson plan with 255 examples in notation and tab. There is an mp3 file of each lick so you can hear exactly how they are supposed to sound.

Plus, the fre*e bonus report "How to create ideas so easy even a monkey could do it", will show you exactly how to take this idea of words and apply it to any scale, allowing you to create an infinite variety of licks.

So ... if your ready to start playing killer lead guitar ... without risk ... then be sure to check out the book at: www.learn-guitar-online.com/pentatonicpower.html

To you guitar playing success,

Bob