I have recently taken a fascination on improv. I have tossed around a few scales such as the Pentatonic, major, minor, a few modes, "exotic" scales, etc... But, I was still unsure of how "burnt into my brain" these scales should be. I have read that I should be able to play them with my eyes closed, and that I should be able to play them without thinking about what I am playing. I am able to play them with my eyes closed (pretty easily). But, I'm a little confused about about the concept of not thinking of what I'm playing... Does it mean should be able to mindlessly run up and down the scales while multitasking? Or, does it mean that I should be able to add techniques, such as vibrato, bends, and sliding into different positions without putting much thought into it except what part of the fretboard I'm playing on? If I run up and down a certain scale long enough will it be locked inside my head??? Or, should I learn a scale then practice improving with a slow backing track until I become familiar enough that I can improv freely???
I need a pretty detailed explanation of how this works... and where I should go from where I'm at now...
*Keep in mind* I can name most of the notes on the fretboard within 3-5 seconds (meaning point to a random note, I should get it moderately quickly)... I've also jammed with Smells' lesson on beginning improv which uses the B minor Pentatonic, and I've only used the first position of the scale (and moved it up an octave).
I hope this made sense to all of you. I feel like I'm putting too much thought into this (I hope not anyway).
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