Guitar Lick with delay effect

Here's a little melodic guitar lick that incorporates a delay effect.

Guitar Practice 16th note alternate picking exercise

This is a 16th note alternate picking guitar exercise. While it may look easy beginner/intermediate players will find that this simple guitar lick requires a lot of string skipping and can be quite challenging to play at a faster tempo. I've muted this lick on the video example. To make the lick even more challenging try to play it without the muting and as cleanly as possible.

Guitar Lesson - Intro to "Ultra Nex Vita"

Today's guitar lick is the intro to an instrumental song I am writing called "Ultra Nex Vita". Stylistically it uses some sliding chord shapes that Hendrix made famous in "Castles Made of Sand". The guitar in the video is tuned down a half step but if you play the tab in standard tuning it should sound fine.

Alternate Picking Exercise

Here's a fun little alternate picking guitar exercise for today's guitar lick. I've been working hard to alleviate pain from an old wrist injury so I played this with a wrist brace on which restricted my movement a bit. It's a bit messy in parts so when you go to practice this yourself start slow with a metronome and gradually work up speed. It is all 16th notes and generally I used alternate picking. A traditional classical style thumb position is probably what most guitar players would favor for this type of lick. I didn't include a slow video for this lick but if you find your struggling to figure out a fingering or the tab send me a message and I'll record a slower version if need be. Cheers.

Melodic Rock Guitar Lick and Riff

Today's guitar lick is a melodic one incorporating slight pinch harmonics and a muted rhythm. The muting is done with the right hand palm edge resting against the guitar's bridge. The Pinch harmonics are very slight and are achieved by hitting the pick and flesh of the picking hand thumb against the string at the same time. The examples in this lick are pretty tame for some wild pinch harmonic madness check out Dimebag, Zakk Wylde, or Van Halen.

"Fuzzy Wuzzy Goodness" Guitar Riff

A guitar riff more than a lick today. This is a riff from a song I'm working on called "Fuzzy Wuzzy Goodness". I have been listening to a lot of Frank Zappa and wanted to come up with something fun and a bit quirky. I started by picking the craziest and fuzziest sound I could from the Line6 Pocket Pod I have and just started playing around.

The guitar riff itself is primarily based on the E Minor Pentatonic scale. What I think makes it sound cool is the sound that results from the rhythm pattern when the riff is looped. For a famous example of this think "Black Dog" by Led Zeppelin. The tab here is only a rough guide so use your ears to decipher the rhythm correctly.

Hope this brightens up your weekend and makes you smile.

Flat Picking Bluegrass Guitar Lick

Here's a little flat picking bluegrass guitar lick for you to try. The video has a slow breakdown and a right hand view to help follow along with the tab.

Odd note grouping guitar lick

This guitar lick includes 5, 8 and 2 note groupings. When you go to practice this lick start slow with a metronome. In the example I actually played the 8 note groupings a bit slow because I liked the sound when it flowed backing into the 5 note phrase to create a repeating loop. But for a great exercise strictly adhere to the values of the note durations and it will really help out your alternate picking.

I think that in general it is good advice when you learn a lick or song it's great to start with a very precise time value. But when you go to play it with a band its fine to let the music breathe a little within the time structure as long as the band is together and it sounds good. This is not to say play sloppy but for most time values there is always a bit of room to push the beat or lay back on it. The final test should always be what it sounds like to you. Precision timing is good but you want it to breathe and sound human not computer like. Unless that is what your trying for. Have a great weekend.

Guitar Exercise - Chromatic Warmup Lick

Today's guitar lick uses notes from the chromatic scale - which is made up of all 12 notes used in modern western music. The lick is in 16th notes and alternate picked. This makes a great warm up and is a bit more challenging than some chromatic warm ups because it incorporates a change in direction for the fretting and also uses string skipping. I'd recommend practicing this 2 to 5 minutes a day ( depending on your playing level and fatigue - stop immediately if you feel any pain or soreness) with a metronome and gradually work up speed. Generally I would recommend a classical fretting hand position for the thumb but I played this version with more of a rock/ blues thumb position on the fretting hand. Grab your guitar and give it a try. For some really awesome chromatic music I'd recommend Chopin piano works. I know Guitar World's column with Yngwie awhile back ran some transcriptions of these and they were technically very challenging and sounded great on guitar.

Progressive Rock Guitar Lick

Today's lick is a prog rock guitar lick with middle eastern flavored tinges. The lick employs some unusual rhythms, staccato and legato. The tab is a loose representation of the music so listen to the phrasing to get the lick down. As always though use this as a starting point to create your own material and further your exploration and learning on the guitar. The video has both fretting and picking hand views and regular and slow speed presentation of the lick. At the end of the instructional segment of the video there is an improvised guitar jam that illustrates afew additional licks using the same scalar patterns and phrasing.

Basic Funk Guitar Lick #2

Another funk guitar lick for you today. Like yesterday's guitar lick this one incorporates 16th note strumming and muting techniques. Try to keep a loose feel and avoid the instinct to tense up your wrist in both your picking and fretting hands. The more relaxed your hands the easier playing guitar will be for this and any other riff or lick. This lick also uses a common octave shape to thicken up the sound of the "single note" end to the lick. Hendrix's playing especially his funkier material recorded towards the end of his life frequently uses octave patterns and muted strumming. For some great examples of Jimi in action check out "Dolly Dagger", "Ezy Ryder" or "Freedom" from his "First Rays of the New Rising Sun" album. Some great funky rock playing on those tracks indeed.

Basic Funk Guitar Lick

This is just a straight forward funk guitar lick that incorporates eighth note and 16th note strumming and muting strings. The video includes both regular and slow speed version and picking hand view angle to help get the strumming down in conjunction with the tab provided.

Another Country Blues Guitar Lick

Here's another country style blues guitar lick in E. If you have an acoustic guitar this lick works well for an old style acoustic country blues. Notice how the lick uses both the minor and major third in the Key of E the G and G# note. The flat seventh note D also figures prominently in the lick. The video demonstrates the lick at regular and slow speed and also has a picking hand view. This lick incorporates picking and legato. When I pick these type of licks I really just do what feels comfortable rather than consciously employ strict alternate picking or economy picking. Experiment with both to determine what works best for you.

I find learning in conjunction with the video and tab pretty straight forward so I do not narrate my videos and explain them step by step. If you have any questions about playing any of the licks on this site let me know and I'll try to assist you as best I can. Have a great weekend.

Country Blues Guitar Lick

This is a country style blues guitar lick that incorporates open string playing, bending and legato.

E Minor Pentatonic Scale Lick

Today's guitar lick is a standard rock guitar lick using the E Minor Pentatonic Scale. I've placed it in the context of a 16th note riff in E. The timing on the tab's standard notation is only a guide and the actual track varies a bit from this.

Classic Rock Guitar Lick - Unision Bends

This is a classic rock guitar lick based on the D Minor Pentatonic Scale that uses unison bending to give the guitar a thicker and more vocal quality.

Classic Rock Guitar Lick of the Day May 13

This is a classic rock guitar lick that incorporates whole and half step bends with vibrato. If you have a wah wah pedal try accenting the bent notes with a treble boost and mute the other notes for some contrast.

Classic Rock Guitar Lick

Here's a repeating classic rock guitar riff with some variations. The lick crosses into some funk territory in parts as well. Try altering the phrasing and rhythm of the notes and see what you can create yourself. The lick is based around the A Minor Pentatonic scale with chromatic passing tones used as well especially in the funky walk up parts. I hope intermediate players enjoy the lick and beginner's find this helpful as a mini introductory lesson into classic rock guitar style.

Classic Rock Guitar Lesson May 11

This is a lick from an upcoming guitar lesson on classic rock soloing that will be posted on my Video Guitar Lessons site http://videoguitarlessons.guitarvoice.com

Jazz Blues Guitar Lick

This is a basic jazz blues guitar lick in Bb.

Wide Interval Guitar Lick

This is a wide interval guitar lick. It requires a fair size stretch for the fretting hand so if your new to wide stretches go easy and stop immediately if you feel uncomfortable or pain. Do not force your hand and warm up before practicing licks that you find hard. The video has the guitar lick demonstrated with and without delay effects. Once you get the lick under your fingers try altering the phrasing and experiment with creating your own guitar licks that incorporate wide intervals. A great way to do this with less stretching from your fretting hand is to incorporate wide interval play by using open strings.

Funk Guitar Lick B Minor Pentatonic Scale

Here's a funk guitar lick using the B Minor Pentatonic. Again listen carefully to the placement of the rests against the drums. If your a beginner and find the tempo a little quick I would recommend starting slowly with a metronome. The partial B Minor 7 chord is strummed with alternating 16th notes and the single eighth notes are played with down strokes.

Funk Guitar

Today's guitar lick is a funk lick based around the F Minor Pentatonic Scale. This is a pretty basic lick but if your a beginner pay close attention to the rhythm especially the rests.

E Minor Pentatonic Scale Guitar Lick

Today's guitar lick is a beginner level rock guitar lick using the E Minor Pentatonic scale over a G/D/C/C chord progression.

Guitar Lick of the Day May 5

A rock guitar lick using the D Minor Scale. After the lick is presented at a slower speed in the video a brief jam using the D Minor Scale follows.

Beginner Funk Guitar Lick

Here's a little bit of beginner Funk Guitar for today's lick. It's based around the C# Minor Pentatonic scale. Once you get this pattern under your fingers try playing it for a few bars then try soloing for a few bars - alternate between the two. This is a great way to work in some improvising and scale practice and make yourself more in sync with the rhythm guitar parts your playing over. be Have a great weekend.

C# Lydian Mode - Scale Guitar Lick

This is a little melodic pop guitar lick based on the C# Lydian Mode / Scale.

Marwa Mode - Guitar Lick of the Day May 2

This is a guitar lick based on an Indian Mode / Scale called a Marwa with a root note of C. I've recorded a few short variations that change both the guitar effects used the the phrasing of the notes but the sequence of the notes remains the same.

Metal May Day - Guitar Lick May 1

Here's a little metal guitar riff to kick off May. Some people may find the distortion a tad bit saturated and may opt for a cleaner tone on their own take.