One of the most common mistakes I see amongst players starting out with improvisation, is the idea that repetition is off limits.
For a lot of guitarists repetition is a sign that they don’t know enough licks, and need to work on building their repertoire.
This couldn’t be further from the truth.
When used correctly, repetition can do a lot to enhance the quality of your solos. It can help you to build tension and momentum, establish a theme and it actually makes you sound very confident.
It makes listeners feel that you have confidence in your ideas and the conviction to return to them with intention.
There are two main ways that I recommend using repetition.
The first (nice and simple!) way, is to simply play the same lick over and over again. This works very well if you want to build up tension and momentum in your solos. Every time that you return to the lick, the tension ramps up a little more, as the listeners start to wonder when you will move onto something different.
The examples I illustrate around the 1.50 mark in the video above demonstrate how Stevie Ray Vaughan does this in he song “Tightrope“, and how Jimmy Page does the same in his iconic solo in “Stairway To Heaven“.
Using repetition in this way however is a very common technique, and one that you can hear in all of these songs:
- “La Grange” – ZZ Top
- “Crossroads” – Cream
- “What’s Going On” – Taste
- “Bright Lights” – Gary Clark Jr.
As you can see, all of these songs have a more intense and aggressive blues rock feel. In each case repetition is used to drive the intensity of these solos and add to this feel.
So if you favour this heavier style of blues, then using repetition in this way can be a brilliant way of creating intensity – especially if you aren’t using speed in your solos.
The second way of using repetition is to take a phrase and use that as a central idea that is then altered slightly. This is equally or perhaps even more common in the blues, and is something you can hear in a whole range of different songs, including:
- “Strange Brew” – Cream
- “The Thrill Is Gone” – B.B. King
- “Hey Joe” – Jimi Hendrix
- “Crosscut Saw” – Albert King
So, if you think that you’re falling into the trap of playing solos that sound like nothing more than a collection of licks stacked on top of each other, start trying to implement repetition.
It will take some of that pressure off your playing, and in fact will make your playing sound confident and assured. You aren’t repeating yourself because you don’t know any licks; you’re repeating yourself because you are trying to create a certain effect in your solo.
This is something that we’ll be exploring in greater depth in the next and final tip in this course – so head over there when you are ready! 😁
