I study guitar as a hobby, beginner-intermediate level. I have weekly jam sessions with a friend who is much more advanced.
I usually play notes from minor pentatonic in the key of what he plays. I sometimes use notes from other scales, although this is much more difficult.
I mostly pluck the notes with the pick, occasionally using bends, slides, hammers,etc., but not so much yet, as I am still learning those.
Occasionally I sound good but a lot of what I do is based on luck, trying to stay in rhythm and when I stumble upon a pattern I like, I repeat it a few times.
Over the course of an hour I become repetitive, and after a few weeks, I feel I am running in circles.
Where could I go from there? Any recommendations on learning material that would help me develop that aspect of guitar playing (which is the reason I got into guitar in the first place).
We usually play blues style, but if there is material from other genres that can help me learn, I am curious to hear it.
EDIT: THANK YOU EVERYONE, I WILL TRY YOUR SUGGESTIONS OVER THE NEXT FEW MONTHS.
Here is a neat thing to try next time you play. You mentioned you played mostly blues? Try playing around the chord that is being played at the moment. So for twelve-bar blues in E, play minor pentatonic in E, then A, then E, then B, then A. It will sound weird at first because you are still learning but eventually you can make it sound natural.
Blues tends to fudge over major and minor so the major pentatonic would also work well here; move your minor pentatonic shape down one and a half steps. Switch between major and minor on your whim. Add in chromatic “out” notes when moving between chords. Slide into notes from a half-step below or above instead of starting there.
To add to this, look at how the scales/modes/pentatonics fit around the chord shapes. If you play an A bar chord at the 5th fret for example and start picking the notes out of the chord you’re actually picking notes from the major and pentatonic scales in A. Map out how those scales fit with the chord shapes and you’ll pick up a few other moves that you can easily translate around the neck as the chords change. This video gave me a lot of new ideas in that regard https://youtu.be/w6TV-nF-_hk?si=BvRuCen2dkY-i1y6
Try to sing along with the notes that you’re playing when you’re practicing. It’ll make you be more intentional about what you’re playing and also help develop your phrasing to be more melodic.
The CAGED method is what helped me the most to start learning and visualizing the notes on the neck. It ties chords, arpeggios and scales together. It’s working for me, I think I’m an advanced beginner.
Start learning the various modes. Then you can expand and still be in key.
