Thanks!

Hi Emil,

This may be a difficult question for you to answer, but I'm wondering if you have any advice about how to transition from "knowing" what to play when you're improvising over chords to actually playing without having to think so hard about it.

I've been watching your "Jazz Blues" video and can play the solo, the scales, arpeggios, etc. In my current practice routine, I take a few bars (e.g. G7-C7-G7-Dm7-G7-C7) and try to find other licks to play over those chords. The goal would be to eventually be able to play something semi-original over these chords, but I'm stuck at this stage of "overthinking" and consequently not being able to generate ideas or licks in time and in the moment.

After watching your interview with Joe Robinson and hearing his answer to your question about improvising where he said he's trying not to think but rather to "hear melodies" and rely more on intuition, I'm wondering if achieving this goal comes after years of internalizing the many scales/arpeggios/licks you learn and practicing them over a backing track consistently.

Anyway, I'm wondering if you have any tips on what I can start incorporating into my practice routine in order to go from understanding what I can play to actually improvising in an original way over some chords in time.

Thanks!

-Dan

Hey Emil,

Given how much you play, have you ever found the need to stretch or exercise your hands outside of playing the guitar in order to meet the demands of your playing? I'm also curious to know how often you take a day off to let your hands recover.

Thanks!

-Dan