Electric Guitar: Thoughts on Phrasing

Beautiful melodies. Those are what I aim for now in my guitar playing and improvisations. But that wasn't always the case. In the early stages of my learning to play the guitar, I focused almost exclusively on speed and highly technical, over-the-top playing. I thought lightning fast licks and scary technique were the only things worth aiming for when a guitar was in my eager hands.

Now things are different. Playing the right notes, the best notes, perhaps only a few, over the perfect set of chord changes, which hopefully causes the listener (and player) to feel a plethora of strong emotions is the most important goal for me. Enticing and inventive melodies are what I strive for in my playing, although I do use speed on occasion since it can be a great way to express a certain amount of passion, or other feelings, such as anger, excitement, yearning, bliss, frustration, lust, terror, jealousy, disappointment, hilarity, what have you. But now I realize speed should be used moderately and tastefully.

It is generally more difficult to execute good phrasing on an electric guitar as compared to other instruments. Guitarists tend to become trapped in a lot of box patterns, while a horn player for example has many more note options available to them. Because of the way strings are layed out on the guitar, expressive phrasing can be quite difficult. One thing you can do to practice your phrasing is to listen to as many horn players as possible, such as jazz saxophonists and trumpet players like John Coltrane and Miles Davis. Generally jazz horn players are masters of good phrasing and you will learn plenty by trying to imitate their phrasing on the guitar. (Also, as a more practical example, keep in mind that wider intervals make for better melodies than simply going up and down in the exact order of a scale.)

Here are three other points concerning phrasing that may help you, as well as some advice from Miles Davis:

1. Speed is occasionally necessary, but I feel it shouldn't be the most important thing in your playing.

2. Hitting the perfect notes over a good set of chord changes is a noble goal to have.

3. Ultimately each guitar player is different and if you feel that focusing exclusively on extreme techniques and speed and technical gymnastics should be the most important thing in your playing, by all means follow that instinct and see where it takes you.

Finally, to very loosely paraphrase Miles Davis on this subject - (I wish I could quote it exactly and give you the proper source, but my searches have turned up nothing) - this is something I memorized long ago, which is probably altered slightly from the original by now:

"When soloing, don't play too much. Let your music breathe. If you have something to say, say it then, don't blow a feeling. And leave your phrases unfinished and hanging. Leave something for the imagination."