Licks
Billy Gibbons Quick Licks Lesson #2
Billy Gibbons Licks 2
Learn cool guitar licks from Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top!
Billy Gibbons Quick Lick lesson #2
This lick from ZZ Top’s ‘La Grange’ is typical of Billy Gibbons’ ‘power blues’ style licks. Most of Billy Gibbons’ licks and solos are based on, and this one is using the C minor pentatonic scale in shape 1 played around the 8th fret.
Notice the bluesy double stop phrase at the start of the lick. You can play this with a pick or if you prefer you can use ‘hybrid picking’. This is when you use the pick and a finger or fingers to sound the notes. Let the notes ring together for that strong blues flavour so present in most Billy Gibbons’ licks!
The lick then moves down into the sliding scale shape for some growling blues slides on the low strings! Check out ZZ Top’s ‘La Grange’ to hear this lick and plenty more awesome Billy Gibbons licks!
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Billy Gibbons Quick Licks Lesson #1
Billy Gibbons Licks 1
Learn cool guitar licks from Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top!
Billy Gibbons Quick Lick lesson #1
This lick from ZZ Top’s ‘La Grange’ is typical of Billy Gibbons’ ‘power blues’ licks. Most of Billy Gibbons’ licks and solos are based around the blues scale or minor pentatonic scale…and this lick is no exception. It’s using the C minor pentatonic scale in shape 1 played around the 8th fret.
Notice the tasty bend that kicks the lick off and the quick descending scale pattern that follows. The lick then moves down into the sliding scale shape for some tasty blues slides! Check out ZZ Top’s ‘La Grange’ to hear this lick and plenty more awesome Billy Gibbons quick licks!
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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!
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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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Major Pentatonic Scale…Easy Guitar Soloing in a Major Key!
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Learn to use the major pentatonic scale to play smoking leads in major keys!
The major pentatonic scale is the most commonly used guitar scale when playing a guitar solo in a major key. In this short lesson you’ll learn everything you need to know to get started playing and using the major pentatonic scale in your guitar solos.
Here’s a breakdown of what you’ll learn in this guitar lesson:
0:20 I’ve had lots of guitar players ask about how to play a guitar solo in a major key. In this lesson I’ll show you a simple hack for using your minor pentatonics in a major key as well!
0:55 Major keys and minor keys – what’s the difference? In a minor key it’s common to use the minor pentatonic scale to solo. But this won’t work in a major key. For that we need the major pentatonic scale.
1:25 If you take a minor pentatonic shape and move it down 3 frets it becomes a major pentatonic scale. This is a super handy because you can now use all your minor pentatonic scale patterns to solo in major keys. You can also recycle lots of your favourite pentatonic licks and bends into major pentatonic licks. They won’t always work but often they will.
3:25 I’m going to solo over a chord sequence in the key of D major. For this I can move my D minor pentatonic shape at the 10th fret down 3 frets to the 7th fret and play D major pentatonic scale.
4:51 You can hear how the major pentatonic scale fits great with the chord…sounding melodic and strong. Learn how to decide whether to play in major or minor when you play a solo.
5:23 Can you mix up major pentatonic and minor pentatonic scales on guitar. Yes you can, but it’s good to get the hang of using them seperately first before you try mixing them together.
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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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