If you consider yourself a guitar player, you know what noodle really means. This could apply to any other type of musician. You listen to a goofball play scales like it was some sort of art form. Kenny G. would be a good example for sax players. Jerry Garcia is the prime example for guitarists. Any Grateful Dead song lasting over 4 minutes will have one long example. Or any Phish song lasting at least that long. However, even better bands such as the Allman Brothers can succumb. Listen to the end of an otherwise lovely song like "Blue Sky." I blame Dickey Betts for this example.
When this phenomenon begins, the other guys in the band look at each other and there's only one thought on their minds:
"When will this noodlin' end?"
This is not a new usage for the pasta appellation. Even in the 1940s, Louis Armstrong referred to playing along with a 78 rpm record in this way: "I'm just gonna noodle around with it."