5 Creative Guitar Prompts to Improvise and Compose New Music

Looking for creative guitar prompts?

The word “prompts” became common these days because of chatGPT and other AI apps. But instead of outsourcing intelligence, how about using and upgrading NI? 

The good things about NI are that its creative capacity is unlimited, it can search for the most updated information on the web, and can even connect and have meaningful chats with humans. 🙃

NI can also create beautiful music by using the smart algorithms of MI and mainly because of its extraordinary emotional expression capabilities. 

So here are 5 creative guitar prompts you can challenge your mind with to improvise, write songs and compose new musical creations…

1. Write the next release of your favourite musician.
2. Your middle two strings broke. Use the other four to write a song.
3. Compose a monophonic guitar piece.
4. Write a soundtrack to the last video on your phone.
5. Play a famous guitar riff but with different notes.

It’d be great to hear your variations on these creative guitar prompts! Would you like to share your attempts on my Electric Fingerstyle Improvisation Guitar Group on Facebook?

Prompt the Promt

Then I thought, what if you write “creative guitar prompts” as a prompt into an AI app? I did, and chatGPT gave me these 10 ideas:

1. Play a piece in a different time signature, such as 7/8 or 5/4.
2. Write a song that tells a story, and create a guitar riff to go along with it.
3. Try playing a piece of music in a different genre, such as rock music played with a classical fingerstyle approach.
4. Use alternate tunings, such as Drop D or Open G, to create a unique sound.
5. Incorporate percussive elements, such as slapping and tapping, into your playing.
6. Create a medley of your favourite songs, blending them together into one piece.
7. Write a piece using only one chord, exploring the different melody and rhythm possibilities.
8. Play a piece in reverse, starting with the last chord and working your way backwards.
9. Experiment with different guitar effects, such as reverb, delay, or distortion, to create new sounds.
10. Improvise a piece based on a specific emotion, such as joy, sadness, or anger.

I asked it to regenerate and got 10 more creative guitar prompts, and some are quite similar and variations to the first 10.

1. Write a song using only three chords
2. Create a soundscape by playing with different textures and effects pedals
3. Write a piece in a different time signature than you are used to
4. Use a specific emotion as inspiration for your playing
5. Write a piece in the style of a genre or artist you admire, but put your own spin on it
6. Experiment with alternate tunings
7. Write a song with a narrative structure, like a story
8. Improvise a solo over a chord progression you’ve never played before
9. Collaborate with another musician and write a piece together
10. Create a medley of different songs, seamlessly blending them together.

But this time, it also added an important closing sentence. “Remember, these prompts are meant to inspire and challenge you, not limit you. Feel free to interpret them in your own way and let your creativity guide your playing.”

Conclusion

This was a great experiment, which I believe proves my initial point. AI is based on common knowledge and on the information we know so far. It cannot yet generate ideas that haven’t been thought of. When I thought of producing 5 prompts of my own, I wanted to come up with new ideas and skipped the ones the chatGPT suggested. I thought they were a bit obvious and predictable.

For example, writing the next release of your favourite musician is an idea I for from the visual arts, to draw the next painting by Picasso and so on.

The conclusion is: feel free to experiment with all of these 25 creative guitar prompts. And here’s another challenge: create your own prompts!