Well, to me it sounds like someone practicing scales. I play a little like that when I'm doing finger exercises. Well, I like more melodic playing. I don't see any theme in what he does. I'm self-taught, so maybe there are nuances that I am not picking up.
You're already good at what you do. I'm not certain what you see in playing like that. It seems a few steps down from what you already do. Maybe you like the sweeps and shreds? Maybe you just want to play differently - like sound different? For me that should come from your tone and the scales that you use and scales can be used in so many ways. Check out Randy Rhoads and you'll see how he uses a large variety of scales/modes to create really ballsy melodic rock riffs.
And then there's Eric Johnson who seems to be able to fuse bebop, rock, blues, early jazz and rock into something all of his own - not all the time but it's really cool when the melodies are great.
And then there's chord phrasings and rhythm. Perhaps if you started there, you'll get a better hold on what to do for the melodies for this type of music. I still see it as experimental jazz rock and not fusion. Although fusion covers a wide area, including experimental jazz rock. Confusing huh? ;-) . Well, that's because I see some of the stuff that Eric Johnson does as being fusion, which to me is some jazzy (early jazz) bits combined with anything from pop to blues to rock.
For this guy's playing, I don't get any sense that jazz is there - early jazz. That's why I see it as experimental stuff.
And if you're lloking for great riffs that are different, look into country licks. It's essentially a lot of jazz-type scales. Use those for rock/fusion type songs and it'll sound like a killer. And then there's bebop which is truly cool. Add some of those licks into rock-type songs and it'll sound really ballsy.
Just my .02
RoRK
