Hurrah! We are different.

Deijavoo

http://www.policymic.com/articles/88357/science-shows-how-guitar-players-brains-are-actually-different-from-everybody-elses?utm_source=policymicFB&utm_medium=main&utm_campaign=social

streethawk

Researchers found that, when a guitarist shreds, he or she temporarily deactivates the brain region that routinely shuts down when achieving big-picture goals, signalling a shift from conscious to unconscious thought.

And when mere mortals (non-musicians) attempt a solo, the conscious portion of their brain stays on, which indicates that real guitarists are able to switch to this more creative and less practical mode of thinking more easily. Exhibit A: 

Mistakes! Mistaaaakes!!!

Deijavoo

I wonder what happens when a drummer is playing? 

Roland

1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4

ROOG

If my fret hand could talk it might go something like this;

THUMB - "second string third fret someone!"

FIRST finger - "I'll do it"

SECOND finger - "what are you doing here, this is my job?"

FIRST finger - "well you were asleep and well I got here first"

SECOND finger - "Listen, there isn't room for both of us, sod off!"

FIRST finger - "Do you think anyone will notice if we swap over?"

SECOND finger - "No point now ALL CHANGE!"

 

I've known for sometime that I'm different. :0)

 

Cacofonix

Isn't shredding more given over to muscle memory than this I remember Paul Gilbert having a trickbag of shred licks and he'd use, say, licks 4,3,7,4,2 in a solo. So his conscious thoughts were on the licks to use, not how to play them.

There is something in the thought that guitarists can go into 'flow' states though.

digitalscream

Cacofonix said:

Isn't shredding more given over to muscle memory than this I remember Paul Gilbert having a trickbag of shred licks and he'd use, say, licks 4,3,7,4,2 in a solo. So his conscious thoughts were on the licks to use, not how to play them. 

That's pretty much how I do things. The interesting part is the transitions between said licks - I tend not to think about them too much but rather let my fingers come up with a way to get from point A to point B, and it's usually different each time.

There are some solos where it has to be identical each time, though, and that's pretty much all muscle memory with specific target points - a few notes dotted throughout it where I know that if I hit those, the next bit's going to be fine.

Cacofonix

Understood.  I come from a different direction.  My tutor doesn't do the shred thing at all, though I've seen that he can.

He forces a situation where you have to improvise everything on the fly.  Can be disconcerting, but is also pretty rewarding when he throws an odd sequence at you and you can play over it first time (doesn't happen often).

I'd love to be able to play more rocky though.  He is a jazz expert, and focuses on that.  While I wouldn't trade him for anything (fifty four years of gigging experience is brilliant for learning from, take it from me), I would also like to be able to rock out a bit more.