There are two parts of your brain working when you solo. One is the pattern recognition side that memorizes box shapes, and the other is the musical, melodic, feel side. You need both, but a lot of players get too shape-dependent and lose touch with the second one.
A great way to engage the musical side is to stop thinking in boxes and start thinking in root notes. Find where your tonal center lives on the neck, learn the octave relationships across the strings, and then play your licks off of that root wherever it appears. Same lick, different position, guided by your ear instead of a shape.
It takes the fretboard from a series of boxes into something that actually follows the music.
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