Lick of the Week - Week 1

[Jacksons Shred]

I got a few good responses on the other topic, so what the hell, I'll give this a shot.

Until other people want to submit their own licks, I'll just post some licks that I've written and have been working on.

We'll start this week off with a 16th note lick in the key of F#minor. This really focuses on speed, legato (or picking, if you choose to pick it), string skipping, and finger dexterity.

E||--12-------------------------------12----------||
B||-----14-12-9---------------9-12-14----14-12-9--||
G||----------------------------------------------*||
D||-------------14-11-9-11-14--------------------*||
A||-----------------------------------------------||
E||-----------------------------------------------||

Some feedback would be good..If there aren't any posts in this topic, I doubt I'll continue doing this.

Enjoy.

[Dred]

Reminds me of Paul Gilbert, but not quite there. Not enough dramatic jumps in pitch to qualify as a PG ripoff though, haha.

Little bathturd's a fingertwister, or should I say, stretcher for sure. Could not get a proper try at it, but it's definitely a chop builder, for sure!

P.S.
I knew a lick from you would be something along these lines, along with it being in something off the wall like F#min

[Jacksons Shred]

That's really odd, because I originally wrote this in Eminor, but I have this thing where that once I learn something, I pick a random key and play it in that..Don't ask why.. (and moved it to F# minor)

It sounded pretty PG to me, it could be because my guitar teacher Jams (and was a student of) Paul Gilbert, and is actually in Bruce Bouillet's band... and he was teaching me this sort of lick, and I produced my own.

[Floating Seeds]

it is f# minor at least B E F# G# are in that scale at standard tuning

it makes a great lick for tapping too which for me is easier than playing these huge stretches legato and keeping it clean

[shredmonster]

9th fret on the B string throws it out of Em scale but if you play these things fast enough any note can be used as a passing note to give it a different "flavor"

[bfloyd6969]

9th fret on the B string throws it out of Em scale but if you play these things fast enough any note can be used as a passing note to give it a different "flavor"

Gotta love those "off" notes

[quadperson]

Yeah, uh, I thought I'd click on this and learn something...I can't even play the dang thing slow. How 'bout something for us mere mortals, lol.

[bfloyd6969]

Yeah, uh, I thought I'd click on this and learn something...I can't even play the dang thing slow. How 'bout something for us mere mortals, lol.

Ah, but you can play it. Start off thinking of those notes as all quarter notes, and start with about 80 bpm. Then once you learn the passage, slowly increase the speed, and then again, and then again . . . Next thing you know you will be playing them as 8th notes and then 16th notes. Don't rush yourself though, make sure you have them down at one tempo solid before moving to a faster tempo.

[Floating Seeds]

Well quadperson those are fingered as excercises to torture your hand there are much eaiser ways to finger that lick if you have problems you might want to first practice it in a much easier finger shape.

[quadperson]

I think I can do it, it is definitely a great exercise.

[Floating Seeds]

yes they will stretch you! You do it with big stretches. With practice it will get easier I use to find them hard to do too. The tricky part is to do it legato and keep it clean you might need to use your picking hand to mute some strings. Just keep your thumb under the neck so you can make the reaches. I just do excerices up and down the neck with shapes like that chormatically without really any relationships to any scales. When you do it really fast it doesn't matter anyways you just pick out the notes in the key your playing all the rest of the notes just make it sound outside.

[Newc]

Got a rhythm track this can be used with?

[VitaminG]

that's pretty cool. I found it much easier to pick, but that probably just means my legato needs work (no surprise there!)

[Jacksons Shred]

Got a rhythm track this can be used with?

No but I can start implementing that into the next weeks lick if you guys are interested.

that's pretty cool. I found it much easier to pick, but that probably just means my legato needs work (no surprise there!)

That could be the case, I prefer picking over legato, but this is really good practice for legato!

[<-Mitch->]

This is a cool lick. I'd say it's more in the tonality of C#min, but works well over F#min too.

I can play this kinda shape 'well' but what beats me in this lick is the repeat of that 3rd finger barre at the end, because you have to do it again when you repeat the whole lick, so it ends up being played twice and it's descending only and my fingers aren't used to that.

And it definitely sounds like Gilbert to me too. It's the same kinda scale and pattern that he uses alot.