Break old habits but how? I get asked how to break out of the same scale routine, the same chords, and the same rhythm patterns. As I frequently say, use what you already know and build on it. Here are three ways I use to creatively destroy and build something new from what I already have.
Old Chords, New Positions
You already know the standard chords such as A, C, E, etc. Have you ever tried playing them somewhere else on the neck? Use the same finger positions but plop them down in a totally different place and strum. Simply sliding up the neck always produces interesting chord variations. Moving the E shape up and playing all the strings open really feels like floating in mid-air. A rich jangle of notes blows forth with some dissonance in one place and beautiful consonance in others. I have found the chords to songs I later worked out by ear this way. It comes like, “Hey, I’ve heard that before…” Next thing you know, you have a song figured out that has lingered in the back of your mind for ages.
How about trying this on for size: don’t just use the same fingering on the same strings, move the fingerings to entirely different strings. That can produce some truly magical tones. Take the lowly D7 chord. Nice transition type of chord or to end a song in an unusual way. Try playing it starting with your first finger on the third string. Now you have the oh so jazzy Amaj7. Only play from the fourth string down and you have the equally jazzy E6. You didn’t know you had jazz chords so easy within reach, did you?
New Fingerings in Strange Places
This is one I used this on my tune, First Night Late Night. I needed a song to try out what I was learning with my new DAW, Reaper, and plugins for my modeling software, Amplitube. You may know YouTube can be a pain when it comes to cover songs so I wanted to avoid that with something completely new of my own. The best way to accomplish that was to fret something, anything and see what it sounded like. With a few moves of my fingers, I found a song emerging perfect for the job! I tried my acoustics and electrics on the new progression and built the rest of the song as you hear in the video.
If you watch videos about how your favorite guitarists came up with their signature songs, one thing might pop out at you. Most of them were just trying stuff and found something they liked. They were not looking for some complicated chord structure in a mode nobody ever heard of. Mostly, the songs are from easy fingerings that fall naturally into their hands. Check out Joe Bonamasa at the Musician’s Institute talking about how he creates. His advice is spot on.
Break Old Habits by Intentionally Playing Wrong
Well, maybe not wrong but unconventionally, let’s say. You already know how to play a scale be it the pentatonic, major or minor. You have a chosen position to play it. STOP THAT! Try playing the scale starting with a different finger. For example, let’s say you are playing the A minor pentatonic. You would normally start with your first finger on the sixth string, fifth fret, correct? Try putting your third finger on that first note and play over the third through fifth frets rather than over the five and seventh. Find the notes in that position. Talk about how to break old habits! Glenn Riley shows this in his course on Rocking the Pentatonic.
Another fun thing to do is take your scale and only play every third note or every fourth, etc. Do not stop playing the scale at the seventh note but keep going until you run out of guitar. Where does that take you?
One more trick is to do a golf thing of playing were it lies by ending the scale somewhere in between and reconstructing the scale from that position. That’ll learn ya! Then go backwards down the scale the way you came up.
Conclusion
This should only get you started to break old habits. There are many more ways you can think of springing from this list. Bust loose and get to know your guitar. Check out Glenn’s class while you’re at it 😉