A Night With Andy Timmons: Fast Improv and More
Setting The Scene
On November 8, 2025, guitar enthusiasts like myself descended on the town of Cave Creek, Arizona for a masterclass with guitar virtuoso Andy Timmons at the newly re-opened Black Mountain Guitar.
Andy started the evening by playing through several songs for us. It was a longer and more fiery set than the one I had seen him play at George Benson’s Breezin’ With The Stars event earlier this year. Each song broke into a beautiful solo, which I had thought were his written solos from his records.
After these songs, Timmons opened up the floor for questions. A lot of the early questions were about gear and how he gets his excellent, iconic sound.
Learning About Improvisation At Fast Tempos
At one point, the Q&A led Andy to share that he had improvised some of his solos earlier. I had found this to be impressive because he was developing a lot of unique ideas at length using very little bebop language and a modest amount of blues language. His improvisation was very much coming from a rock and metal vocabulary, with a high emphasis on melody.
So I asked Andy about how he would recommend developing the skills to improvise quickly. He began his reply with a rhetorical question: “Do you mean melodically or technically?”
Timmons proceeded to expand on a number of facets of improvisation, but the main takeaway was that he mixes following is ears to make new melodies with the muscle memory from a lick vocabulary.
To develop your ear, activities like trying to figure out songs by ear and trying to play what you sing are both very valuable. Andy demonstrated playing what he was singing in time and showed how it make him focus on melody. When he stopped singing, more lines and licks were in his playing.
To play more technical licks, a player must develop a lick vocabulary. Andy stated that those lines come from muscle memory. These licks have been practiced over and over and come up from the unconscious. He also admitted he wished his lick bank was larger.
Timmons touched on the idea of wanting to play like others – Hendrix or Barney Kessel or whoever it may be. He admitted it took until his mid-50s to accept that he wouldn’t ever truly sound like these players. However, you find yourself and what you sound like along the way. Your limitations actually end up letting you sound like you!
On Trio Playing
Fans of Andy Timmons are aware of his Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band cover album with a rock power trio – just guitar, bass and drums.
Timmons took to demonstrating how he played certain Beatles songs in this format and his decision-making process in picking out which parts of the original recording to emphasize in his playing.
Ultimately, the guitar can cover the whole spectrum of a song by itself, including melody, rhythm, chords, harmonies, percussion or the bass line. He emphasized experimentation and listening for what the song needs. This dovetailed nicely with another comment on composition being a process of listening for what the song wants next.
Closing
Andy took a few song requests to end the night. Following his last tune, a couple of Andy’s signature pedals and an Ibanez power supply were raffled off and there was time for photos and signings.
Chris Molinari with Andy Timmons
The topics that Andy touched on are a few among many I draw from when teaching musical improvisation. To book a lesson with me, simply click here and fill out the form. You can also call or text me at 203.415.1514 or email me at christophermolinari@gmail.com. I look forward to hearing from you!
