Guitar Lick Inspired by Randy Rhoads

Today's guitar lick is inspired by one of my favorite rock guitar players of all time the great Randy Rhoads (RIP). This is a legato riff played with seven note groupings using the A dorian mode which contains the notes in the G Major Scale. Which is all natural notes with the exception of the F#. Before the riff I establish a bit of a typical 80's metal rhythm in the video by playing a diad progression in A using movable power chords. To hear some absolutely brilliant legato playing I recommend checking out the live "Tribute" album featuring Randy Rhoads with Ozzy. Randy's studio material was awesome but his live playing is really beyond description his legato was so fluid and seemless and there is a real sense of emotion and passion in his playing that few other people have ever matched. I've listened to this album thousands of times and never tire of hearing this masterful guitar playing.

Beginner Tapping Guitar Exercise #2

This is a more elaborate version of the guitar lick we looked at yesterday. It involves the same basic lick and triplet pattern except the tapped note alternates bewteeen the B note and the A# on the 12th and 11th frets of the B string. I apologize the sync in the video seems to be way off. Trying to fix this.

Beginner Guitar Tapping Exercise

Another bonus guitar lick for the weekend tabbed with Tiny Lick. No video for this lick but it is pretty straight forward. This is the first tapping guitar lick I ever learned. It is a basic triplet pattern played on the B string. Eddie Van Halen uses a simliar lick in the outro guitar solo on "Eruption". You start by tapping the 12th fret of the B string with your index finger of your picking hand (although some people prefer the middle or ring) use a gentle and slight downward motion to flick of the string and sound the 5th fret E note on the B string that your left hand will already be fretting. I think of this motion just like a pull off. If you are just starting tapping be careful to keep the string in tune when flicking off with the tapping finger. Once the E note is sounded you hammer on the the F# - do this twice. Repeat this except next time hammer onto the G on the 8th fret instead of the F#.  Practice this using a metronome and with a triplet rhythm. Monday we will look at a slight varitation of this exercise where the note being tapped alternates as well.

Bonus Guitar Licks - Three Note Creativity Exercise

A special weekend segment of "Lick of the Day' tabbed using a cool site called Tiny Lick. In the video I use three notes only in one position on the B string the notes F#,G# and A. Limiting yourself to a few notes can be a great exercise and will improve your improvisation skills and enhance creativity. That or drive your neighbors crazy. I've tabbed out a few licks from the video. Try creating your own three note improvs. Have fun. For the best example ever of a three note repeating phrase check out John Frusciante's outro solo on "Don't Forget Me" by the Red Hot Chili Peppers. The notes on that are A, G and E on the high E string.
Drums courtesy of Sonoma WireWorks Riffworks Instant Drummer.

Pentatonic Guitar Lick #5

Friday's guitar lick is our last repeating lick based around the C# Minor Pentatonic scale and played over a chord progression of C7#9/B/A which is similar to "All Along the Watchtower" by Jimi Hendrix. The major difference being that "Watchtower" uses a Cminor chord not the 7#9. I left a bit of improv on both ends of the video for an example of how it would fit into a musical phrase. First uploaded video didn't sync so this is the second attempt.
Drums courtesy of Sonoma WireWorks Riffworks Instant Drummer.

Pentatonic Guitar Lick #4

Yet another repeating guitar lick based around the C# Minor Pentatonic scale and played over a chord progression of C7#9/B/A which is similar to "All Along the Watchtower" by Jimi Hendrix. The major difference being that "Watchtower" uses a Cminor chord not the 7#9. I left a bit of improv on both ends of the video for an example of how it would fit into a musical phrase. The guitar lick as notated in the tab begins at the 15 second mark but note that I use a variation of it in the early section of the video.

Drums courtesy of Sonoma WireWorks Riffworks Instant Drummer.

Pentatonic Guitar Lick #3

Another repeating guitar lickbased around the C# Minor Pentatonic scale and played over a chord progression of C7#9/B/A which is similar to "All Along the Watchtower" by Jimi Hendrix. The major difference being that "Watchtower" uses a Cminor chord not the 7#9. I left a bit of improv on both ends of the video for an example of how it would fit into a musical phrase. During the improvised section I also used the B note which is not in the scale. try altering the phrasing and tempo of the five note sequence and experiment with different accent notes.

Drums courtesy of Sonoma WireWorks Riffworks Instant Drummer.

Pentatonic Guitar Lick #2

A repeating triplet based riff based around the C# Minor Pentatonic scale and played over a chord progression of C7#9/B/A which is similar to "All Along the Watchtower" by Jimi Hendrix. The major difference being that "Watchtower" uses a Cminor chord not the 7#9. I left a bit of improv on both ends of the video for an example of how it would fit into a musical phrase. Drums for the backing track used for the next few licks courtesy of Sonoma Wireworks Riffworks Instant Drummer.

Pentatonic Guitar Licks

Back from a break for summer and the World Cup. Our next couple of guitar licks will be based around the C# Minor Pentatonic scale and played over a chord progression of C7#9/B/A which is similar to "All Along the Watchtower" by Jimi Hendrix. The major difference being that "Watchtower" uses a Cminor chord not the 7#9.