What makes you sound unique?

[weepingminotaur]

I'm cautious about muscle-memory, because I know for myself that it has been a sort of mental trap in my playing, but that's me. It's great for developing dexterity, but I find that that's when theory becomes a weight on my playing rather than a jailbreak. Having that dexterity is muy importante, but not if it channelizes my expression. I want to have a good turn of speed, but not if it comes at the cost of musicality.

Coming out of a screw-up, that's something every guitarist should learn no matter their approach to the instrument, because we all screw up, and the song ain't stopping while I wipe my butt.

I'm not nearly a good enough lead player to even have these types of issues, but you know, goals! Maybe one day. My problem is I'm always trying to do too much at any one time and spreading myself in too many different directions. Well, that and my lack of hand speed.

 

[Thumpalumpacus]

I'm not nearly a good enough lead player to even have these types of issues, but you know, goals! Maybe one day. My problem is I'm always trying to do too much at any one time and spreading myself in too many different directions. Well, that and my lack of hand speed.

Get that muscle-memory and hand-speed with practice, but don't forget that it's the brains that makes you, to go back to the OP, unique. Knowing your scales/modes/etc is useful and indeed important, but only in service to getting what's in your head out the speakers

One of the breakthroughs I had in understanding this came one night when I'd only been playing a few years. I had that song from Wang Chung, "Dance Hall Days", stuck in my head, and couldn't get rid of it, so in my walking home I got the idea, yeah, what would I do over this? And improvising in my head. So I started chasing that sort of thing. I didn't imagine the Randy Rhoads or EVH licks I loved so much, I just wanted to go with this annoying earworm. But that night taught me, for myself, that I could imagine licks.

Imagination is key. Learning how to get that imagination into notes is the tricky part. Play songs. Play lots of songs. Don't learn them note for note.. Don't be afraid of not playing the solo right. Play it for yourself and do that with conviction. That's my two cents' worth, worth every penny you've paid for it. Dexterity and fluency matters, but only insofar as you're playing music.

 

[Phantasmagoria]

I'm cautious about muscle-memory, because I know for myself that it has been a sort of mental trap in my playing, but that's me. It's great for developing dexterity, but I find that that's when theory becomes a weight on my playing rather than a jailbreak. Having that dexterity is muy importante, but not if it channelizes my expression. I want to have a good turn of speed, but not if it comes at the cost of musicality.

Coming out of a screw-up, that's something every guitarist should learn no matter their approach to the instrument, because we all screw up, and the song ain't stopping while I wipe my butt.

Well yeah, but then everyone's idea of what constitutes musicality is subjective. I find that my sticking to practicing finger excercises in the past to get my fingers to move ( I don't anymore, all I do now is play) rather than learning scales (ok, I know a couple of the real basic ones) and learning licks & stuff which I've never done, is what makes me almost never play the same thing twice unlike say a dude like Yngwie who tends to rehash scales and stuff that he's done over & over before ( not that I mind personally, I still love his stuff & buy all his albums, but yeah, he mostly just sticks to his own thing) Personally though I love speed & dissonance, I think everything I play is tempered with melody and feel as well (again subjective....you might not think so ). I love bends, vibrato & bluesy stuff as much as I like to shred

Angus Young, Gary Moore & Buddy Guy are as big of an inspiration to me as Yngwie, EVH & Vai..

 

[ehdwuld]

The important thing to remember, I mean the really important thing, is that theory is descriptive, not prescriptive. It is very useful in describing what you've already played, but it should not be used to prescribe what you should play. Knowing theory has helped my playing most when I'm analyzing what another guitarist has done over this or that set of changes.

When I'm playing, I never think "oooh, I need a flat-7 here". I hear a note in my head, understand what scale or shape or form will deliver it, and hope I can tie this stuff together enough to be coherent. Any solo of mine, if improv, will float between keys and modes with no regard to "this is the proper note to play here", because I want to play guitar, not typewrite. Sometimes I want sour, or out-of-key, or evocative of some other mood.

When I was taking theory. The teacher said to the class .

Theory is the rules to composing music

But where you break the rules is what makes it interesting

You cant work outside the box
If you have no concept of the box

 

[Phantasmagoria]

You cant work outside the box
If you have no concept of the box

Why not? You can def work out of the box. I do it all the time. It's not a biggie. That actually makes no sense and it's often repeated as a great "point" to make in favour of learning theory .

Which it's not. It's like saying you can't drive a car unless you know how the engine works.

Your ears will tell you all day long if you're in the box or out of it. They'll take you in and out of the box at will, instantly. Without you having to struggle to recall a thing you crammed into your brain from a book.

 

[Phantasmagoria]

And here's Mateo Mancuso saying pretty much the same thing @ the beginning (2:30) of this video (and he's far from clueless about music theory)

I'm not a zillionth as good as this guy (lol who is?) but honestly ...it's all about 'instinct' for me as well.