Today, we're continuing our Learn to Play with Dweezil Zappa series that kicked off last week with his lesson on varying pentatonic riffs. This week, Dweezil demonstrates how thinking of rhythms first can help develop more creative melody lines.
When Dweezil sits down to write a song, he likes to find a rhythm that interests him first and then finds notes to put over it. Then, he can take the resulting picking pattern and include extra notes or transfer it to different places on the neck.
This inversion of the normal order of operations is a great way to unlock new ideas and keep your playing and composition fresh.