On the guitar, just as on any other instrument, there are two extremes of player, with varying degrees in-between. There is 'player A' who is fretboard literate and has the freedom to express himself fully through the instrument. Then on the other hand there is 'player B', who is less experienced and has a lower understanding of fretboard .

However a major difference between the two players is that 'player B' can only hear what is coming out of the guitar rather than what is going in. Whereas 'player A' can hear in his minds ear what he wishes to voice through the instrument before the actual sound is heard. An obvious application of this ability comes in improvisation where instead of being restricted to moving your fingers around patterns and shapes that you are familiar with, you can have access to any melody of phase which you can hear in your head, providing you can technically accomplish it.

Where do I Start?
A key factor in this principle is that you can develop the skill to be able to sing what you are playing as you play it. Not that you have to be a good singer as long as the note that you think your singing / humming / farting is the one coming out of the guitar.

• So start off with singing along while you ascend and descend the major scale.
• Move on to do this with the other scales and arpeggios that you know until your are able to sing them with and without the guitar accompanying you. Try to sing along whenever you are practicing a scale or arpeggio, this way you' ll get the sound of them really engrained in your brain.
• Work on moving around the scales and arpeggios in different patterns while singing along, and gradually build it up so that you can improvise simple melodies around these shapes.
• Experiment with improvising a 12 bar blues solo while singing along, try to get it so that you're really in control of every sound which comes out of the guitar.
• Try singing a phrase in a 12 bar blues first and then imitating it on the guitar.
• Another exercise you can do is to work out simple melodies that you know, for example the British national anthem, but instead of working it out mainly by trial and error try singing it in your head and imagine playing it on the guitar first, think of what scale you'd use and on what degree of the scale the melody starts on, then once you've done this try playing it on the guitar. Doing this regularly will also quicken your ability to transcribe music.

Good Luck!

By Alistair Cooper

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