If you're struggling with creativity on the guitar, this might help. It's a reframe about musical complexity: how complex you actually want your ideas to be, and what it is about music that really gets you excited.
As you get better, it gets more and more tempting to use all the ideas you've got at your disposal. But you don't always want to use them just because you can. So let's talk about when you do, when you don't, and how self-consciousness can get in the way.
Music is a language for feelings ▶ 0:47
Music is in many ways a language. But unlike written or spoken language, we use it to communicate feelings and emotions rather than ideas. I think that gets lost amongst a lot of musicians nowadays, in this search for complexity and the battle against it.
The vocabulary argument ▶ 1:20
When I was at uni I lived with a good friend who had a better vocabulary than me. Mine's pretty good, but his was very good. We ended up in a playful argument where he said it wasn't on him to dumb his language down for anyone. The responsibility was on the listener to improve their vocabulary so he could be understood.
And I sort of agree. In an ideal world we'd all just have a great vocabulary. We don't.
The same applies to music. The idea you're trying to get across might technically be best served by an incredibly complex delivery: complex melody, difficult harmony, strange techniques. But how is that landing with the listener?
Your listener can't keep up with you (and that includes you) ▶ 2:10
Most listeners don't have much musical ability, or at least there's a good chance they don't have as much as you. Some are frankly tone deaf. As you become more accomplished, your ability to communicate in complex ideas goes up and up. The listener's ability to understand them doesn't.
And remember, the listener is also you in about ten minutes, when you listen back to what you just played.
So the question is: who am I trying to communicate with, and how do I reach them most effectively? If you want to enjoy listening back to your own music, you have to ask that of yourself too.
Impressed, or do you actually like it? ▶ 2:56
With social media you can see what every other guitarist is doing at almost any point in the day. Loads of brilliant players doing complex, technical, difficult things, all of which serve the algorithm pretty well. But ask yourself: are you impressed by these things, or do you like how they sound? Those are two very different things.
Take jazz. It's very harmonically dense compared to pop or rock, and on a musical level it's more impressive in many ways. If you listen to jazz and genuinely think it sounds great, that's what you should pursue and try to create. (Not me, by the way.) But if you're just impressed by it and don't really like how it sounds, which is me, you don't need to weave in all those complexities and chromaticisms just because you think you should.
If you do want to make that kind of music, the pool of people you share it with will be smaller but more concentrated. They'll be passionate about it, and more critical. You have to decide if that's the group you want to communicate with, and if you're that type of musician yourself.
I'm not just talking about commercial viability here. It's more about finding purpose in making music. It's about sharing something with people, and deciding who you want to share with, and where you fall in that as a listener.
Listen to what excites you, without the guitar ▶ 4:20
Go back and listen to some solos, songs, riffs or chord progressions that really excite you, whatever you're working on. Ask yourself how complex it actually is, and what it is about it that gets an emotional response from you. Don't play it, just listen to it.
Just because something feels good under your fingers doesn't mean it's something you want to listen back to in half an hour. A lot of modern metal guitarists play very complex riffs that are really satisfying to play, but when you listen back, to be honest, they all sound a bit samey. If you like that kind of music you might not mind. But why not try and create something a bit more unique?
The main takeaways ▶ 5:04
If you're intermediate or more advanced, think carefully about how complex you want your solos and riffs to be. Do you like listening to them, or do you just like playing them?
If you're not quite there yet, try not to think of complexity as a goal you have to reach. Think of it as an option. When you're a beginner or intermediate player, it can feel like nothing is optional, because you're always trying to figure things out. So you feel like you have to include ideas just because you can do them, or you'll run out. Don't let that scarcity mindset push you into complex things for the sake of it. You should want to become a better player so these tools are at your disposal. But at your disposal is just that. It doesn't mean you use them all the time.
Is your curiosity coming from a place of genuine musical excitement, or from a place of self-consciousness?
The listen-back test ▶ 6:00
A good way to check: record yourself, or save whatever you're working on, and come back in an hour. Put the guitar down and just listen. Compare it to things you know you like, and be honest about whether you're doing things for the sake of it or whether they're genuinely serving a purpose you like.
Flow state is great, and flying across the fretboard is great fun. But that can be exactly when you create stuff that isn't fun to listen to, because you're so busy playing that you're not really listening.
I also think this is a good pillar to lean on for individuality. With modern technology and AI, it's getting harder to stand out as a musician, and if you're fighting the technical fight for the sake of it, AI music is frankly going to beat you on that. Maybe that ages badly. We'll find out.
So don't pursue complexity just because you feel you have to. Record something today, leave it for an hour, and listen back with the guitar down. You can jot down what you notice in a practice log so you can see whether it's sitting in the same bucket as the music you really love.
