Licks (Rock, Blues, Metal) - Novice/Intermediate/Advanced

50 Licks in A Minor Pentatonic (Shape 1)

This tutorial is for those of you with a bit of experience playing pentatonic scales but find that you quickly run out of ideas when you jam/improvise, and for those of you starting out with improvisation but not knowing what can be done with a pentatonic scale. It is also a valuable resource for more experienced players looking to build upon their vocabulary of licks - you never know, there might be something new here!

I’m assuming that you have a basic understanding of hammers, pull-offs, slides and string bends (bending tips at the end of this tutorial). All of the licks here are based in shape 1 of the pentatonic scale (see the scale sheets in the previous lesson for all 5 shapes). You should aim to practice your scales daily with alternate (down/up) picking, hammer-ons and pull-offs. Use a metronome and keep a daily practice log of the tempo that you achieve comfortably (i.e.; without mistakes). This will build your speed, co-ordination, dexterity, strength and stamina (I will be posting some demanding speed exercises shortly).

Listen to the licks whilst reading the TAB and see which licks appeal to you. For the moment you will need to click (press shift when clicking to open in a new window) on the following link



http://chrispearcemusic.com/downloads/50licks.php



to listen to the licks (you will need Flash installed). The great thing with this link is that the licks are presented individually and can be heard at full and half speed. Via the menu on the page you can click on any number (1 to 50) and hear and see in TAB and notation, the lick of your choice. I have also added the eight pages of licks in this tutorial (see below) so that you can print them off for ease of practice.

Learn the licks that you like the sound of first. If the lick is long, break it down into small, easily manageable sections. You will need to be patient when attempting to build up speed and dexterity with your fretting fingers. Take your time, as music is never a race. It’s better to be able to play something slow and well, rather than fast and patchy.

Try to use the same fingering as suggested on the pentatonic scale sheets. Using a finger-per-fret technique is an excellent way of training your fingers to do what you want them to do, rather than using a sloppy technique of "any-old-finger" which will lead to potentially huge problems in the future. It's best to take your time and get the fingering correct, than to rush head-first into a lick not caring about the fingering. It's better to take twice as long getting the lick perfect, than taking half the time ending up with something sloppy and half-baked. After all, you want to get good at the guitar don't you? Why cut corners? Solid technique will help you learn faster later on down the line, so be patient and try to be accurate at all times. And yes, I do realise it's difficult to do sometimes. After all, I had to learn all this stuff too!

Here are the licks so you can print them off (do use the above link to hear them though!)...

Phew! That's a lot of licks! Hopefully it'll keep you busy for sometime!

In the next improvisation lesson we'll look in more detail at how we can get the most out of these short little ideas and start to create some great guitar solos. There is more to it than simply stringing a load of licks together, although that is a good place to start. There is a backing track on my website (in Free Downloads section) which is streamed. I will be posting some backings here when I get the time so that you can download and save them.

But hey, why not create a backing track of your own? You can record it on just a simple tape recorder, or for those with the know-how, use your computer. Try a really simple chord progression (the easier, the better) such as a pair of chords. Start with Am and then use any of the following basic chords - C, Dm, Em, F & G (yes, I could go into m7b5s, 7s, 9s etc. (I won't now as we're keeping it simple - the focus is upon practicing the licks - we'll concentrate on chord/scale theory soon...)). Loop the chord pattern around, i.e.; Am G Am G, and make the backing last for at least 4 minutes (there is nothing worse than really getting into jamming the licks and then suddenly the backing track stops because it's so short!).

Well, good luck and have some fun with the ideas here. Once you have the licks under your fingers, play around with them and turn them into a licks of your own. Experiment, but nail that technique first!

TIP: String Bends

When bending a string, try to reinforce the note you are bending by placing a finger-per-fret behind the main note. For example, if your 3rd finger is on the 7th fret ready to bend, place your 1st finger on the 5th fret, and your 2nd finger on the 6th fret on the same string. Push the string upwards (towards the ceiling) if using one of the three high strings (drag downwards towards the floor if using one of the bass strings). The extra fingers help to push the bend upwards with relative ease. Using the 3rd finger alone would produce an unsteady note and your finger may even slip off the string resulting in a dead note. You will also need your 1st finger in position if releasing (returning the string to it's original pitch after a bend) and then pulling-off (see the licks above for examples of bend, release, pull-off situations).

Jazz (Lead) - Advanced

Improvising With Arpeggios – 12 Bar Jazz Blues

Here we have the same chord progression as with the previous exercise (see "Jazz Rhythm" below this post), but this time the chords are strummed with a plectrum rather than fingerpicked. For the solo I have used the arpeggio (literally the individual notes that make up the chord) that fits with the chord being played at that point in time. For example, if the chord being played by the rhythm guitar is Bb7, I’ll improvise over it with a Bb7 arpeggio. If it’s a Cm7 chord, I’ll use a Cm7 arpeggio.

To be able to use scales, chords and arpeggios well on the guitar, you need to learn your notes on the fingerboard extremely well. Guitarists are notoriously slack in learning the names of each of the fretted notes on the neck. Learn the notes “cold” taking one string at a time. Leave out the #’s and b’s until you have a strong grasp of where the “natural” notes are (i.e.; A, B, C, D, E, F, G). You can easily find the # and b notes once you have the natural ones fully committed to memory. Learn the notes ascending and descending alphabetically (you need to think backwards down the musical alphabet too!). This doesn’t happen overnight, but it will give you a greater understanding of music once you can do this, and it will also open up avenues for your playing which would have been impossible to perform before. Exciting? No. Essential? Yes!!

This exercise is also accompanied by a backing track for you to try playing along to (this will be uploaded shortly - please check out http://www.chrispearcemusic.com/ if you are feeling impatient!). If you can’t fit all of the notes in at first, just play some of them to get a feel for what is happening in the music. Don’t ignore the chords either. Playing guitar isn’t all about taking solos. Playing rhythm is something you’ll be doing 90% of the time in most bands. Practice the rhythm guitar part and learn as many shapes/voicings/inversions for each chord as possible.





NOTE: Soundfiles for this piece will be uploaded shortly. Please click on the URL link below to hear the piece (make sure pop-ups are enabled on your browser or press "shift" when clicking on the link). When the new window has opened, click the triangular play button in the right hand corner of the screen to hear the music (you will need Flash installed to hear/view the music).


http://chrispearcemusic.com/downloads/12barjazzblues.php

Jazz (Rhythm) - Advanced

Walking Bass Jazz Blues

This exercise is based around the same 12 bar chord pattern used in the Jazz Blues Lead improvisation exercise above. The basic idea here is to sound like two instruments, namely a guitarist “comping” (the tri-tones/3rds/4ths played with index and middle fingers) with a bassist playing the walking bass line (thumb). The chord tones should be played short and choppy (staccato) whereas the bass line should flow smoothly and effortlessly throughout. The bass line employs a great deal of chromatic/passing notes. Try to work out what is going on with the harmony in this exercise to get a greater understanding of how you could use this technique yourself. Find a chord progression in The Real Book (jazz standards book) and try to walk the bass. Good luck!




NOTE: Soundfiles for this piece will be uploaded shortly. Please click on the URL link below to hear the piece (make sure pop-ups are enabled on your browser or press "shift" when clicking on the link). When the new window has opened, click the triangular play button in the right hand corner of the screen to hear the music (you will need Flash installed to hear/view the music).


http://chrispearcemusic.com/downloads/walkingbassjazzblues.php