Unleash your guitar creativity with these 5 simple hacks.
- graemetollins
- Aug 26, 2023
- 5 min read
Updated: Sep 19, 2023
We’ve all been there. I have. You have. I think my gran has too. And we all know how frustrating and downright depressing it can be.
What’s that, you say?
Musical repetition trauma syndrome, otherwise known as MRTS.
(Okay, so I made that syndrome bit up, but you know what I mean.)
Every time you pick up your guitar, you play the same stuff. The same licks and phrases. The same rhythms. Same old everything.
You’re on autopilot and your soul is slowly dying.
But never fear. There are solutions, and as a guitarist of 30+ years and former sufferer of MRTS, I can assure you – they do work.
But don’t take my word for it. Some of the greatest guitarists of all time use these same techniques.
So without further ado, here are 5 ways of breaking out of that rut and soaring to a new, more enlightened state.
#1 Learn someone else’s music deeply, and then take it further.
Many of us learn other people’s songs.
But how often do you learn your favourite guitarist’s parts and then add your own creative spin on things?
Rarely? Never?
But what about if you take a simple pop or rock song and ask yourself the question; “How can I improve this?”
Acclaimed fusion maestro, Al Di Meola, has taken this to the extreme with his two album tributes to the Beatles – “All your Life” (2014) and “Across the Universe”(2020).
As he says in this Guitar Player interview, “Doing straight-up covers is the easy way out”.
If you listen to the tracks in this interview, you’ll immediately recognise the Beatles songs, but Al has stretched them out to create something completely fresh.
So, don’t just copy – take things to the next level.
#2 Learn music written for other instruments.
Familiarity breeds contempt.
Once you’ve got your brain round the layout of the guitar and learned all the boxes and shapes, it’s easy to get stuck repeating yourself.
It’s safe.
A challenging solution is to listen to other instruments and try to play their lines on your guitar.
I dare you.
Legendary freak of nature, Allan Holdsworth, was a great example of how this creates an original voice.
And it shows.
Holdsworth was the guitarist’s guitarist, but a big part of that was because he sounded like no-one else. Look at these comments from other, high-profile guitarists to understand how highly regarded Allan was.
You’ll notice that so many tributes to his genius reference sax players or violinists: not guitarists.
#3 Learn some new theory.
If you’re banging around on the same six-note blues scale, you are likely to run into trouble at some point.
Known as Blues Scale Burn Out Syndrome (BSBOS) … Okay. I’ll stop that.
Anyway. It doesn’t matter how much theory you have under your belt – the journey is long enough as to be never-ending.
So why not pick up a theory book, or try a new scale.
Guitar wizard, Steve Vai, has long been acclaimed for his deep use of unusual modes.
And if you think that modes are all about dry, boring theory, think again.
For Vai, they evoke colours and moods – not notes on the neck.
This insightful and inspiring article at musicradar.com shows how Vai imagines each of the seven modes and the moods they represent to him.
Now, Vai’s a special breed of guitarist, but it’s difficult to imagine him getting bored with his playing anytime soon.
So, be like Vai. Get exotic.
#4 Experiment with effects.
Not to criticise at all, but no one could accuse U2’s the Edge of being a virtuoso, yet he regularly appears on ‘most influential guitarists’ lists.
Why is this?
Quite simply, because when he arrived on the scene, he sounded nothing like anybody else. Ten years later, everyone had stolen a bit from the man.
The Edge took his own technical limitations and made them work to his advantage by delving into the world of effects pedals.
Just listen to the opening of ‘Where the Streets have no Name” live at Slane Castle, Ireland. It’s the same four notes, repeated to within an inch of their lives.
It should sound tedious and mind-numbingly dull.
But that delay effect? Oh, my.
It doesn’t have to be delay either. Grab that reverb unit, distortion pedal, flanger unit, or whatever else you’ve got in your box of tricks, and try to use them in different ways.
It won’t automatically make you the next Edge, but it will stop you looking at your fingers and start you imagining sounds.
Which is what it’s all about, after all.
#5 Change the Basics.
What about if you went back to square one, a completely blank canvas, and started all over again?
Shudder.
Many musicians have done this, though, and it doesn’t have to be as extreme as it sounds.
Jeff Beck, a god amongst men, decided to ditch the plectrum and play fingerstyle sometime in the late 80s.
The result – A totally new Jeff Beck sound, and one that elevated his playing even further.
The internet is full of videos teaching you the Jeff Beck method, and they all focus on his fingerstyle technique as being the key to his originality.
Or how about the way your guitar is tuned?
If you change the tuning, those old shapes and patterns just won’t work anymore.
Do you think you could play anything like this Yvette Young piece with standard tuning?
Not likely, mate.
Rhett Shull, a guitar youtuber with 600k subscribers, does a great job of breaking down Yvette’s approach here. It’s worth checking this out if you don’t know where to start with alternate tunings.
Are you still here?
But really. If you’re finding yourself stuck in a guitar rut, any one of these ideas should be enough to send you on a voyage of discovery.
You never know — you might end up creating a whole new style that is uniquely yours. And even if you don’t, I bet you’ll have fun on the journey.
Sadly, just like any other passion, you are going to get deep valleys along with the mountain peaks.
You have to live with this.
But if you do find yourself feeling uninspired, just check out this article, which shows you the top 25 guitar channels that will help send you on your merry way.
Photos
Description
Deutsch: Gleich splittert die Gitarre, und ein Trümmerteil trifft meine Nase. Eine Narbe, auf die ich bis heute stolz bin. The Who, Ernst-Merck-Halle Hamburg, August 1972: Pete Townshend spielt Berserker
Date 28 February 2010 (Upload date) Actual date: August 1972
Author Heinrich Klaffs
Permission CC-BY-SA
Description
Italiano: Il chitarrista jazz fusion Al di Meola al 'Den Atelier', Luxembourg
Date 29 November 2013
Source Own work
Author Gorupdebesanez
Description English: Holdsworth's rig from 2012 through 2017
Date 22 April 2012
Source Own work
Author Chrisparks
Description Deutsch: Steve Vai bei einem Konzert in Nürnberg 2022
Date 28 June 2022
Source Own work
Author Klaus Hellmerich
Description English: U2 guitarist The Edge performing at Barclaycard Arena in Hamburg, Germany on October 3, 2018 during the band's Experience + Innocence Tour
Date 3 October 2018, 20:51:43
Author iinchicore
Description English: Jeff Beck Live Commodore Ballroom Vancouver, British Columbia Canada - Feb. 17, 2001 Roll 2_Frame 21 Ever seen a picture of Jeff looking into the camera while playing live?
Date 17 February 2001
Author Matt Gibbons
Love this.