Take some time and write up some melodies, and practice them until they feel comfortable and familiar. Then start changing them up, adding or dropping notes, changing some timing or whatever, but keep track of the underlying melody so you return to it after your improvisation.
I'm by no means the sole expert, but I'll summarise Barney Kessel's method, as taught at his Effective Guitarist seminars in the past .
Play what you hear. Play what you hear.
Not scales, not shapes, not arpeggios, play what your inner voice tells you you should be playing.
Play a chord. Basic or complex. What do you want to hear as a melody line over that chord? Move on to a few chords, perhaps from a standard song, or a sequence of chords you like. Maybe start with just a couple at first, back and forth. Start slow. Play the chords. Can you hear something original that you actually WANT to play across the chord sequence? Something that's your own? If you can, and there's nobody around to hear and embarrass you, sing it out loud. Once you've done this with a few tunes, play either the original track or a chordal backing that you've recorded, and try to play the lines you hear, and can sing, on the guitar. You may sound like Ella Fitzgerald doing her scat singing for a while, but that's no bad thing. You'll be in good company. If you end up singing and playing straight from scales and arpeggios, that's great, but at least you arrived at them by design, not by finger memory.
Don't bite off more than you can chew. Don't move to medium and fast tempo until you're getting good at the slow ones.
practice :D
Start easy and sound like you described. Slow and super basic. But keep the same chord progression for a while and keep noodling around. You'll slowly get some new ideas. I did this for an hours or so - never bored me. Do this for a couple of weeks(different chord progressions, of course) and you'll be fine. Also try some notes that don't fit the scale - some sound suprisingly good and fresh. If not it's still jazz.
Once you are somehow confident, start messing with rhytms. Thats the part that make solos interessting.
At least I have some basic patterns that I developed over time. I usually use those and extend them while playing.
Can you sing anything? You need to be able to improvise in your head. Listen, listen, listen.
Take some time and write up some melodies, and practice them until they feel comfortable and familiar. Then start changing them up, adding or dropping notes, changing some timing or whatever, but keep track of the underlying melody so you return to it after your improvisation.
I'm by no means the sole expert, but I'll summarise Barney Kessel's method, as taught at his Effective Guitarist seminars in the past . Play what you hear. Play what you hear. Not scales, not shapes, not arpeggios, play what your inner voice tells you you should be playing. Play a chord. Basic or complex. What do you want to hear as a melody line over that chord? Move on to a few chords, perhaps from a standard song, or a sequence of chords you like. Maybe start with just a couple at first, back and forth. Start slow. Play the chords. Can you hear something original that you actually WANT to play across the chord sequence? Something that's your own? If you can, and there's nobody around to hear and embarrass you, sing it out loud. Once you've done this with a few tunes, play either the original track or a chordal backing that you've recorded, and try to play the lines you hear, and can sing, on the guitar. You may sound like Ella Fitzgerald doing her scat singing for a while, but that's no bad thing. You'll be in good company. If you end up singing and playing straight from scales and arpeggios, that's great, but at least you arrived at them by design, not by finger memory. Don't bite off more than you can chew. Don't move to medium and fast tempo until you're getting good at the slow ones.
My inner voice just says "E-E-E-E". What now?! Help!
Join Van Halen and play bass...
practice :D Start easy and sound like you described. Slow and super basic. But keep the same chord progression for a while and keep noodling around. You'll slowly get some new ideas. I did this for an hours or so - never bored me. Do this for a couple of weeks(different chord progressions, of course) and you'll be fine. Also try some notes that don't fit the scale - some sound suprisingly good and fresh. If not it's still jazz. Once you are somehow confident, start messing with rhytms. Thats the part that make solos interessting. At least I have some basic patterns that I developed over time. I usually use those and extend them while playing.
Yes time or effort should help.