After a long hiatus, I have been back taking lessons and playing/practicing fairly consistently for 2.5 years or so now. Thus far, my lessons have focused on the fundamental aspects of sound production and technique like tone, articulation, time, support, etc. I feel fairly comfortable/confident with the progress made in those areas and I am at a point where I get compliments on my sound/tone at jam sessions. Have been working on soloing as well: guide tone lines / voice leading and targeting notes, ascending vs descending vs flat lines, sparse vs dense phrasing, scalar vs intervallic, call and response, using space, syncopation, etc. and feel like I am getting a decent handle on the horizontal aspects of creating coherent diatonic melodic lines.
However, I am far from satisfied with my playing. I feel like my solos all sound kinda similar and lacking in feeling. I am not using much embellishment like glissandos, bends, approach notes, enclosures, turnarounds, vibrato, etc. that add emotional nuance and use of devices like color notes, substitutions, and outside playing that add tension and harmonic complexity.
My teacher has told me he is against teaching anything pattern-based such as ii-V-I or pentatonic patterns and licks, but I just don't see how you can get around the use of them to some degree, if only to allow you to go on autopilot for a bit while your mind thinks of what to play next. He arrived at this conclusion after having drilled patterns and licks extensively himself, so I can see why one would eventually feel the need to move away from a rigid approach. However, now I am feeling that my current approach is holding me back, and I just don't see my mind and fingers reaching the level where all these aspects are being incorporated coherently on the fly, producing hip 16th note lines at 150bpm over complex changes.
So my question is what should I be focusing on next? Continue with the same teacher, go to a different teacher, or go buy ChadLB's packages and shed patterns and licks? Do I focus on general technique, or should I be working on applying to a specific piece of music?
Obviously if I could do all of the above, I would, but a job and family means one thing at a time.
