Rock Guitar
Michael Schenker Quick Licks Lesson #1
Michael Schenker Quick Lick lesson #1
Want some awesome rock guitar licks? Check out this hot rock lick from Michael Schenker. This burning blues rock lick is coming from the C minor pentatonic blues scale and is a classic Michael Schenker lick.
0:34 Here’s the Michael Schenker style lick played at full speed. It’s similar to something he plays in his solo on ‘Mother Mary’ by UFO
0:44 Let’s hear the lick played slower now. Notice the use of common rock bends and pentatonic scale patterns. Take these and use them to make up your own rock guitar licks.
0:57 Let’s break this Michael Schenker lick down now and look at how to play it one note at a time. These blues scale ideas are typical of Michael Schenkers awesome rock guitar licks
3:56 Let’s have another listen to the whole lick played fast again over the backing track.
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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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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…
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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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Repeating Guitar Licks: Monster Repeating Licks for Rock and metal Guitar!
Learn how to easily create dozens (even hundreds) of awesome sounding repeating guitar licks to use for high energy solos. Repeating guitar licks are an easy and effective way to create exciting, high energy guitar solos and we hear them used by all the great rock and metal players like Slash, Vai, Page, Rhoads – pretty much all of ’em use some repeating licks in their solos.
But how can you come up with your own awesome repeating licks?
Well stay tuned because in this video I’ll show you an easy way you can create ear catching repeating rock licks from our old friend the blues scale!
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Repeating Guitar Licks – How To Make Your Own Awesome Repeating Rock Licks!
0:15 Repeating licks demo. Hear me solo using some repeating licks similar to the ones I’m going to show you in this guitar lesson.
1:00 In this lesson I’m going to show you how to take one simple repeating lick and create lots of simple and logical variations on it. This is a great way to build out a guitar style because you’ll see how you can easily start to make up new licks and ideas simply by reworking things you already play and know…cool!
1:15 Here’s how you can play the A blues scale pattern down at the 5th fret. Also I show you how to modify it slightly to give a ‘symmetrical blues scale’ shape. This is great for repeating licks because the fingering is the same on every string making it easy to adapt a lick to other string sets.
3:00 Repeating Lick 1. Here I’m going to show you a simple repeating lick. This will be the starting point for the other repeating licks we’ll create during this lesson.
3:54 This repeating lick is cool…but how can we change it to create a new repeating lick. The symmetrical scale pattern we’re using makes this pretty easy. In this example I’ve just moved it onto the B and high E string.
4:38 String skipping can be a cool way to ‘open up’ a repeating lick and create a new idea. Here we skip the B string to get a dark, bluesy repeating lick. Watch the string skipping. It might test out your fretting hand!
5:45 Extending the original repeating lick is a cool way to create a new idea. We’re going to extend it into a lick that lasts for 4 beats instead of 1 beat. This high energy repeating lick is heard in the playing of guys like Zakk Wylde.
7:03 This repeating lick can easily be transferred to the top two strings like we did before. This is how easy it can be to create your own repeating licks – it doesn’t need to be complicated to work!
7:32 String skipping can open this lick up nicely too. Here we can skip over the B string to create a cool string skipping repeating idea which will sound great in your solos.
9:09 All these repeating licks are simply variations on the original starting lick. This what’s so cool…you’re building new licks by looking at what you can do with the starting note. With a little imagination the sky is the limit. You can create dozens or hundred of new repeating licks (and non repeating licks too). If you add the G string 7th fret back in then even more possible repeating licks emerge. How awesome is that?
Get creative, experiment and above all…have fun. See you next time!
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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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Blues Guitar Lesson: Killer Blues Licks with These 3 Tricks!
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In this lesson you’ll learn 3 simple tricks you can use for killer blues licks and better blues guitar solos. Let’s dive in!
0:40 Everything in this blues guitar lesson is shown in the key of G and uses these blues scale patterns shown. All the blues licks and ideas will work great over a 12 bar blues in the key of G but make sure you move it to other keys as well.
1:17 Killer Blues Trick 1
If there’s one must know string bend in blues guitar…it’s this! It’s up at the 8th fret in the key of G and comes from the top part of the sliding blues scale. You’ll recognise it from the kind of licks I play here.
It’s versatile and works at lots of different points in the 12 bar blues.
3:08 Practice using this bend and it will start to come out naturally in your blues licks and solos.
3:18 Killer Blues Trick 2
This awesome little blues slide will give your solos some ‘grease’! It comes from the 1st pattern of the G blues scale. I use my 3rd finger to play it. Find ways to ‘get in’ to the lick and ways to ‘get out’ of it and practice mixing it in amongst all the blues licks and tricks you do already.
4:54 Killer Blues Trick 3
Essential bending technique for awesome blues bends! This will make a huge difference to your blues licks and solos because we use bends all the time when we play blues solos. Use your picking hand to ‘cut off’ the bend before you release it rather than getting a ‘let down’ sound all the time (even when you don’t want it).
Also experiment with letting the bend so you do hear it. A mixture of these different bending techniques will make your blues solos and blues licks more interesting.
Have fun!
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Double Stops Moves: Essential Technique for Killer Rock Licks!
Learn some killer rock double stops moves and slip them into your solos. Create new licks with this awesome technique like the Rock guitar masters, such as Slash, Angus Young, Zakk Wylde and others!
Today I’ll show you:
- Double Stop lick 1. Using the common double stop we hear on the top 2 strings. It’s using a common bend and double stop combination before finishing with a little blues scale run.
- Double Stop Lick 2. This one is one of Angus Young’s favorites. You can find it in a lot of his solos. You’ll notice that it’s using a note which isn’t in the blues scale shape but normally works great when we add it in.
- Double Stop Lick 3. This one is very used by Slash, Zakk Wylde and a lot of other great guitar players. Watch the fingering on this and use whichever option seems best to you.
- Double Stop Lick 4. It takes a little practice and strength to get this bend happening but it’s worth the effort. Notice how I’m re-picking the bend whilst holding it up and also damping it off to stop it ringing out too much.
With these double stop moves, you can experiment and create some new cool licks. They will help you to power up your solos and make them sound cooler!
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Create killer rock guitar licks with these essential double stops moves! Perfect for high energy rock and metal solos. This double stops guitar lesson will show you exactly how to do this using double stops from Slash, Angus Young, Michael Schenker, Zakk Wylde and others!
Double Stops moves Guitar Lesson for Killer Rock Guitar Licks!
Here’s what you learn in this guitar lesson:
00:07 Hear me jamming using some of the double stops I’ll show you in this lessons.
0:35 Double stops – what are they? A double stop is simply two notes played together on the guitar, kind of like a ‘mini chord’. They give a chordal sound to your rock solos and break up the sound of ‘single note’ licks and runs to create cool contrast.
1:00 Let’s look at a set of essential double stops and a sample lick from each one to give you some ideas for double stop licks of your own.
1:15 Here’s a reminder of how to play the A blues scales down at the 5th fret.
1:32 Double stop lick 1. Using the common double stop we hear on the top 2 strings. It’s using a common bend and double stop combination before finishing with a little blues scale run. A favourite of most of the great players from Chuck Berry to Vai!
3:48 Double Stop Lick 2 – This is a favourite of Angus Young! It’s using a note which isn’t in the blues scale shape but normally works great when we add it in. Try throwing this into your solos…it’s got a wicked punchy sound to it.
5:55 Double Stop Lick 3. Here’s a cool double stop bend which will be an awesome addition to your lick library. Watch the fingering on this and use whichever option seems best to you. Once you get used to using this double stop try digging in to create a gritty, aggressive sound to it.
6:48 Double Stop Lick 4. Check out this common double stop bend. It takes a little practice and strength to get this bend happening but it’s worth the effort. Notice how I’m re-picking the bend whilst holding it up and also damping it off to stop it ringing out too much.
9:20 Double Stop Lesson Tips
Learning these licks is a good start but make sure you take each double stop out and experiment with jamming out some of your own ideas. This is essential! Also notice where the double stops are found in the scale so you can easily find them when you move the scale around to different keys.
Have fun with ’em and see you next time!
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Classic Jimi Hendrix Style Lick: ‘Watchtower’
Jimi Hendrix Style Lick: Watchtower
Learn a classic Jimi Hendrix style guitar lick similar to what Hendrix plays at the end of his classic ‘All Along the Watchtower’ solo. This lick uses many classic Jimi Hendrix style moves and is a cool addition to your guitar lick bag. So let’s jump in and check out the this Jimi Hendrix lick!
0:15 Here’s the Jimi Hendrix lick you’ll learn in this guitar lesson.
0:29 The lick comes from the C# blues scale played up around the 9th fret. Here’s the scale pattern Jimi Hendrix is using for this particular lick.
0:45 Jimi Hendrix used to tune his guitar down one fret remember! So if you hear this lick played on the recording to ‘All Along the Watchtower’ it’ll sound 1 fret lower than it does here (because I’m in standard tuning!)
0:55 Jimi Hendrix Lick chunk 1. Here’s how to play the first part of the lick.
1:30 Jimi Hendrix lick chunk 2. Here’s how to play the second part of this guitar lick. Notice all the cool bends…take ’em and make sure you’re using these in your own playing.
2:09 Jimi Hendrix lick chunk 3. Here’s how to play the next part of this guitar lick. Notice the cool blues scale runs here. Take these and experiment with making up your own guitar licks using these as a starting point!
2:33 Here’s the complete lick played slowly.
2:43 Here it is played over the backing track.
Experiment with this lick to see how you can make it work in your playing and remember the most important thing is to create variations of your own.
Have fun!
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