BLUES FUNK LICKS

Blues Funk Licks

Tasty funky blues licks for bluesy funky guitar licks soloing! Get that funky blues edge in your guitar solos with some licks from some legendary bluesy funky guitar players Freddie King, Albert King, Otis Rush and others. Armed with these licks you’ll be all set to hit the stage at that blues or funk jam session and rip out an awesomely funky blues guitar solo!

All these funk licks are in the key of D using the D blues scale played up at the 10th fret. You can practice these licks with the same backing track I’m using HERE

BLUES LICKS FOR MINOR PENTATONIC SCALE

Minor Pentatonic Blues Licks

Learn 5 powerful blues licks for minor pentatonic scale soloing right now…and start playing better blues solos today. With these 5 licks in your minor pentatonic scale soloing trick bag you’ll soon be playing more authentic and better sounding blues guitar solos. Why? Because the minor pentatonic scale is the basis of most blues guitar soloing! So the more minor pentatonic scale blues licks you know and can use..the better your blues solos are likely to be.

You’ll hear your favourite blues guitar players use ideas like these in their minor pentatonic scale blues licks library. And that’s exactly where these licks have come from. I’ve taken them from blues guitar legends like Eric Clapton, BB King, Albert King Stevie Ray Vaughan and other blues legends. All these players used the minor pentatonic scale most of the time in their playing and all use pentatonic licks exactly like these. So let’s jump in and boost your knowledge of blues guitar soloing with 5 great examples of blues licks for minor pentatonic scale soloing!

0:30 All these licks will work over a 12 bar blues in the key of A and are taken from the A minor pentatonic scale played at the 5th fret. Here’s the minor pentatonic scale shape just in case you need a reminder.

0:50 Blues lick 1 from the minor pentatonic scale shows you the classic blues ‘intro’ lick. It works great for starting a blues solo…but also works at most points in the chord sequence so experiment!

Practice these blues licks for minor pentatonic over the same backing track as me here: https://youtu.be/n-WEY_Mgblw

2:45 Lick 2 shows you a nandy repeating blues lick from the minor pentatonic scale. Notice how cool it sounds if you loop it round or round. The lick finishes with a cool Albert King style idea moving across the strings.

5:10 Blues lick 3 shows you a classic blues bending idea. Follow the fingering suggestions and practice this lick over the backing track provided.

6:36 These minor pentatonic scale blues licks are using lots of repetition. This is a crucial device to use to give your blues licks and solos structure and logic…so practice using it in your solos till it becomes a habit!

6:50 Minor pentatonic blues lick 4 uses more repetition. It also makes use of a handy blues bend on the high E string. Push this one…it takes some effort to hit the right note with the bend!

8:25 The last of our blues licks from the minor pentatonic scale uses a mixture of bends and pull offs to get a classic blues phrase.

10:30 What next? Now you know some blues licks for minor pentatonic soloing what should you do? Follow this suggestion…it will work wonders for your blues soloing skills.

I hope these blues licks give you some ideas for using the minor pentatonic scale in your blues soloing. Have the confidence to create some minor pentatonic scale blues licks of your own. With these examples as a starting point, it might be easier than you think. Have fun and catch you next time!

MINOR PENTATONIC ROCK LICKS

Minor Pentatonic Rock Licks

Learn minor pentatonic rock licks as used by the biggest names in rock and metal guitar. Let’s face it: the minor pentatonic scale is the most commonly used scale in rock guitar, so without a good range of pentatonic rock licks to use, playing a great rock solo is going to be tough! But this minor pentatonic rock licks guitar lesson has got you covered, with on-screen guitar tab and a range of cool minor pentatonic moves including alternate picking licks, double stops and powerful minor pentatonic bends. With this guitar tutorial learning minor pentatonic rock licks is easy to…meaning you can be using them in your rock guitar solos soon.

All these licks are using the ‘shape 1′ E minor pentatonic scale pattern played up at the 12th fret. You probably know this already, but if not use the fingering and on screen guitar tab in this video to quickly learn it.

0:55 The first minor pentatonic rock lick uses a mixture of alternate picking and a common but powerful repeating bending move.

3:50 Watch this section of the lesson to discover what you MUST do with these minor pentatonic rock licks…if you want to start making up wicked licks of your own!

4:24 This Michael Schenker style pentatonic rock lick using a repeating blues/rock idea followed by a speed pentatonic triplet idea at the end. A common minor pentatonic rock lick this: so make sure you can play it well!

7:30 Minor pentatonic rock lick 3 is a feast of repeating rock lick ideas! It reminds me of some of Randy Rhoads’ favourite soloing ideas. This longer lick is a great one to break up into smaller chunks to use in your solos.

11:55 Final comments and tips on using these minor pentatonic rock licks to develop an epic sounding rock style of your own. Follow these, they’re essential for building a guitar style!

Have fun! James

GUITAR WARM UP ROUTINE

Guitar Warm Up Routine

A guitar warm up routine to get you warmed up and ready to play in minutes. You don’t want to spend half of your guitar practice routine getting warmed up…you want to be playing! Following this 3-5 minute warm up routine for guitar will get your fingers looser, your hands relaxed…and over time will also help build faster and stronger guitar fingers, finger independence and speed and fluency too!

Warming up is an important part of your guitar practice, but how can you do it? There are lots of ways, but I like to use the 5 short warm exercises here. They use bends, trills, down picks, up picks and alternate picking to get both your fretting hand and picking hand ready to play. To make them easier to remember I decided to put them together into a short warm up routine to use at the start of all my guitar practice sessions.

Remember the goal is to get warmed up: these exercises are not about playing fast! Do them slowly and accurately in a relaxed fashion – this is important! Tension will not help you get warmed up. You can use a metronome if you like, but it’s not compulsory as long as you keep a controlled, solid time feel it’s fine.

So good luck with my guitar warm up routine! I find it works for me, hope it works for you too.

PLAYING A GUITAR SOLO ON A BALLAD (TIPS FOR EPIC SOLOS!)

Playing a Solo On a Ballad

Playing a guitar solo on a ballad is your chance to show the expressive and emotional side of your guitar playing chops! But there are challenges with playing a solo in this style. How can you play a more melodic guitar solo? How should you use phrasing and space? Are there any tricks the guitar gods use when playing a guitar solo on a ballad and can you use them too? And can you learn how to play an emotional solo which sounds epic, or is it an ability you either have or you don’t!?

Stay tuned, because I think you can learn to play a killer solo on a ballad! And in this guitar lesson, I’ll point you towards 5 powerful soloing tips which are based on what you hear in the playing of ‘power ballad’ masters like David Gilmour, Jeff Beck, Steve Vai, Slash and other great players. Follow these tips and explore and practice them and you will hear a difference when you step up to play a solo…and over time and with practice you can become an expressive and emotional guitar solo master!

LEGATO LICKS – LEGATO LINES FOR ROCK GUITAR

Legato Licks – Legato Lines for Rock Guitar

Legato licks can sound awesome in your rock solos and in this guitar lesson I’ll show you 3 legato lines for rock guitar you don’t want to be without. These legato licks make a great legato practice routine or legato workout too if you want to improve your legato technique and your finger strength and accuracy. And the sliding blues scale shape I show you in this lesson really lends itself to playing legato, meaning with a little practice you can soon be creating legato licks and runs of your own.

After looking at the sliding A blues scale shape used for the lesson it’s time for the first legato lick. It’s ascending the scale pattern using a repeating legato pattern. Break it up into chunks to make it easier to learn and build your legato chops bit by bit.

The second legato lick is the kind of idea you might hear Paul Gilbert play. It’s a repeating blues scale fragment which is a useful addition for high energy rock solos.

The third legato lick descends the scale with a legato flurry moving down in octaves.

Remember to build these up to speed gradually and get the timing solid, it’s easy to lose it with legato licks like these and our fingers can start to run away with us! Also practice using them in your playing so that legato becomes a part of your guitar style.

KILLER METAL RIFFS AND THE ‘DEVILS INTERVAL’

Killer Metal Riffs and the ‘Devils Interval’

Put the heavy into your metal riffs with the tritone or ‘devils interval’! It’s been the secret weapon of heavy metal bands like Black Sabbath, Slayer and Metallica for years, now you can find it and start to use it to create killer riffs of your own. So get ready to learn all about the devils interval or tritone and how you can instantly use it to create crushing riffs like the worlds greatest metal bands.

So what is a tritone? It’s the distance of 3 tones between two notes. Of course what really matters is what it sounds like, and the good news is that it sounds dark and heavy, making it perfect for those doom-laden metal riffs!

Now we know what a tritone is we can look at finding power chords whose roots are a tritone apart. This is where the magic starts to happen! Hear me demo the sound in the lesson…instant Black Sabbath!

The theory behind this is pretty simple, but some example metal riffs using the tritone could be helpful. So see me demonstrate and break down 3 example riffs using power chords and pedal tones. These will help you see some of the possibilities and give you some ideas for killer riffs of your own.

5 TOOLS YOU NEED WHEN YOU PRACTICE GUITAR

5 Tools You Need When You Practice Guitar

Guitar practice time? Here are 5 tools which you’ll need to help you get the most from your session and see great results every time you practice your guitar. Just deciding to ‘practice guitar’ won’t get you where you want to be unless you’re doing it the right way! The 5 guitar practice tools I share in this video will help you stay on track, remember what you’ve learned, develop a good practice routine , manage your practice time more efficiently and ultimately make you a better guitar player!

Having these 5 practice tools in your practice room will help you get off to a flying start with your practice session, so keep them close by. Let’s look at them one by one:

1) Timer to help you break up your session and cover all the areas you want to practice. A small digital egg timer is perfect, or you can use the stopwatch on your phone

2) Blank tab paper to keep a record of any cool ideas you discover. We can learn a lot from ourselves when we do our guitar practice…so note down what you find out so you don’t lose it!

Grab your FREE blank tab book here (you don’t even need to submit an email address!). Print it off and you’re sorted!

3) Metronome. Great for building speed, keeping a consistent rhythm and staying focused on an exercise. Wind up or digital great…or online! Just make sure it’s loud enough.

4) Video camera in your phone. Record yourself to listen back for feedback and to document the progress over your weeks and months of guitar practice sessions. Great practice tool!

5) Backing tracks and drum loops. Unless you have a band on standby for every time you feel like jamming (I’m guessing you haven’t) backing tracks and drum loops are amazing for putting what you are practicing into a more real-life situation in the practice room.

Hope these guitar practice tips help you out. Leave a comment below the video if you have any cool practice tips or practice tips you want to share. See you next time! James

POWER CHORDS – LEARN POWER CHORDS FAST WITH THIS EASY METHOD

Learn Power Chords Fast with this Easy Method

Power Chords: Learn the power chord shapes for guitar you need to play rock and metal with this simple memory/learning technique. Learning and remembering the power chords you need on guitar can be tricky and take time, but I’ll show you a simple method you can use to nail them fast and remember and find them when you need them. Good news huh?

Power chords are an important part of any guitarists chord library. Obviously, they are used in rock and metal guitar, but you’ll also hear them in punk, country, pop, funk and other common guitar styles. So, chances are that you need to know the power chords in this lesson.

You’ll learn four common power chords in this tutorial: starting on the E, A, D and G strings. We’ll group them together into ‘octaves’ to make them easy to learn and remember. I’ll also give you tips on how to combine them and layer them to get some cool guitar sounds happening.

So guitar player, strap in and prepare to learn the most important power chords you need to know!

PLAY GUITAR FASTER – BUILD YOUR SPEED USING ‘SPEED STACKING’

PLAY GUITAR FASTER…

Want to play guitar faster? Build your speed, get faster fingers, and more improve fret-hand accuracy with my ‘speed stacking’ exercise. This speed exercise is based on the idea of pushing ourselves to top speed for a short period of time, and then gradually starting to maintain that speed for longer. With practice, we can see dramatic results in our playing speed fast!

We’re going to look at increasing the speed of a repeating blues scale lick. It’s using hammer ons and pull offs and is a great way to speed up your fingers! But this speed exercise works for almost any lick, whether picked, tapped or whatever. So adapt the exercise to build your playing speed in whatever area you want to.

We’ll be using a metronome to build our speed in this lesson. A metronome is a great way to measure progress and to keep us in time. We start the metronome off slow and gradually increase it up to warp speed…

After finding your cruising speed (explained in lesson) push your speed by playing short repetitions of the lick at higher tempos. Keep going till your playing speed maxes out…then go back to the start again. Hours of fun, and guaranteed to increase your playing speed and make you a faster guitar player!

Have fun!

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