what do you think about when playing?
 

What goes through your head, and how do you approach playing guitar? I'm thinking more along the times when you improvise or are composing new parts to a song, etc. I'm trying new approaches and am wondering what works for others.

Some options/categories...

Do you think about the notes? Example: I want to play A and E while hitting D on while the band is on this A chord.

Do you think about scales & arps? ie: running up and down the scale of the key of the song

Do you think about the "cages"? ie: do you use the pentatonic cage or scale cage way of learning to form a box of notes you can play and sound good?

Do you have a melody/lick come into your head and just play it?

Do you think about the chord that is playing underneath and change what notes/scale you play based on this?

Do you have reaction licks? ie: licks you just play cause you are used to them and know how they sound

Do you not intellectualize it at all and just play what comes through your fingers or your head?

I think "what do I want this to sound like ?"

I usually record a rythm part and just listen to it and come up witht hings in my head before I ever play anything to it. Then I re-create them.

I put music in my head through my guitar. Don't need to think about anything other than what I want to hear.

It depends. If I'm playing something by rote, then I think about whatever comes to mind (if it's a really groovy rhythm, usually sex). If I'm improvising, I'm absorbed in the moment trying to translate every sound I hear in my mind into hand motions.

I think about "What's going on?" Then i find it and i go into it and it goes with me and we go together.

i tend to think, how can i fit this into the wider context of a song or get it to flow into another riff.

I think of boobies. Boobies all the time.






That and "Does this sound shit or not?" kinda stuff.

All of the above. You should also be able to do all of the above.

Damn! Beat me to it! :)

I try to think of what Im about to play...

Personally I would characterize most of those as stages of progress.

First is the most basic: thinking about scale shapes. Unable to really connect them to anything else as you're too busy learning the physical nature of them.

Next: running over the shapes. The scales are ingrained in your memory physically but you can't really play them very well so you just run over them, almost a form of practice.

Third: Think about the chord and change scale to suit. Still not very specific but definitely advancing past the physical concerns in to what you want to happen musically.

Fourth: Notes. Much greater connection to the music, concerned with sound but still on an intellectual level.

Fifth: 'Just play'. You can get a semblance of this stage at any point along the line but the true apotheosis of this is the complete transcendence of scales and shapes and is playing by pure sound. Very few people ever actually reach this stage in my experience, most people still have some kind of intellectual process going on behind what they do but it's definitely what we should all be aiming for... after decades of practice! :haha


I missed out "reaction licks" on purpose. Everyone has those moments where ideas just don't come and everyone has a bank of ideas that they know like the back of their hand and can play at any time. Those licks are for these moments and it's well worth working on things like this.

Personally I think I'm stuck somewhere between the second and third stages. I'm good at running over scales, I know enough to get by in what I do but I'm not good at following changes. I don't have the time to practice like I used to any more :sad:


Boobies are good too though...

What guitarist think: Look at me, I'm so badass. Watch this dive.
What singer think: Oh, I'm so sexy, the girls will love me.
What bass player think: C C C C G G G G D D D D A A A A F F F F.

^ lawl, although not true...

OT: I try to get in the mood of the song, thinking how to convey the emotions into the right articulations. Or how i wanna sound like.
And sometimes i'm not thinking of anything, my mind goes blank and my fingers just play.

What the drummer thinks:

Well aren't you ignorant.

:haha:

Drummer just keeps convincing himself that he's important in a band

But they are. Can you imagine what metal (or any kind of rock) would sound like without drums? Pretty boring, innit?

And good drummers (and bassists too) are so rare, that they're pretty much a precious commodity. By contrast, there's so many guitarists that bands can have their pick any day.

Yes, I agree. I hate song without good bass and drums. I don't want to insult anyone, just a joke.

yes. I always think all these things