Guitar Lesson -- Turning Scales Into Licks

When playing lead guitar, it's not enough just to stand or sit there and play scales

. You have to create a library of "licks" that you can use in all keys.

Licks are based either off of scales or arpeggiated chords. An arpeggio is just a chord played one note at a time. As far as scales are concerned, there are major scales, minor scales, pentatonic scales and blues scales. There is also what's called modal scale playing. But in the end, they are still just scales.

How many people start out creating licks is to use the melody line of the song. You can do this in long melodic lines or short little blurbs of the melody line. Then just start messing around with the melody -- again creating lines of long and short lengths and anything in between. Remember that you have all of those scales as well as arpeggios at your disposal.

Start adding guitar tricks such as hammer-ons, pull-offs, string bending and double notes.

Remember also, that if you are learning licks for an electric guitar, you have your amp to think about -- as well as any effects pedals you may have. Practice with all of this stuff. The sound is totally different then if you were playing "clean".

Now what you need to do is practice your new lick at a high register, a low register, and an in-between register. (High, low, mid-range tones).

Next practice any new lick that you create in several other keys.

Practice the living daylights out of every lick you create and look for new ways to expand on them. Keep trying to make them sound better. Try them out with different effects pedals.

Use your imagination, and build a huge library of licks that you can keep at your beck and call.

by: James Emery Vigh

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