Any tips for creating blues licks

[duffy080177]

Hi guys

I have been playing since January this year and have progressed enough with playing rhythm and want to start playing lead. My preferred playing is blues/rock. Does anyone have any tips/practice routine to increase finger speed, etc.. that is required for playing lead. I have practiced the scales and getting pretty much used to them. I also practice alternate fingering, 1-3-2-4, etc. I also practice what's called spider exercise that I picked up from somewhere. I'm not looking to thrash my guitar but to play nice smooth lead parts when I go to my blues club would be a start.

Cheers
Duffy

[Joe Pass Jr]

The best way to learn lines and licks is to listen to artists you enjoy, and try to work it out by ear. If you don't feel confident that you can do that yet, you can find transcriptions and tabs all over the net.

I don't believe in practice routines and millions of exercises because they waste valuable time. You can achieve the same thing by just playing songs and working on licks that involve the techniques your trying to improve. Putting ideas into context as soon as you learn them is probably the best way to do it.

If you can play a nice soulful line people will enjoy it no matter what speed its at. Over time you will just naturally get faster. The idea is to enjoy it, that way you will improve much faster than you could have if you were just doing arpeggio drills every night.

[Malcolm]

If you are going to a Blues Club, ask those guys what they do. I've never had a "fellow" musician refuse to help me when I asked. Sitting knee to knee is a whole lot better than what we could offer.

[gersdal]

Does anyone have any tips/practice routine to increase finger speed, etc.. that is required for playing lead. Lot's of the threads in this discussion group and most of the articles at IBM is on improvisation and increasing finger speed. You may also want to look at John Jumpers practice calender at http://www.365practicesessions.com/

[Darkman]

If you're talking about blues licks, then phrasing would be your key. Imagine words in your head as you play to a track and make your guitar "speak" the words with bends, slides, sustain etc.
It sounds silly, but it works. If you can learn to "talk" with your guitar, you can play blues IMHO.

[leppard81]

If you're talking about blues licks, then phrasing would be your key. Imagine words in your head as you play to a track and make your guitar "speak" the words with bends, slides, sustain etc.
It sounds silly, but it works. If you can learn to "talk" with your guitar, you can play blues IMHO.

I second that!

What i often do is thinking of a melody/lyric from a song i know and try to copy it on the spot. But I dont mean to copy the melody, but the rythmic aspect of it: For example I´d think of the chorus of Living on a prayer and copy the rythm/phrasing of the words, but i use just the notes that i come up with on the spot - so my note choice together with the backing track underneath create something thats totaly NOT the song i´m thinking of, but by thinking of it i immeadiatly got some sort of melody/phrase stuck in my head... Sorry, for explaining it so weird, i hope i make sense....:confused: :rolleyes:

[duffy080177]

Thanks for your advice guys. I've printed off some BB King, Jimi Hendrix, etc, licks and I'm gonna learn these and listen more to the songs and try to improvise.

[joeyd929]

Remember also, that when playing the blues, it is OK to periodically leave a pause or blank space in between notes. Many inexperienced players just think that playing blues means blazing up and down a minor pentatonic scale. I am referring to the classic one position scale that you would typically use.

Let there be a pause now and then, and don't try to blow all your cookies in the first measure. Another thing that makes good blues is learning to properly use vibrato.

Watch closely when Eric Clapton, BB King, Albert Collins, or any blues player for that matter....they always use vibrato on single notes, sort of like a vocalist does.

A vocalist will hold a note with no vibrato but then after about 3 seconds, they kick in the vibrato. Blues should emulate the human voice as much as possible.

Another good tip is to try and only play riffs you can sing. This conditions you to be able to hear what you play and always be able to find it. If you get used to only playing runs you can sing, you learn to play what you hear in your mind.

[Gui Rocha]

Well I guess playing the blues is pretty intuitive for a blues fan. Beside that, I can only advice you to hear the blues masters or search information on blues licks on the internet, there are alot of articles that talk about how to play the blues and that give some blues musical ideas.