Leaving Space

One of the biggest things guitarists struggle with is leaving space in their solos. In this post I'll introduce an exercise that will help you remember to leave space within your improvisations. Here's the exercise: take a breath, and exhale while playing, then take a break (stop playing) whenever you take your next breath. You can continue doing this indefinitely as you play so you are always playing while exhaling and not playing while inhaling. This exercise comes straight from horn players, but they have no choice in the matter, they must breathe in order to play. Guitarists, however, can keep going almost indefinitely, which seems like a great advantage but in reality often leads to solos that can be boring and inaccessible. Although you don't need to do this whenever you are playing it is good to do it once in a while so you remain conscious of the need for space within improvisation. Just like with talking improvising goes better when you stop every once in a while.