Guitar licks are great for beginning guitar players to practice. They are repeating patterns that occur in many songs, so by learning only a few, you’ll have a better grasp of some of your favorite solos.
Below, we have a few easy guitar licks for you to try out. They each came from a popular song too, so you can listen to see how each lick was used. These are great licks for beginners because they’re rather simple, but sound really good in songs.
The first guitar lick is from “One” by Metallica. This one involves tapping, a technique you should really try out if you haven’t before. It involves using both hands on the fretboard, with your fretting hand taking care of most of the hammer-ons and pull-offs, and your index or middle finger of your picking hand doing the tapping and some pull-offs. Use your fretting hand to hold down both the 12th and 15th frets, and then “tap” on the 20th fret. You’ll hear it’s still audible. After tapping the 20th, pull-off so that you can now hear the 15th, and then pull-off from that. This is a very common pattern that sounds cool when you play it really fast.
Here´s a cool lesson on a Metallica´s classic song:
RHYTHM GUITAR LESSON ON METALLICA´S TUNE
The next lick is from “The Prisoner,” by Iron Maiden. It’s a more complex hammer-on and pull-off pattern, but it’s great once you get the hang of it. Keep in mind you’re going to be playing across three frets at once, the 14th, 15th and 17th, so keep your fretting hand in a comfortable position for that. Each time you play this pattern, you’re only going to pick the string once, and the rest is up to your fretting hand doing the necessary pull-offs and hammer-ons. This will give your playing a legato feel, meaning the notes will sound connected instead of choppy, such as would happen if you were picking every note.
The final lick we have is from another Iron Maiden song, “Flight of Icarus.” This one is very simple, but sounds awesome. All you need to do is play the 12th fret on the high E, and then bend on the 14th fret on B. You’ll find both notes are going to be the same pitch after you bend. Playing this pattern in succession sounds really cool, and it’s a lick you’ll hear often in a lot of rock and metal songs.
If you like to play guitar riffs, I recommend you to check out this cool course in DVD:
