Guitar Licks Are USELESS - Do This Instead

More ideas on how to "remix your licks": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTqljwFJyXU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGcILUJvvMI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qB3voEyUvi4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQkAoZSlTlE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JiP06aw7Ygk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8TDUooBW8ow https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1cVIo1dYF_s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Domci2leGeI And this playlist: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Domci2leGeI&list=PLxg569q1AjpPqob9QgE3oFPc_f4dWAFRE&pp=gAQBiAQB Also, apologies for the sound problems in this video, but this lesson was too good not to share.

Excellent lesson and a massive thank you to the gentleman who agreed to be filmed.

Kind of like the Bruce Lee quote. I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times. I am guilty of practicing licks but not being able to put them together in any kind of jam.

As a guitar teacher here in Canada, I totally agree. That first lick with the bend is a great jumping off point. You vary it and use other scale tones around it with different rhythms. That's improvising.

Apologies for the sound problems, but this lesson was too good not to share.

Jason Rebello taught me how to transcribe solos and analyse them to build vocabulary. Finding phrases you like and seeing exactly how they’re put together and how they work, so you can deconstruct then reconstruct them in your own way. Great video and lesson!

Simple + powerful = quality lesson

You start with a key. Teach yourself the Major Scale of that key. Teach yourself the parallel minor scale (Aeolian to start with - maybe Dorian ? - it's up to you) of the Major scale. Teach yourself to play diads, triads and seventh arpeggios from theses scales. Scales are the alphabets in Music. Chords / Arpeggios are the words. Chord Progressions are sentences. This is meant to work towards your solo 'telling a story' instead of being oblique barely related finger patterns. Learn basic reading. You MUST at least do basic reading. ALL OTHER INSTRUMENTS READ THERE'S NO REASON GUITARISTS SHOULDN'T. Builders read building plans. Doctors read x rays. Pilots read flight plans. Notation hasn't been around for eight hundred years for no reason. You don't have to read a Beethoven Symphony. Don't be scared and make excuses. That's what everyone does and that is why everyone plays the same things the same ways and has the same problems. DEFINITELY NO TAB !! NO NO NO TAB !! NOTATION IS EASIER TO LEARN AND INFINITELY MORE USEFUL - BUT NO ONE SEEMS TO KNOW THIS !!?? WHY ? Get a Tutor (if you can find one) to practice all this with a metronome. Eventually, you will be able to make your own licks / phrases / lines from triad and seventh arpeggios. If you include diatonic and chromatic passing tones, you will have licks POSITIVELY COMING OUT OF YOUR EARS !! Learn Berklee Theory. Learn to accent and count 8th notes (as discussed in the video above). There's a lot more to do but this is an introductory framework. In my fifty two years of playing guitar and twenty five of teaching, everyone I knew who learnt some licks via tab, forgot most of them - and when it came to the gig / jam they forgot ALL of them. You can learn quotes from Shakespeare and reassemble them - but that won't produce great original literature. Everyone wants to solo but no one wants to learn how. Music is a language. It's not like learning to work a lawn mower ! It's crazy ! I have a BA(Mus) Degree and a DipEd but all the local drunks at the local Blues Club are convinced they know more than me. Best wishes and good luck. 😁

That was a terrific lesson, and very inspiring!

If your guitar leaks there is a problem. Great lesson as always.

That was GREAT! Thank you so much!

Very good indeed. This has been VERY useful.

Really appreciate your insights. Respect.

I never thought "licks" (always thought that was a dumb term) weren't just for use as something you repeat in certain musical contexts. "Licks" better purpose is to feed your head ideas. You learn licks, you memorize and practice them, then forget them. The idea is that they become something that get reworked, that show up in your playing in variations, and are a springboard for other ideas. They turn into new, unexpected ideas, and eventually your playing becomes an amalgamation of all the things you've learned, but with your own unique twist and reinterpretation of, with new things that are all your own, and that becomes your style.

This is brilliant sir. I have been playing for near 50 years and long ago started adapting and modifying riffs I liked. Even jammed to my favorite records and totally changed up the solos just for fun. Yes there are some great riffs books around but learning them all can hinder rather than help. Well demonstrated.

Excellent. That is VERY useful.

Very cool and insightful lesson. You don't see subjects like these talked about a lot in guitar YouTube videos

Imho any lick can become hundreds of different licks depending on the groove/rhythm/tempo that you play it over. Good lesson.

Tx for the good lesson

Context is everything!