Example 1

Play this with clean sound. And maybe add some reverb or delay, or even chorus, just to make it sound a bit sweeter!

Example 2

Play this with distortion (altough, you can play it clean), and also add some delay.

Now, answer these questions:

1. What were your thoughts while you were playing this?

2. Did you continue playing the same phrase looped after you played it once, or stopped playing it?

3. Did you try to play anything differently after you played this as I wrote it? Why have you done that? Why haven't you done that?

Have you answered the questions?

I hope you have. Do that if you haven't.

I often emphasize in my articles and e-books on how important it is to experiment with examples given to you. And why do I do that? Because that's where the real learning happens. I mean, you learn a lot from the example itself, but once you go deeper in it, see what it's made of, why it is like that, what's happening around it and why is that like that, you get a much bigger lesson. And the whole thing is basically revolving around the habits. Answers to the questions I asked you will give you a nice view on your habits. Do you have a habit of examining things, and learning why they are like they are, or not? Do you always look out to find something extra in whatever's given to you... or not?

Habits can be changed. It may take discipline and self-control, and of course, time, to make that happen, but it's possible to do. Actually, the more you're dealing with it, the more interesting it gets. It's because you see lots of things you haven't seen before and you learn lots of things you wouldn't have learned any other way.

For example, if we take that 1st example I've shown to you, and we don't stop on playing the same thing over and over again, but we want to explore what other chords can we play after or before that, we'll get to a bunch of new ideas. Here's one of them:

This seems a bit more interesting than the initial idea, right? That's how it goes, it gets better and better. You can now try soloing over it, you can experiment with drum patterns, bass lines, playing dynamics and whatnot... Basically, whatever you experiment with gives you something new you didn't have before. 

Now, work with that 2nd example!