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What I do is take a riff or whatever strikes me at the moment, sometimes a unique strumming pattern that has an interesting rhythm and from the starting chord I go through what I call chord transformations. That is, I start on one chord and then by manipulating the initial shape, I alter it to go either to another chord or stay on the same chord but alter the combination of some of the strings to produce a different voicing of that chord. The more I transition part of the chord shape the more it opens up the neck to invention and I sometimes surprise myself with new shapes that I hadn't explored before. In truth, I seldom see new shapes anymore, because I have done this for so many years that I have to do a pretty big stretch, or go for some odd voicings to find something I didn't already discover. I basically have no problems playing in any key, and as long as the song is not full of a preponderance of complex jazz chords I don't have to think too much to find the chords anywhere on the neck. With complex chords I have to think a little more about them, but I can usually follow them even if I don't get the complete voicing by finding a couple of the notes of the chord using my techniques. I can do that partially from having explored the neck using the chord transformation techniques I have learned, and of course using my ear to recognize the interval changes.

The only way to develop the ear for recognizing interval changes that I have found, is to practice doing just that. Take a piece that has a change, say going from a root note to a II chord, and listen to it over and over again, then seek out other songs that use the same interval change and literally train your ear to recognize it. The more you consciously think about it and listen for it the faster the changes will come, until you recognize them automatically. Do this enough and standard chord structures begin to be obvious to you as soon as you hear them, even if you never heard a particular song before. The ability to quickly recognize patterns is an important skill that all good improvisationists have developed.

When I was in music school they actually drilled us using nursery rhymes or well known pop tunes and we would listen to the first two to four notes of those very familiar songs and associate the first change of the song to its specific interval change, then whenever we heard a change in another song we could automatically relate to the nursery rhyme that had the same interval change. By focusing on a specific change the mind builds a connection that can be recalled later and eventually become an automatic response.

Another thing I do is, when using the above techniques, I add a melody to the chording by trying to use the free fingers, and what is already fretted to produce the melody over the chords.

The last thing I do is straight lead parts, either melody or arpeggios and focus on smooth technique, while trying to speed up gradually to increase my speed. Speed is the one thing that practice affects most. If you don't practice frequently your speed and smoothness with speed suffers quickly. The rest of the practice techniques are things that help to give you the vocabulary to use speed, but the only thing that gives you speed, besides a natural gift that makes it seem easier for some folks, is practice, practice, practice. If I play every day, even just 20 minutes a day, I am WAY faster on a gig at the end of two weeks, than if I spent only two days before it practicing two hours each day before the show. The daily repetitive practice is essential to develop speed and smooth technique.

Sadly, I am not as good at making myself practice as I was when I was younger, and could not be in the same room with a guitar without picking it up. Now, I practice more sporadically.