Learn to play some fun and easy guitar licks with Guitar Control instructor Darrin Goodman, aka Uncle D. Uncle D says these are “must know” licks, and they are based out the minor pentatonic scale that you probably already know. So grab your tabs and your guitar and get these fun licks under your belt tonight!
Introduction
How’s it going everybody? This is Darrin with GuitarControl.com bringing you this video lesson and today I’ve got a couple of really common, but feel like they’re kind of must know cool rock/ blues licks and then I’m going to show you how you can combine them together.
So right now, Guitar Control is giving away this really awesome daily practice routine to improve your lead guitar chops. This was put together by our very own Silvio Gazquez, a two-time Guitar Idle finalist. This routine covers the four main concepts that are necessary for lead guitar; alternate picking, legato, sweep picking and tapping. All the tabs and exercises are all included in this free ebook and there’s a link in the description where you can get yours.
So be sure to click on the link in the description for the tab so let’s get close up and take a look at these licks.
Must Know Licks #1
All right, so this first must know licks here is extremely common. It’s been used in lots and lots of stuff, but it’s still like a really cool lick and it’s movable. We’re doing these in E minor, but you can do them wherever. They’re based out of the pattern number one of the pentatonic positions. So for this first one we’re going to start off, you want to take your first finger and just barre the 12th fret of the B and the high E string. Now you’re going to take your third finger and go into the 14th fret of the G string and then I put my second finger on the 13th right behind it; so it’s just easier to bend. So we’re going to bend up a whole step, sort of bending to that pitch and so we’re going to bend that up and then follow that with the B string and then the high E string… So that’s like the first part of it, that’s the first beat. Now we’re gonna go to the 15th fret on the B string and we’re gonna pick that and do a pull-off back to the 12th fret… And then we follow that with the 12th fret of the high E string, it’s like one-yell-ow, two-yell-ow… So you do that sequence twice per measure. Now what’s nice about this is it sounds good if you’re playing it really slow or it sounds good playing it really fast too, so it’s pretty you know versatile. You might recognize it right off the bat. There’s like a million songs that have that exact same licks in it.
Must Know Licks #2
All right, so the next must know licks we’re going to look at this one is also in E Minor and its also movable shape. This is another one that’s really common and I like this one just the way it sounds personally better than the previous one and tend to use this one more. I feel I’m much better at applying this one, but this one is based off of again, just a little repeating sequence of notes. So we’re going to start off on the high E string and we want to be on the 15th fret with your pinky and the 12th fret with your first finger. Now you could use your third finger, but once I get above the 12th fret a lot of times I’ll use my third finger instead of my pinky. So whichever is more comfortable for you. But if you’re playing it, you know down here in A, I don’t recommend you do it with your third finger. So anyhow we’re gonna pick the 15th fret and pull the 12th fret and then we’re going to do a hammer-on from nowhere to the 15th fret on the B string and then back to the 12th fret on the high E string. And then we’re going to go to the B string and we’re going to pick 15th fret and pull to the 12th fret; so we’ve got… Now you don’t do have to do a hammer from nowhere. You could alternate pick the entire thing if you want, I just like the way the hammer-ons and pull-offs sound. So that’s our sequence. So we’re going to just do that again, but now we’re going to do it based on the B string and the G string. So now we’re going to start off by picking the 15th fret to 12th fret on the B string and hammer-on from nowhere to the 14th fret of the G string and then follow that with the 12th fret of the B string and then pull 14th fret to the 12th fret again on the G string. Now it’s just going to continue that same sequence. So we start on the G string and pick and pull the 14th fret to the 12th fret and hammer from nowhere to the 14th fret on the D string, back to the 12th fret and then back to the D string 14th and 12th frets. Now we’re gonna do the same thing starting on the D string to the A string and then finally the A string to the low E string. But remember now we’re going to go back to the 15th fret on the low E string… So this one like I said is also really common, but I love the way that sounds, especially at speed. I think it just sounds awesome.
Must Know Licks #3
A cool thing to do would be to just take an idea from both licks and put them together. So this again is a really common way this is done, but this is just the tip of the iceberg. There are lots of different combinations you can do. So for this particular one here what we’re going to do is we’re going to start off by doing the first lick. So we’re going to bend the 14th fret of the G string and then go to the 12th fret of the B and the high E string. So you have… Then we’re gonna go back to the B string and pick the 15th fret and pull to the 12th fret and then on the 12th fret. So this is like the first two beats of the first lick. Starting on beat three we’re going to switch to the other lick. So we’re gonna start off by picking the 15th fret and pull to the 12th fret and then do the hammer-on from nowhere to the 15th fret of the B string, back to 12 on the high E and then 15 pull to 12 and then the whole thing would just repeat…. So these licks are all kind of very reminiscent of Ace Frehley, like the stuff from Love Gun, from that solo and everything. If you know me at all you know that I’m a huge fan of that whole era of a KISS.
Conclusion
All right, so there you have it, two, I guess actually three, licks all based out of the pentatonic scale that are tried and true licks that you should really know how to play.
So if you like this lesson be sure to give me a thumbs up and leave a comment down below if you have any questions about this or other guitar later topics. If you have not already done so please subscribe to the channel and hit that notification bell so you don’t miss any of the content that we upload throughout the week. Well that is all I have for you today. Thanks for watching must know guitar licks and have a great day.
