Blues
Gary Moore Quick Licks Lesson #3
Gary Moore Lick 3
Watch this Gary Moore Lick lesson to learn a classic Gary Moore lick from ‘Walking By Myself’.
Gary Moore Quick Lick lesson #3
This powerful lick is typical of the Gary Moore guitar style. The lick shows Gary using the sliding C# minor pentatonic scale at the 9th fret. Like many Gary’s licks, this one is basically a blues lick. It’s similar to the kind of thing Albert King might have played. No surprise really…Albert was a big influence on Gary Moore.
Once you can play this lick borrow the bits that make it up and see how you can recycle them to get some Gary Moore style licks of your own.
Enjoy these Gary Moore guitar licks and see you next time!
Watch this Gary Moore Lick lesson to learn a classic Gary Moore lick from ‘Walking By Myself’.
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Gary Moore Quick Licks Lesson #2
Gary Moore Lick 2
Watch this Gary Moore Lick lesson to learn a classic Gary Moore lick from ‘Walking By Myself’.
Gary Moore Quick Lick lesson #2
This Gary Moore lick shows him playing in the key of E using shape 1 E blues scale at the 12th fret. This blues scale based playing is typical of Gary Moore’s guitar style with his blues influences from players like Clapton and Peter Green.
This lick is found at the end of his ‘Walking BY Myself’ solo and is a powerful turnaround lick to borrow and use in your own solos. Of course you should take what you see in this and other Gary Moore guitar licks and use it to create similar guitar licks of your own.
Enjoy these Gary Moore guitar licks and see you next time!
Watch this Gary Moore Lick lesson to learn a classic Gary Moore lick from ‘Walking By Myself’.
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Gary Moore Quick Licks Lesson #1
Gary Moore Lick 1
Watch this Gary Moore Lick lesson to learn a classic Gary Moore lick from ‘Walking By Myself’.
Gary Moore Licks lesson # 1
This Gary Moore lick shows Gary playing in the key of E using shape 4 E blues scale at the 7th fret. After some tasty B string bends Gary launches into a repeating picking lick using the chromatic passage from the blues scale on the D string. Use alternate picking for this and a healthy dose of palm muting for a fat and chunky sound. This is a trick you’ll hear in many Gary Moore style licks and on many of Gary’s greatest solos like ‘Out In the Fields’ and ‘White Knuckles’.
Make sure to check out all the cool shape 4 moves used in this lick . You can use them to come up with some Gary Moore style licks of your own!
Watch this Gary Moore Lick lesson to learn a classic Gary Moore lick from ‘Walking By Myself’.
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Fast Rock Guitar Licks
5 Fast Rock Guitar Licks
Essential fast rock guitar licks you can use over and over again for high energy rock solos. These fast rock guitar licks not only sound great in your solos but will also help you build guitar speed and play guitar faster and show you some essential tricks for expanding your rock soloing. Watch now!
Fast Rock Guitar Licks (You need To Know!)
These speedy pentatonic licks are all using the D minor pentatonic and D blues scale and are a wicked addition to your soloing vocabulary.
Remember, if you want to learn to master licks and scales all over the guitar fretboard to achieve a new level of freedom when you play – then check out my CAGED System for Guitar book and video set. Learn more here!
Let’s jump into the lesson!
0:25 Lick 1 – The Classic Rock Bending Lick
Everyone plays this first one, in fact it’s one of the most common fast rock licks you’ll hear. Watch out for the technique tips to learn how to control the bend and minimise unwanted notes and noises and discover the easiest way to pick the lick for fast execution.
2:43 Lick 2 – Stretch Legato Repeating Lick
This fast rock guitar lick shows you a great way to expand your pentatonic scale to reach some higher notes. Remember this…it’s a handy tool for creating flashy licks which are easier to play than they sound!
4:40 Lick 3 – Rapid Fire Blues
This repeating blues scale lick is a killer and is an awesome lick to use in your solos. Learn how to pick it for maximum speed and discover how to use ‘hammering from nowhere’ to get it as fast as the great players.
6:50 Lick 4 – Blues Sequence Lick
This fast rock guitar lick is just a simple pattern or sequence you can find inside the D blues scale. It’s a little similar to something Slash plays in ‘Sweet Child ‘O’ Mine’ and is easy to slip into your rock solos.
8:14 Lick 5 – Zakk Wylde Pentatonic Picking Lick
Here’s a killer fast rock guitar lick in Zakk Wylde style. Listen to ‘No More Tears’ to hear him play something like this. This lick is also an awesome picking exercises and again shows you how to easily extend the pentatonic and blues scale patterns higher up the fretboard.
Dig in, have fun…and thanks for watching!
If you want to ramp up your soloing by mastering licks and scales all over the fretboard then check out my CAGED System for Guitar book and video set. Learn more here! You can also click on the image below to learn more and read reviews!
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Stevie Ray Vaughan Style Open String Blues Licks – Get Some Blues Twang In Your Solos!
Stevie Ray Vaughan is one of the most iconic blues guitar players ever! In this lesson we’re going to look at one of the key elements of the ‘SRV sound’: open string scales and licks!
Watch this guitar lesson to discover
- How to play the open string E Blues scale (a ‘goldmine’ of awesome open string licks and ideas!)
- Classic Stevie Ray Vaughan open string licks and runs (including a cool ‘Pride and Joy’ turnaround move)
- Essential open string scale moves you need for awesome licks of your own (learn the bends, slides and and hammers you need to make the scale rock!)
So jump on in and get that ‘Texas twang’ in your blues solos!
Get my FREE Blues Guitar Bundle with full TAB to this lesson and my other most popular blues lessons!
Stevie Ray Vaughan Style Open String Blues Licks
Learn how to create amazing blues guitar solos with the open string blues scale and play open string blues licks in the style of players like SRV, Hendrix, Clapton, Freddie King and others.
I’ll show you how to play E blues scale using the open strings and many cool ways you can use this scale in your guitar solos, using strings bending, slides and more. So let’s get into it!
Here’s a breakdown of what you will learn in this video:
0:46 Let’s take a look at how we play the E scale using the open strings. This scale shape is great for making up lots of ‘twangy’ open string licks…a favorite of players like Stevie Ray Vaughan, Jimi Hendrix and others.
0:58 Open String Licks – Lick #1
This is a classic open string lick that Stevie Ray Vaughan used a lot in his solos. This one sounds great used as a blues turnaround over a 12 bar blues in the key of E.
2:57 This part of the lick uses a cool double stop sliding move. Notice how it’s outside our sliding shape slightly. We’ll talk about this here and how to use this little trick in your solos.
4:42 Carrying on the lick
Notice how you can hammer the B flat note and make it sound more fluid and smooth.
5:17 Closing the lick with a strumming on the B7 chord and an open E bass note. This B7 leads us back to the start of the 12 bar blues in E.
5:57 Let’s hear the whole phrase…
6:16 Open string lick #2.
Here we are using a cool string bend on the G string and a double stop slide. These are both great resources to use in your own solos.
7:06 Where does this other slide comes from?
This will make a difference to your solos! Playing the same note with 2 different strings instead of just playing open E string, makes it more intense and powerful.
8:32 Let’s hear the whole lick now.
8:39 Summary of lesson and some more tips with demonstrations.
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Blues Scales: What Scale Do I Play Over a Blues?
If you are just starting out with the Blues and you are wondering where to begin to create your solos, then this lesson is for you. I will be answering here a very common question that is ‘which scale should I use to play over a 12 bars blues?’. I will show you here the most important scale you need to know to play blues and the number one mistake many guitar players make so you can avoid it.
If you want to find out all of this and more, watch this lesson, subscribe to my Youtube channel and Join thousand of other guitar players in my free online community by clicking the yellow box bellow!
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Blues Scales Lesson – What Scale Do I Play For Blues?
So what scale can you play over a 12 bar blues if you want to solo? There are lots of possible scales you can use…but there is one that ALL the blues legends use most of the time: the minor pentatonic scale.
In this episode of the Ask James Guitar Show I’ll show you how to play the scale, how to use it over the 12 bar blues and I’ll also tell you the no.1 mistake that many new blues guitarists make with the scale which stops them sounding great when they use it.
Here’s a breakdown of what’s in this guitar lesson:
0:17 What scale should you use to play over a blues? The major scale? The minor scale? Pentatonic scales? This is a question I hear a lot!
0:40 There are lots of scales you can use over a blues but the most common is the minor pentatonic scale. This is the best starting point and definitely where you should begin.
0:50 Here’s exactly how to play a minor pentatonic scale in the key of G.
1:35 Lots of guitar player think you need to move the scale around when the chords change in the 12 bar blues- but you don’t!! You can play the minor pentatonic scale over the entire blues chord sequence…there is no need to move it anywhere.
2:27 Hear the sound of the scale over a 12 bar blues – it works great!
It’s simple and easy to do meaning you can focus on the important things…like playing stuff that sounds good and makes you sound like a blues guitarist!
3:00 You need to play the scale in the right key though!
TO FIND OUT MORE ABOUT CHANGING KEYS CLICK HERE!
3:30 Knowing the scale is a great start but you also need to build up a library of great sounding blues licks you can use to make your playing sound musical.
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Guitar Soloing Tip: Only To Be Used for Kick Ass Solos!
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Guitar Soloing Tip: It’s weird…but will get you kicking butt when you solo!
In this guitar lesson you’ll learn a super powerful way to master using a scale by ‘zooming in’ on each pair of strings. With a little practice you’ll see a big difference to how you use the scale and the sound of your rock solos. Try it – it really works!
Rock Guitar Solo Tip (guitar lesson breakdown)
0:05 Random, rambling guitar solos a problem? Not sure what to play when you step for a solo? Just feel like you’re mindlessly ‘running up and down scales’?
0:15 In this short lesson I’ll show you how you can start to change this…and it works every time.
0:40 I’m going to demo the exercise using the A blues scale at the 5th fret.
0:55 Instead of using the whole scale shape ‘zoom in’ on a pair of strings and practice playing a solo only using these 2 strings. Weird? Maybe…but it’ll help you kick butt with your solos!
1:00 Why practice this way…because you wouldn’t perform a solo at a gig like this? Sure… you wouldn’t. But think how much better you’ll know the scale after doing this for a bit. You’ll have explore every little part of it and you’re soloing vocabulary will expand massively over time.
1:45 I’ll demo this now over a rock backing track in A minor. I’m only soloing on the D and G strings of the guitar.
2:05 Work on the other pairs of string as well. Here I’ll demo it on the G and B strings.
3:00 This works for any guitar scale…even those ‘weird’ jazz scales! In fact I got this from studying jazz guitarists and some of the exercises they work on to improve their knowledge of the guitar neck. So use it in your practice and you’ll see some results if you’re consistent.
Have fun!
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Guitar Soloing: Create Hundreds of Your Own Licks…
Right Now!
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In this guitar lesson you’ll learn a super powerful way to use the ‘clues’ in the guitar licks you learn to make up hundreds of your own ideas. Finding and using these ‘clues’ is the key to building an awesome sounding rock guitar soloing style…you can literally ‘breed’ hundreds of licks with a bit of practice. Let’s jump in!
Guitar Soloing – Breed Guitar Licks Like Rabbits! (guitar lesson breakdown)
0:05 Random, rambling guitar solos a problem? Not sure what to play when you step for a solo? Just feel like you’re mindlessly ‘running up and down scales’? The key is to find the clues in the licks we learn.
0:38 We can ‘harvest’ these clues from all the licks we learn from the great players..and use them to build hundreds (or more!) great sounding licks of our own.
0:45 Let’s look at some examples from the A blues scale down at the 5th fret. Check out this lick I’m going to use for the lesson.
1:20 Often guitarists learn a lick and try to duplicate it the exact same way every time they play a solo. Trouble is…they often can’t remember it (I’ve certainly been there…and you probably have too!)
1:40 But what if we forgot about playing the whole lick and focused on just stripping out the good bits? If I break this lick into chunks I can take each ‘chunk’ and try to rework it into ideas of my own.
2:02 Hear me demo reworking the first part of the lick over a backing jam. I’m trying to recycle it into all sorts of similar but new ideas instead of repeating the same thing round and round.
2:43 Let’s take the next part of the lick: the common bend on the G string. Hear me demo messing with this as I jam over the backing track!
3:45 So what kinds of results can you expect from doing this? Well, you could see instant change…I’ve seen it in my students many times.
What you’ll find is that you’ll be much less likely to just ‘run up and down’ a scale shape when you play because you’ll have some ‘clues’ about what to play.
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Guitar Solo Tip: What Nobody Ever Tells You
(and makes or breaks your solos!)
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Here’s What Nobody Ever Tells You About Playing a Great Solo!
Until now…ready?
0:24 Rhythm is the most important thing to nail when we play a solo.
How do we know? Because every great sounding player has a strong rhythmic groove! The fact is the right notes with a boring rhythmic feel will always sound boring…but ‘weird’ notes with amazing rhythm- can sound amazing (John Coltrane, Scott Henderson, Allan Holdsworth anyone?)
0:40 So in this guitar lesson I want to show you a simple way you can practice developing your rhythm. It’s easy to do and is even fun to do…
0:55 Try thinking like a drummer. You don’t need to go out and buy a chest wig and a tank top (only joking..)
Instead put most of your focus on nailing the groove…instead of thinking so hard about the notes you’re playing! Hammer out the rhythm of your solo phrases and licks with gusto and passion. This will give your phrases rhythmic life and expression.
1:50 I’m going to demo this for you now over a backing track. I’m really trying to ‘lock in’ with the drums and bass, and the groove of the music as a whole – instead of just ‘playing in time’.
2:06 Imagine someone walked into your practice session as you were soloing without backing. Would they hear where the beat was just by listening to you solo? They should be able to!
2:25 So what kinds of results can you expect from doing this? Well, you could see instant change…I’ve seen it in my students many times.
It’s a fast way to improve the sound of your soloing…and you don’t really need to learn anything new – you just play what you already play with more groove!
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Guitar Soloing: The Secret of a Great Start To Your Solo!
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Get a powerful start to your rock guitar soloing every time with these 3 great tips. A powerful start to your solo will grab the listeners attention and make them pay attention to what you’re playing, a weak start to your guitar solo and they might not even listen at all.
Use these 3 tips for your guitar soloing which will make people listen and have more impact every time!
Guitar Soloing – 3 Tips for a Great Start to Your Solo!
Here’s what you learn in this guitar lesson:
00:50 A bad start to your guitar solo can spoil it from the start. Here I demo how lots of players start their solos. It doesn’t really grab the listeners attention and make them want to hear the rest.
1:21 When we play a guitar solo we need to ‘set it up’ and announce to the listener that a solo is coming. If we just stumble into our first lick then we’re not doing this. How can we do it?
1:39 Guitar Soloing Tip 1 – ‘Dig In’
We need to attack the notes and play them like we mean them! Commit to the notes you’re playing and deliver them with confidence and conviction. This alone will make a huge difference to your solos and how they start. Techniques like palm muting, and vibrato as well as decorative touches like sliding into your first note can help make your first phrase much more compelling.
2:24 Guitar Soloing Tip 2 – ‘Bending’
Starting your solo with a bend is an easy way to get a better start because bending can be one of the coolest sounds we can make on guitar. I’m soloing over a backing track in the key of A minor and I’m using A blues scale to solo with. Here I show you some common and powerful bending moves from this scale.
4:06 Guitar Soloing Tip 3 – ‘Pick Up Into Your Solo’
‘Picking up’ into your solo is a very powerful soloing tool. Instead of just ‘playing’ your first note you can ‘lead into’ it with a simple phrase that sets up or introduces your solo. Hear me demo this soloing tip this several times over the backing track.
Using a ‘pick up’ is something we hear in all the great players solos. It’s a simple device but it really works.
5:45 Remember there are no ‘rules’ to playing a great solo so don’t follow these guidelines rigidly! Just experiment with each one and see how you can use it. You’ll quickly hear a difference to the start of your solos if you’re not using these devices already.
Have fun and see you again next time!
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