COLUMNS
MELODIC MUSE
by Andy Timmons
ON THE LINE
Playing up and down one string for greater musical expression and variation
SIMONE CECHETTI
HELLO, AND WELCOME to my first-ever series of columns for Guitar World magazine. In this first lesson, I’d like to get into the concept of where melody comes from, and how to better apply a melodic approach to your playing.
Many guitarists tend to focus on scales, such as the A minor pentatonic (A, C, D, E, G) shape shown in FIGURE 1. We then learn specific patterns and licks that lay the foundation of our soloing vocabulary, such as the line shown in FIGURE 2. When I solo, I’ll sometimes rely on this kind of position playing, but over the years I've become more attracted to the idea of horizontal or linear playing, moving up and down the fretboard on just one or two strings. This approach frees me from thinking about scalar patterns, as I'm listening for melodic opportunities that avail themselves while I move freely around the neck.