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I think the trick is to take ideas from what you learn and play about with them. So if a song has a new chord try incorporating it into your own progression. Or if you learn a lick switch learn it in different positions, or switch the rhythm up and play it in different styles. Try and think about the 'why' of what you're playing over and above the 'what'. Why did the person who wrote it make those decisions?
When you say noodling I'm not sure what you mean. When I noodle I play random SRV licks all around the fretboard. To a ten year old it sounds good, but it isn't really music.
The sort of noodling that I aspire to is that Mayer/Hendrix thing where they can play chords with embellishments or even just some single note stuff that implies a chord progression clearly.
The advice that I have seen on it goes along the lines of...have a click track going and follow it, then have a chord progression in mind (say C, Am, F, G) and then locate some triads for each of those chords around the neck.
When playing single note lines follow either the major or minor pentatonic between those chords and make sure to land on either the root or the 3rd at key moments (i.e. the 1 of the bar)
I can do it, but slowly! and with a little bit of pre-planning.
Think of the Mayer song 'Waiting on the world to Change' like this
https://www.instagram.com/insta.guitarstuff/
No disrespect to the OP but if I could play half as good as John Mayer... I'd be quite happy.
Remarkable player - not least because he was able to make a decent fist of being Jerry's stand-in with the Grateful Dead. That's no mean feat.
I can play "pentatonics" - but there's a clear difference between me doing it and the pro's (and we're talking Clapton, Mayer, Young, Moore etc...) - and in a blind test - I'd be found out very quickly.
why? PHRASING - and the ability to piece together melodic parts into a whole that tells a story.
OP - what do you mean by "musical sounding" ?
From there you go Dorian minor, Melodic minor, Major, Mixolydian. Each time you’re using a different note in conjunction with what you already know. How long it takes depends on how much time you have. Even in my schoolboy days, when I had more time than any other point in my life, each step took between a couple of weeks and months to explore fully.
Nil Satis Nisi Optimum
a) someone else’s riff; or
b) something rehearsed and practiced where I am mentally saying ‘right, it’s this fret, then this fret, then this fret’….etc, does that make any sense at all?
To just be able to pick up the instrument and ‘mess around’ but have it sound good to the average someone who might be listening. A good case in point is the sheer paralysis I experience going into a guitar shop and having not a clue what on earth to do, because once I’m out of my comfort blanket of playing a pre rehearsed John Mayer riff, I’m drowning
You need 3 skills:
1 - the ability to invent melodies in your head - this is completely independent of playing them on a musical instrument. You can practise this everywhere, all the time. Especially in the car or shower or while cooking or walking the dog or whatever. Hum, sing, scat, get a kazoo. Anything at all will work
2 - the ability to play something that is in your head on a guitar. This is where knowing scales and arpeggios and patterns can help because you'll hear a melody (real or imagined) and recognise those audio patterns and be able to translate them into shapes on the guitar. But mostly it's about hard graft of transcribing things note for note and not allowing yourself to be satisfied with "close enough".
3 - the ability to do 1 and 2 simultaneously. QED. This comes with practice.
FWIW after 20+ years I'm really good at this but I still clam up in a guitar shop half the time.
As a starting point, go back to basics, listen to some of the older blues players. They all had their bag of tricks in terms of licks, riffs, etc, but were able to put it together into something melodic and "musical" (actual songs!) while often playing fairly basic stuff in the 1 4 5 format. Sometimes less is more.