Wondering people’s views on the educational value–if any–of deliberate noodling. I mean picking a key or a mode and then noodling within that. I have been doing a fair bit of that lately both as a way to visually remember key signatures (as opposed to just reading notation, where your attention is focused on the notes–i’m focused on the fretboard patterns) and to learn the “feel” of them. Part of me thinks I am wasting my time and should be practicing etudes or doing for technique focused things.
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As good of practice as any 
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I try to do some of this every day. I’ll pick a scale and just improv within it, varying rhythms and adding syncopations. My playing has gotten a lot better since I started this
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I think it’s a good way to get comfortable in a given area/key/whatever, improv improves over time, imo and in my experience.
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I love this.
I don’t understand how people don’t just love this.
It’s like having a bunch of cookbooks, but still going into the kitchen and throwing some ingredients - that you know work well - together in new ways to make new things.
It’s lovely and I think it is beneficial in every way…
UNLESS
You only do this.
This type of playing will always be limited by what you feel comfortable doing and what you can already do.
So as long as there’s another part of your practice where you’re getting new information in, challenging yourself in structured ways and pushing for new sounds, this - to me - is the perfect balance.
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I freeform a lot. Yes, i have things i want to practice, and I’m always trying to learn new stuff everyday-but for me just making something that sounds cool is great. It’s also produces a lot of crap, but that’s easy to cast aside.
I feel like i have better grasp of keys, tone, method and rythym by doing this. I mean, it works for me. Plus, some days i just kinda want to do my own thing. I’m not writing songs, just finding something i like and exploring it.
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Yep, good stuff, that. I love the high of jamming. When I’ve been lost in musical reverie, many times I’ve been surprised by what I just heard, thinking, “Who played that? That was tasty!”
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I found myself doing that a lot lately pretty much every time I pick up my 6 string. It just a sin not to noodle when you have that many strings, lol.
Sometimes I got to the part to fill and just throw some with 2 octave fills hit or miss felt great and wend back and put it on the 8 bar loop and spent the next 20 minutes noodling.
Hopefully, once I get that out of my system I’d go back and behave as this kind of behavior would get a dirty look from every band mate.
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Reminds me that I’ve been neglecting The Beast lately. I should correct that. I have a new 5-guitar stand arriving today so I can have more than 2 instruments at a time in my main area, so that’ll be a quick/easy fix.
But I digress.
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Love a noodle
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Sadly, my “practice regimen” has devolved into almost nothing but noodling.
Don’t do that. 
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Even more, love a good noodling. Mmmmm…noo-dling…
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Nothing like a good power udon noodle
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Pow-don noodling.
Mouth-watering goodness.
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Ramen noodling. Cheap but effective.
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Kung Pao noodling. Hot & Spicy.
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