triads and other chords

One of my biggest goals lately has been trying to get away from always using the same old barre/power chords in my improv. Muscle memory is a funny thing; obviously if we didnt have this kind of ability it would be impossible to gain mastery over an instrument, but at the same time there is a negative side to muscle memory. It seems as though sometimes muscle memory hinders my ability to improvise simply because my hands want to do something "safe" that will sound good. That probably doesnt sound like too big of an issue but habits such as these tend to lead to music that all sounds basically the same when there are only a handful of chords in each key that will work together. So basically ive been trying to replace my usual chords with different three stringed voicings of the same triad. of course the musical value of these chords are equivalent so you get just about the same sound, however when using these three note chords i find its much easier to quickly alter the voicing by simply adding a finger. Doing this in the right places can instantly lead to minor, sus2, or sus4 chords which can add a ton of flavor to the usual major triad chord changes. Hendrix was a master of this technique and i think his ability to link triads together into these beautiful flowing waves of sound is one of the reasons he is seen as a virtuoso guitarist. To hear this ability in action all one really has to do is sit down with "axis: bold as love" and listen all the way through; "wait till tomorrow", "castles made of sand", the title track, and of course "Little Wing" all demonstrate a pallet of audible colors attained by simply using two and three note chord voicings.

first post

hmm where to begin considering weeks and weeks of good improv have gone by. I guess one of the most important lessons i've learned so far is that the key to good improvised music as a guitar player primarily is to focus on leaving space. With any instrument it is very easy to get carried away and over play your role as a part of the entire group. This is especially true with instruments such as guitar, vocals, or keyboards; too much playing can lead to hard listening. Its almost the same feeling as being talked at nonstop for a long period of time and desperatly wanting silence. I think a sign of being an accomplished musician is being aware of this and only having to use a few well placed notes to get your idea across.
An artist who demonstrates this kind of knowledge is someone like Carlos Santana. Santana manages to find a very simple idea that sounds great and he will play it a few times and modify the timing or rhythm. Once he gets these ideas figured out its usually just about linking them together in a seamless kind of manner. A great example of this is the instrumental "Samba Pa Ti". On the track, Santana tells a story through his guitar playing; it starts out very sad and throughout the course of the song changes to a much more upbeat theme.