May 15, 2019 by Klaus Crow
When I was a kid I used to transcribe solos of Stevie Ray Vaughan, Guns ‘n Roses, Led Zeppelin, Metallica, etc. And all those famous blues, rock, metal guitar players had one thing in common. They used repetitive guitar licks.
Repetitive licks create a sound that makes it seem like you’re playing really fast. Well maybe you do :) Besides that they just sound really cool. Those licks have made history.
The trick is to use them occasionally, but certainly not too often assuming that you want your solos to sound fresh and don’t want people to get bored out of their minds.
Use them in the middle of your solos when you are working towards a climax or you feel like you’re on a roll. Something like that.
The best way is to listen to those rock n’ roll guitar players and see how they incorporate them into their solos.
Try not just to copy these licks but also change them around a bit. Create your own repetitive licks. Explore and evolve those licks.
These licks are played using A minor or A pentatonic scale.
You can use them over an Am chord progression or a blues rhythm in the key of A.
I always keep repeating this, because I think it’s important. First play the licks slow and make sure you can play each lick perfectly clear before you build up speed.
Good luck!
LICK #1(A minor/pentatonic)e:------5-5------5-5------5-5------5-5---| B:--8bu------8bu------8bu------8bu-------| G:*-------------------------------------*| D:*-------------------------------------*| A:---------------------------------------| E:---------------------------------------|LICK #2(A minor/pentatonic)e:--------5-------5-------5-------5---| B:------5-------5-------5-------5-----| G:*-7bu-----7bu-----7bu-----7bu------*| D:*----------------------------------*| A:------------------------------------| E:------------------------------------|LICK #3(A minor/pentatonic)e:------5--------5--------5--------5-----| B:--8bu---5--8bu---5--8bu---5--8bu---5---| G:*-------------------------------------*| D:*-------------------------------------*| A:---------------------------------------| E:---------------------------------------|LICK #4(A minor/pentatonic)e:------5-5-----5-5-----5-5-----5-5---| B:------5-5-----5-5-----5-5-----5-5---| G:*-7bu-----7bu-----7bu-----7bu------*| D:*----------------------------------*| A:------------------------------------| E:------------------------------------|LICK #5(A minor/pentatonic)e:--------5-----------5-----------5-----------5-------| B:------5---8P5-----5---8P5-----5---8P5-----5---8p5---| G:*-7bu---------7bu---------7bu---------7bu----------*| D:*--------------------------------------------------*| A:----------------------------------------------------| E:----------------------------------------------------|If you learned something out of this post please share it with your friends on Twitter, Facebook or Stumbleupon. I'd really appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Klaus Crow
Speed is the by product of accuracy! Always time well spent when I stop in to visit, thanks for sharing Klaus. Have a fabulous day:-)
Hi Sheila,
That is very well said.
Accuracy comes first, speed follows.
Thanx for stopping by.
Klaus Crow
You have some awesome tips, chords, etc… I am going to post your link on my blog and tell my guitar buds to scope it out. I know some will! Thanks bro.
Hi James,
Thanx for spreading the word.
I’m grateful.
Klaus Crow
I don’t think you need to be accurate first, I think you need to practice your scales, slow, then when you play a lick or solo piece amp the speed up to double or tripple speed, for a day then go back to normal speed, this has worked for everything I do, it seems to nail it into your brain faster and when u play it slow again you get it perfect and have time to incorporate love into your music, I’m not sure the mental action behind this but I really disagree that you need to practice accurately first well the solo anyway, scale and individual note accuracy is essential, I also find this is a good way to stumble on to your own variations of a riff, if you practice slow you won’t be able to give your fingers a memorable pattern that they follow as your style and you’ll end up sounding like the rest, sometimes mistakes made by practicing to fast create good songs and ur own natural finger movement is involved so it works better in allot of cases, in my experience.. Peace out have fun playing and trying new things that’s what it’s all about.. :)
I also think the repetitive thing in everyone’s music that makes them sound like their playing fast, is there natural finger movement that created the riff, that’s why they come up with it and can do it fastly, easy and probably with little practice, many riffs I’ve written aren’t like anyone else’s because of how I tried to play them by ear at the speed of the song and discovered my own natural pattern that has a similar beat to the pattern of notes, witch is another factor, allot of the time the notes being played don’t matter it’s the scale and speed that makes it fit with the song, take Paul Gilbert for example, his playing involves allot of this where the notes being played isn’t what he is going for it’s the pulse in the song that the whole riff follows, peace out
Hi Klaus,
Nice set of little riffs and explained really well with out getting wordy about it.
Guys I was recently speaking to a friend who is in the opinion that playing leads in ONLY pentatonic scales can sound “boring” after a while. My guitarist has a clean type of play and gets a great sound but is always “in the box”. I like it and I dont seem to think its boring at all. I was wondering if there are guitarists in main stream that play this type of way., and what ur take is on this way of thought.
zakk wylde plays pentatonic scales almost all the time..thats what i hear hope this does you some good