If your improvisation feels a bit stale, flat or boring, the usual move is to learn new licks, work on chord tones, learn new solos, or just hammer backing tracks for hours. There's nothing wrong with any of that, and it will develop your improv.
But there's one tool I think is really underused, and it's quite easy to do. It also multiplies everything else. Whatever licks, chord tones or triad shapes you learn, they'll sound better with it. Without it, they'll sound a bit dry. That tool is dynamics.
What dynamics means on guitar ▶ 0:58
By dynamics I mean varying the attack of your picking hand: how hard or soft you hit each note. There are other kinds of dynamics, but that's the most obvious place to start.
When I started at music school, we all sat down, played a bit and introduced ourselves. Everyone had their strengths and weaknesses. There was one guy who was less technically capable than some of the others, but he was a really solid blues player and everyone envied him a bit for it. A big part of that was his dynamics. At that early stage none of us really had much of that, but he did. If you'd asked each of us to improvise for a minute, he'd have stood out as the most unique and, to be honest, the most listenable.
Express different notes differently ▶ 1:46
The idea is to play different notes differently. Play the trusty pentatonic scale straight up in order and it sounds fine, but it doesn't really sound like much. Add some dynamics and suddenly you've got rhythm. Not only have you added feel, you've implied a rhythmic element just by changing where the emphasis falls.
Mateus Asato is a great example of someone who's mastered this. Apart from the very tasty licks, he has a moving dynamic range, attacking the strings and then pulling back. If he played the same licks without dynamics, he'd still sound pretty good, but they wouldn't have that extra something.
However good you are right now, adding dynamics takes everything you know and multiplies it by a decent bit.
How to practise dynamics on the pentatonic scale ▶ 3:07
Saying "vary how hard you hit the strings" is easier said than done, so here's a way to practise it. Use the A minor pentatonic scale, which works well because it's two notes per string.
- Going up, accent the first note on each string. In this shape that's the 5th fret note on every string. Pick it harder, and the second note softer.
- Coming back down, do the same. Now the first note you hit on each string is the 7th or 8th fret note, so those get the emphasis.
- Then swap it round. Go down the scale emphasising the 7th and 8th fret notes on the right-hand side of the shape, then go up accenting them too.
While you do this, keep quite a wide dynamic range. However wide you think your dynamics are, widen them a bit, because you're probably not doing it as much as you think. Go really gentle on the first note, then snap on the next one.
Once that's comfortable ▶ 4:27
If you've got the hang of that, start combining the ideas and getting a bit freer. Play the pentatonic scale in order but put the accents in more random places. Or try it on a major scale or a three-notes-per-string scale.
Then the next sensible step is to improvise with dynamics in mind. Take licks you already know, even a very simple blues lick, and play them with the accents in different places. You'll notice each version feels slightly different, and the rhythmic feel of the lick changes depending on where you put the dynamics. A backing track helps you hear that in context.
Dynamics on high gain tones ▶ 5:20
Dynamics work best on low to medium gain tones. Once you add a lot of overdrive, saturation and compression, it gets harder to be dynamic with your picking alone.
So on higher gain, think about two other things:
- Palm muting, bringing the palm mute on and off as you play through the scale.
- Hitting more than one string at a time, like a double stop.
Both bring in texture where it would otherwise be quite hard to get any dynamic variation.
Explore the extremes ▶ 5:52
This isn't something you'll master overnight, so don't try to perfect it straight away. Go really, really gentle. Then really whack the string. Find that range first, then find where in it you like to sit.
Dynamics are something people neglect for years, and they're one of the simplest ways to sound more human, more interesting and more unique, without learning anything new. Take the pentatonic scale, accent the first note on each string going up and down, then take one lick you already know and play it three different ways. Have a go.
