Chords for Your Solos Can Be Better With This Cup Trick

Salute, David Rollman here, and today I want to share with you a cool mental visualization
trick that can help you develop better improvised guitar solos and can also pinpoint areas of
your playing [G] that you need to focus on in [Am] your practice.
It has to do with two cups and a liquid.
When you're improvising, there are usually two aspects of yourself that are involved
in the process.
There's the mental and the physical.
[B] The mental [E] usually directs your melodic lines.
[F#m] It's the [E] mental that [B] concentrates to [A] create some [E] themes on the spot.
You're [A] usually singing a theme inside, and [E] you really [A] use your guitar as an instrument,
as a tool [N] to reproduce what your mental is singing or making up on the spot.
And that's very concentration-heavy.
You're concentrating here, and that's demanding.
But that's what the mental is when you [C#m] improvise.
On the other hand, we have what I call the physical, and that's [G] the hands, [C#m] the muscles,
[D] the tendons, [A] the exercises that you spend hours working on.
[N] That's very demanding physically, but mentally it's not, because you're relying on things
that you've done over and over, and it's almost like automatic playing.
Most of the time when you're playing, only one of these aspects is involved in the process.
You're either playing mentally, making up something new on the spot, or physically,
using all the exercises, the sequences, the licks that you've learned automatically.
Depending on our level of experience, our background, our musical history, we're going
to be better at one from the other.
Let's now picture that mental ability to make up things on the spot and really be in control
of the music with a blue cup.
Now let's play the physical part of our improv, all the licks, all the sequences, the technical
things that we're playing with a red cup.
Unfortunately for most players, these two cups don't work the same.
For some players, the blue cup is going to spill out really slowly.
For other players, that same blue cup is going to spill out really fast.
Let's fill these two cups.
The liquid we're going to use represents our experience.
Experienced players are going to have a lot of juice to put in the cups.
_ Less experienced players are going to have not as full of a cup.
When you're using the blue cup, it's very demanding on your mental.
You're concentrating on your ideas, making them up on the spot, and as you're playing,
that concentration runs out until you're out of ideas.
That's where the red cup takes over.
The physical part of your playing, relying on the licks that you've learned before, all
the sequences, all the technical ability that you might have, and as you're playing with
your physical, you're getting tired, but you are recharging your mental cup.
It's a matter of balance.
When you're playing mentally, your physical ability is resting.
It's not as demanding.
You're recharging your physical ability.
When you're playing physically, relying on the sequences, the technical aspect, you're
taking a mental break.
That mental break is recharging as you're using your physical ability to play.
If both cups work the same, your solos are going to last longer.
You're going to keep the listener's interest as you're going, using one cup, recharging
the other flawlessly, and that's how you create better guitar solos.
But that requires from you to have as much mental juice as you have physical juice.
So which type of cup player are you?
I know that I'm more of a blue cup player, where my mental takes over.
That means that my musical lines are going to be a little bit slower, maybe more melodic,
more focused, but when it comes to physical playing, I'm lacking in that.
So I need to refill my red cup.
That means that I need to work on more exercises, more technical aspects of playing guitar.
I'm sure you know some players who are really heavy on the red cup and pretty light on the blue cup.
Those players should benefit from maybe learning their arpeggios, more theory, more ear training,
so that the balance is restored and you're a more complete guitar player.
Let's demonstrate that on myself.
I'm going to improvise over a backing track, and you'll see that the blue cup gets a lot
more usage, and I know that, and I know that I need to work on my red cup to have a more
balanced type of playing to appeal more to guitar players as well as [A] non-guitar players. _ _
[Bm] _ _ _ _ [D] _ _ [A] _ _
_ _ _ _ [F#m] _ [B] _ [F#m] _ _
[Bm] _ _ _ _ [D] _ _ [E] _ _
[A] _ _ _ _ _ _ [E] _ _
[D] _ _ _ _ [F#m] _ _ [E] _ _
[D] _ _ _ _ [F#m] _ _ [E] _ _
[D] _ _ [D] _ [F#m] _ _ _ [E] _ _
[D] _ _ _ _ [A] _ _ _ [E] _
_ _ _ [A] _ [Dm] _ _ [E] _ _
[A] _ _ _ _ _ _ _
[Bm] Usually, _ _ _ _ [E] _ listeners who know about guitar are going to be more receptive to the red cup.
Those who don't know much about guitar and don't really appreciate all the technical
aspects of it are going to [Bm] be geared towards the blue cup.
I hope you like this idea.
I find it very useful to get back to a healthier approach and a more balanced approach.
Be honest with yourself.
Ask yourself that question, which cup are you?
If you like this, you should check out my website, GuitarPrivateAc.com, where you can
find the backing track I was using and a lot more guitar courses and tools.
I think you're going to like it.
Oh, also, if you didn't know, my new album, Evolving Seeds of [C] Glory, is out.
I'm [G] so [E] proud of this.
You can hear some extended samples [Bm] and order it on my website, DavidWalleman.com.
[C] Thanks so much for your support, and I'll see you very soon on this channel.
Salut!
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