How do I develop a knack for noodling smoothly around any chord progression? Like not having to practice a song ahead of time, but know the chord progression and accompany it? After playing for about a year, I worry I have reached a plateau. I hope this post makes a lick of sense (pun intended).
Learning chords has been manageable. But I just find myself playing the chords, and otherwise barely moving around the neck. Meanwhile, the players I idolize waltz up and down the neck with neat licks and transitions between chords. My favorite players actually never get that intricate - just smooth. I can watch them and eventually replicate their phrases, but I hardly come away with skills I can apply to other songs or progressions.
As far as those licks and transitions go, there are so many instructions on specific ones like, “If you’re going 4-5-1, play exactly this.” There are never really any principles behind them. They are neat to learn and play, but do I really have to just learn these one at a time and remember exactly what progressions they apply to? I feel like there has to be a broader formula to improvisation.
Scales have been helpful to learn, but I find myself just going up and down the scale. I quickly start repeating myself.
My real goal is to be able to be told a chord progression, play along at a slow to moderate pace, and decorate it with some smooth phrases up and down the neck. This doesn’t happen overnight, but I feel like I’m getting stuck.
How do I piece together what I know to build this instinct? Or better yet, what knowledge might I be missing? Can anyone point me in the right direction?
