There’s a lot of guitarists out there that neglect “ear training” and “improvising”. When they learn songs, they would rather look at guitar tab or learn from other people. When they write songs on the guitar instead of applying what they hear on their head, they would just noodle around until they find something that sounds good. I used to play guitar like that. As I got older, though, I finally realized that “ear training” and “perfect pitch” is pretty important. I wanted to improve myself on that. Learn how to have a good ear in music which is what I’m working very hard on.

The only way to master the art of improvising is not reading through instructional books. The only way around it is memorizing the sound of the notes inside your head. That’s pretty much it really. It can take hours & hours. Days & days. Months & months to memorize each note in your head. The more you work at it, the better your ear improves. I realized that you’re a true musician when you’re a good improviser. You know what each note sounds like in your head. You can play everything you hear on the guitar. When you jam with a band, you can come in without other people telling you what to play without struggling. That’s the kind of guitarist I aim to be.

I’m still not the best at improvising yet but my ear has improved greatly. I just want to become a real musician. I want to be good at both rhythm guitar and lead guitar. My rhythm guitar work has improved greatly. I can play along with a metronome and a drummer quite well now. It’s just that my lead guitar playing still needs work. I’m working on it, though. I want to be able to jam on guitar solo’s and be able to stay in key. Just to jam and rock out. I want to be able to jam with other musicians & bands.

I’m not an improvising wizard yet but I’m getting there, though. One day, though, I will become an improvising wizard like Jimmy Page, Hendrix, T. Anastasio, J. Garcia, etc. Yep, you guess it… I want to be the “jam rock” kind of guitar player. I’m so focused on guitar playing. “Improvising” is important ’cause you’ll be able to come up with better songs, better riffs and most importantly better guitar solo’s too.

I fucking LOOOOVEEEEEEE lead guitar. It’s the whole reason I picked up the guitar to begin with ’cause I want to play lead guitar like the greats: Hendrix, Page, Anastasio, Satriani, etc.

A lot of people don’t enjoy long guitar jams but I love ’em. It’s why I listen to bands like Led Zep, the Allman Bros., Hendrix, Phish, Grateful Dead, etc. That’s the type of music I want to play when I get a band of my own going.

Kev