Ready to play amazing guitar solos that are creative, expressive and emotional? To become more creative, you must practice just how you would practice everything else.

You also need to avoid making big mistakes that stop others from being creative.

The following are frequent mistakes that hold guitar players back from becoming creative. Your potential to become highly creative goes up when you avoid these mistakes:

Mistake #1. Not Integrating Music Theory And Guitar Technique Together

Some guitar players only focus on learning music theory or improving their guitar technique. It’s common for these guitar players to also neglect learning how to integrate these skills with each other.

Doing this prevents you from using the skills you’ve developed in any kind of musical manner. For instance, it is common to see guitar players who learned how to play very fast, technical exercises… but have no idea how to phrase a good sounding melody. Being in this situation is frustrating, because you have spent so much time working on your technique, but can’t do anything musical with it because you lack the creativity to do so.

Mistake #2. Learning As Many Scale Patterns As Possible

Don't fall into the trap of believing that learning tons of scale patterns helps you play lead guitar solos more creatively. Reality is, this is more likely to overwhelm you than to actually help you play great sounding phrases.

Yes, learning more scales can be helpful in the long run, but it doesn’t help you learn how to play creatively (which is a separate skill altogether). Learn how to be creative with what you know now before adding tons of new scale patterns into your repertoire.

This video shows you how to play killer guitar solos and licks without needing to memorize tons of scales:
https://youtu.be/sOCI7hXPcVc

Mistake #3. Learning Tons Of Licks By Your Favorite Guitarists

On the surface, this seems like a good idea. Many guitarists think this is the best way to play as creatively as their favorite guitarist. However, memorizing a bunch of guitar licks by your favorite players achieves the opposite effect. You are more likely to rely on repeating the same licks over and over rather than actively think in a creative manner while improvising or making your own lead guitar licks. This prevents you from learning how to be more creative.

Now that you know the mistakes to avoid, discover the step-by-step process for becoming a very creative lead guitar player by reading this article on creating guitar licks.

Author's Bio: 

About The Author:
Tom Hess is a guitar teacher online, progressive rock guitarist/composer and a touring musician. He teaches guitar players in his rock guitar lessons online. Go to tomhess.net to get more guitar playing resources and follow him on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest.