I have somewhat of a strange problem. I have been focusing on lead licks and such and becoming fluent in moving between pentatonic boxes. The problem I seem to have is I am stuck in the blues sound. Now don't get me wrong, I love the blues, and I know most rock has blues influences, but it seems like all of my lead improvising and such sounds like the blues and always sounds the same, even when I want it to sound more rock sounding, and even when I try to focus on fitting into the underlying progression. I like to do a lot of repeating patterns and notes, bends and hammer ons, but have not delved into 3 notes per string much. So the question for all of the teachers, pros, etc, is how would you differentiate Blues from Rock sounding leads. My thoughts are that Blues are usually shorter sounding licks. One of my problems is that I am not a fast shredder, and not sure if I will ever be. I do practice speed but have no desire to become a shred player (I'm turning 40 this year) but I do want to be able to play more rock sounding leands. My gut tells me that I need to concetrate on longer patterns and 3 notes per string licks.

Any advice to get me to move toward more rock sounding lead.

Thanks,
Michael

Thanks,

Trust your gut Michael and work on 3 nps patterns using legato and then
incorporate some tapping with those runs. It will definitely spice up your soloing. Now, I need to practice what I preach...

The blues scale is very similar to the minor pentatonic so its easy to to slip into the bluesy licks if you are only using minor pentatonic boxes, you are literally a flat 5th away from the blues scale if you must use the minor pentatonic try not to bend the third.
Try and use modal licks rather than pentatonic, or at least add some modal flavour to your pentatonic licks, depending on the backing etc ive found this can make a huge difference
I dont know how "rock" you want to get but look at lydian mode for vai/satriani spacey type stuff, harmonic minor, phrygian and natural minor(Aeolian) for death and destruction metal and mixolydian works great over 7th chords.
As skenny said get some legato going, arpeggio sweeps, tapping etc. and you will be rocking up the joint a treat!

Beats me why anyone wouldnt want to play the blues of course!!

Hi!
You have to think in modal scales in any case. Try to play melodies instead of the blues patterns.
And application of different techniques is a really good idea. (arrpeggio, tapping,)
Good practice!

I suggest that you learn songs. Take some famous rock bands from 70's. There you can find tons great rock licks and I believe that playing in those years was much more from the heart than what we can hear today. This worked for me

first of all, play around with minor scale (or aeolian mode, for geeks hahahaha), discover some licks other than pentatonic sounding. if you are thinking of working on technique, please have a measure, don't become one of those feelingless shredders... playing shouldn't be showing off your arpeggios, it should be music! you should learn how to blend in technique in your playing without sounding too "hey, look at me!!!". that's the trickiest part with technique i would say.

well mate, you answered your questioin really, more 3nps patterns practice, more longer licks, and more rock type licks are what you should focus on now!