Mathieu I've been learning guitar for 6 months and learning how to improvise rock/blues. They way you play really motivates me to practice even more! Currently I know the 5 pentatonic shaoes but I struggle a lot moving thorugh the whole fret while improvising, I mostly use shaoes 1 and 2 . Do you have any tips/exercises/videos that helped you to achieve this? Also any tips for increasing speed? Once again really nice videos and melodies!
Thank you for your message and your interest, it's inspiring. My personal journey on the guitar is a bit awkward. I have first played folk guitar for like 25years more or less seriously (but never too seriously even though I once had a good buddy to play with for many years, trying to write songs together). At that time I only learned some chords but not no real music theory. But I always wanted to play melodies over music, so basically playing some type of lead guitar. So I have been playing either with my friend or simply over the music I liked (and even the one I did not like that much). This is where my current understanding of the fretboard comes from. So I now realize I have learned shapes and scales kind of the "hard way" but at some point it was kind of deliberate as I though this would allow me to develop my own voice. But this took years to build. And 5y ago I finally decided to buy my first electric guitar and began to play more seriously (more regularly, with some objectives) and I wish I have done that way earlier! So now I am having amazing fun even when playing alone on backing tracks. I watched some information, tutorials etc and now I have more connections between my empiric knowledge of the fretboard and some basics in music theory, not much but just enough to understand why some shapes work well in certain context and not others. I know this is currently my most obvious direction to improve (music theory, to have a better understanding on what I am doing, and following chord changes rather than random noodling and hoping for "inspiration" (luck for the most part to be honest). I literally never worked on the technical side of things because I do not enjoy anything that look like an actual exercise. The only thing I am doing really is playing over the music at all time. But sometimes I made it with a purpose (not playing many notes but trying to hit "good" one, trying to have crazy runs, practice bends etc...). To me it's like training but always trying to do music at the same time. I have learned really few songs or solos but I realize there are value in doing so, trying to incorporate some licks you like into your playing. I just don't have enough time anymore so I prefer to spend my guitar time on playing and having fun and I am happy enough on my progress for what I am doing. If you are at the beginning of your own journey, I would suggest for you to find some channels you like but trying to focus directly on the big picture (understanding chords progressions and hitting "right" notes). Lear a few solo that you really like but try to incorporate in your own playing. Speed will come in time, don't rush it. Instead try to play relax and try to use as little movement and efforts on your left hand. That will be key for speed later on. I wish I have known about this earlier. Good luck!
