Scott Henderson Discussion

[PetarDambovaliev]

Scott, what would you say is the best approach to gain the ability to play lines you hear in your head rather than play patterns you learned and you get into auto pilot mode.

If i leave the guitar and try to compose lines i manage to tap into my imagination and when i actually take the guitar and try to improvise, it's really hard for me to do that in real time. Thats why i fall in the trap being in a rut, playing the same bullshit auto pilot mode instead of using my creativity.
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Plan like you are going to live forever, live like you are going to die tomorrow.

[Scott Henderson]

We all have our vocabulary which we get tired of hearing, and we want to be more creative and play new things. For me, it's mostly about tempos. At slow or medium tempos, I'm able to be the most creative, but as the tempo increases, I have to rely more on muscle memory. Then I try to use more rhythmic ideas, like choosing just a few notes and being rhythmically creative with them, instead of launching into my vocabulary of lines. I also try to play motifs, and not throw my ideas in the trash as soon as I play them. These things help to avoid playing the same shit all the time.