Guitar Lick: Seven Note Groupings

Today's guitar lick is based on the E Major Scale. It uses two repeating patterns of odd note groupings with seven notes per pattern. I find this makes a good alternate picking exercise because to me at least it feels unnatural starting the repeating pattern and picking the same note that the pattern ended on. You can follow along with the tab and slower example in the video. Happy Pickin!

An Irish Guitar Lick for St. Patrick's Day

Happy Saint Patrick's Day! I thought I'd share a little Celtic guitar lick I came up with. I always think of Irish/ Celtic traditional music as kinda an early incarnation of "Lamb of God" because they use a lot of triplet based rhythms. I love traditional Irish music but honestly couldn't tell you a jig from a reel so I'm sure there are lots of "errors" in this example but I kinda like it and hope other people do too. I slowed down the example in the video and also gave you a right hand picking view as well. I'm tuned down a half step for this is you want to play along. Enjoy the rest of St. Patrick's day. I'm gonna celebrate by learning Metallica's cover of Thin Lizzy's "Whiskey in the the Jar".

Wah Guitar Week Lick #7

Our final guitar lick for wah guitar week is a repeating lick that uses muted strings and a D 9th chord. The rhythm is 16th notes. Try this at a moderate tempo with a metronome to start and strive for an even and consistent down up strumming with the right hand. Experiment with the wah pedal and try accenting different beats and combinations of muted and non muted notes. Once you get this guitar lick under your fingers try to create  your own variations using different chords, rhythmic accents and rests.

Wah Guitar Week Lick#6

Today's guitar lick looks at using the wah to add some depth to a legato lick. This guitar lick is played with the left hand only using pull offs and a hammer on from nowhere for the first note.I synced the video and the audio for the backing track separately in case you find a slight delay with the tracks.
Drums courtesy of Sonoma WireWorks Riffworks Instant Drummer.

Wah Guitar Week Lick #5

Today's wah guitar lick is a more traditional example of the wah's use. It's a 70's kinda funk vibe aiming for a straight ahead wah sound. Using notes from the minor pentatonic try coming up with your own riffs using the wah and some string muting. In a rock context the ultimate example of a wah wah is Hendrix's "Voodoo Child (Slight Return)". In that song Jimi uses the wah to great effect on both the muted and non muted notes during the intro.

Wah Guitar Week Lick #4

To my ears the wah pedal has always added a very vocal sound to lead guitar lines. A great example of this is Joe Satriani's beautiful lead guitar in "Summer Song". I try to demonstrate the vocal quality of the wah in this guitar lick. Notice how it changes the way I phrase the guitar lick. This wasn't conscious I tried to play the lick the same but I find playing with the wah pedal actually makes my phrasing try for a more vocal sound. Sounds weird but hopefully that will make sense when you see the video. In this guitar lick I also used the whammy bar which is not reflected in the notation.

Wah Guitar Week Lick #3

Our third wah guitar lick uses a narrower range of the wah to accent the midrange frequencies and add some depth to a descending chord sequence where only the root note changes.

Wah Guitar Week Lick#2

Our second wah wah guitar lick uses a primarily muted 16th note rhythm where only the last 16th note in each bar is not muted but instead an octave is played. The octave pattern descends from E to D to C and the ends goes back to D. In the wah wah example in the video I start by keeping the wah in the bass position and just accent the last note of each bar with the wah. Gradually I deviate from this pattern a little and just move the wah when it feels right to me. Just for fun try to reverse the pattern and accent the muted notes with the wah in full treble mode ( toe down) and then bring it to full bass on the octave.

Wah Guitar Week Lick#1

The wah pedal is a versatile guitar effect and I hope that some of the following licks demonstrate a few of the different ways it can be used. In this guitar lick I play a pretty generic C# Minor Blues guitar phrase and use the wah mainly to accent the bends on the B and G strings.

Wah Wah Guitar Lick Week

I've always loved the wah pedal. It is a versatile effect that has been used in blues, rock and metal guitar playing. Despite it's simplicity it has a wide range of  uses that produce a large variety of sounds. Before I share some guitar licks using the wah pedal I thought I would share a free movie that documents its history. You can stream the whole documentary free on Crybaby Doc's youtube channel.

A Country Guitar Lick

This is a little country(ish) guitar lick. I'm certainly not a country guitar player but I am impressed, inspired and awe struck by many of the great country guitar players out there. Brad Paisley is touring my neck of the woods this year and thought I'd post a few country style guitar licks to celebrate. This one is a "tinylick" so no video but hopefully you can follow along with the guitar tab.

The guitar licks starts on the F# note on the 11th fret 3rd string. This note is bent up a whole step and held while the B on the 12th fret 2nd string is played then it is realeased. The "b" under the F# note throughout the notation indicates a whole step bend.