How to improve variety of rhythm in my solos?

[spearlymatt]

Lately I've noticed my solos have become very repetitive. Not with notes, but with the actual patterns.

i.e. over

|Am---|G---|F---|G---|Am---|G---|F---|G---|

Fast playing--------------------------hold note


If I'm playing a slow melody then it's fine, but when I try to play fast I fall into the pattern of that rhythm.

Any help would be appreciated :)

[fingerpikingood]

just try doing, not that. if you know what i mean. you can hold notes for long or short, bend notes, leave long pauses, to me it depends on what's the music that's playing. just a chord sequence is incomplete.

if you show me sound recording of your problem i might have better advice.


but you can try different tempos, try sometimes strict playing, sometimes skippy playing, sometimes 16ths, sometimes 1/4s sometimes triplets, sometimes long silences sometimes short ones, sometimes none at all.

although i recommend sometimes trying random things in order to get inspiration and to keep you out of a rut you might be in, your music should be honest and as you intend honestly.

experiment, listen to music, feel the music, think not of what you're doing. forget the how, just do it.

when you go somewhere you don't think of how to walk, right? you just think of where you are going.

music is this way, just imagine music, practice when listening to music in your mind. your imagination and ideas can be practiced without instruments. just in your mind.

transferring your mind into sound via instrument requires practice with an instrument.

[bluesking]

The best rhythm is always tied to which notes you play. If you use rhythm as a template and simply fill it with notes, the results are going to be boring. You need to find what works for you yourself because its a matter of taste.

To help you, you could try practicing your scales & arpeggios in lots of rhythmically different ways.

Here are some patterns you might wish to consider. I am using the major scale here, with each note numbered 1-7, but you can apply this to any other mode or scale and see if you like the results:

1,3,2,4,3,5,4,6,5,7............. 2 notes to a beat
1,2,3,2,3,4,3,4,5,4,5,6,5,6,7............ 3 notes to a beat
1,2,3,4,2,3,4,5,3,4,5,6............ 4 notes to a beat

Try making your own combinations.

A great way to get some interesting effects is to play polyrhythms. You can take a pattern which has, say, 3 notes to a beat (for example the second pattern in the above list), but play it as if you are playing 4 notes to a beat. Here is an example:


16th note beat: 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4
Pattern you play: 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3
Example: 1 2 3 2 3 4 3 4 5 4 5 6


In the first two rows, the numbers do not signify scale degrees, like in the first table. They are showing the rhythmical form.
The example row, however, is showing scale degrees. It shows how you would apply the middle pattern shown in the first list to this polyrhythm.

Try all the patterns you can think of. Come up with your own. You may not like some of them, others you may love. Don't give up, and your rhythms will become interesting and controlled. Don't forget the above are exercises. Don't just use them in solos the same way you practice them. They will find their way into your solos in interesting and organic ways automatically, providing you practice them.

Use a metronome.

[aamaomao]

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[TheAristocrat]

My advice would be to play, listen to and tab out solo's and melodies from the Castlevania (head from Castlevania Judgement) series. I had exactly the same problem, but decided to turn away from guitarists. Following the music from this series has taught me alot about rhythm in your phrasing. I would offer you more advice, but I personally believe that trying to intellectualize concepts like these is far less fruitful than listening and playing.

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Castlevania+Judgement+Music&search_type=&aq=f