The more I play, the less I play. I think when you are a young player, it is natural to want to make a statement. The way many players do this is by playing a bunch of notes. “Look what I can do”, right? You run all over the neck showing off your skills. This is common practice for all musicians. It is not just guitar players that fall into this line of thinking. We just seem to reach maturity a bit later than others.

There are good reasons to play a lot of notes. It is good for rhythmic development. Your ear develops the ability to listen faster too hopefully. That is the idea anyway. If you are ever playing without listening, you are just exercising your fingers. Working your brain is much more satisfying.

You start by applying what you have learned by studying and by listening. Even if you are not formally educated in music, you still study patterns. This is often done subconsciously. Your mind chases these patterns around in your head in relation to how you find them on the fingerboard of the guitar. The idea is to know what something sounds like BEFORE you play it. The occasional accident is great. Sometimes you need to wake up your ear with new ideas.

I think after all this the ear searches for melody. Nothing satisfies your ear more. The shape of the sounds you produce should make you satisfied. You know when you nail the right lick. You just know it. You also know when you don’t. This is where the editing process kicks in. You also may remember what you didn’t like initially and decide to come back to it later.

You remember that game we played as kids. You have the cards face down and the idea is to match two cards. That is kinda how it works. You remember the sound you want and then you remember where to find it. Your memory gets better with age. Part of the reason you end up playing less is that you don’t keep picking up the wrong cards until you find the right one. Your memory serves you well in improvisation. Improvisation is not the same as ad lib. I have had an argument over the actual definition of the word improvisation. It is clear to me that the word “improve” is right in there. Often the improvement comes from playing less.

Chances are there are not many solos that you remember unless you can sing at least a portion of the melody. Even if you can’t sing, you can hear it in your head. Think of those classic solos that perk up your ear. The ones that actually resemble the phrasing of a voice and not an instrument. Those are the ones that you don’t even need to be a musician to appreciate. Try to do that. Make what you play speak to the listener. After a while of listening to someone ramble on, the mind tunes out and stops paying attention. You can captivate with much less information. Simple statements hit harder. Try it. Less is truly more.