Post a Lick Thread

[dave111]

We haven't had one of these for a while, when we did it was successful I believe. Post a powertab/tab of a lick/riff you want to share for people to try apply/improve their technique, and if possible a recording.

I'll get the ball rolling with a blues turnaround in A. It's not really a standard turn around, and I didn't manage to get it written right in powertab. Basically you start on the 3rd beat of the the 11th bar (of 12 bar blues) and then end with the tapping for the turn around. Fiddle around with timing.

[oRg]

Good idea. I'm currently at work but I'll upload a small excersize that I do to warm up. It's basically just a legato excersize using the G Major scale. Very simple. You only play 6 of the 7 notes but it moves up one octave covering three octaves on the fretboard.

[dave111]

Due to this threads enormous popularity (:P) I decided to post another "lick" I came up with while improvising over phantoms neoclassical backing. It goes from A Harmonic minor into C Major- interesting effect, its more of a scalar run though and quite hard to play- I can't get it too clean.

[oRg]

Here's a nice diminished lick. Good for some metal phrases. Jeff Loomis uses a simlar lick in the Enemies of Reality song.

[dave111]

Damn thats a nice lick! Bit hard to play for me, but I'm definetly going to work on it. Where is Jeff Loomis from? What band? Nevermore?


Can we get some other contributions/comments Ibreathe, only me and oRG so far.

[Mateo150]

nice dim lick, i like it, although I'll play that one vertically.

I have a bad memory, so when I'm practicing I record little motiffs and junk sometimes If I like it, so I won't forget.

[MattW]

I have a bad memory, so when I'm practicing I record little motiffs and junk sometimes If I like it, so I won't forget.

I used to do that, I've got a .pt file somewhere that was maxed out at 234 bars of random widdlyness (and another one with about 27 bars), I'll see if I can find it. I bet the vast majority of it is rubbish, lol.

[bball_1523]

how do you guys come up with these cool licks? Do you just sit down and write it down first or do you sit down and play 3 notes, then 3 more notes, then etc? Or what else?

[satch_master]

ok, i dont know how to use friggin' powertab, i just cant seem to get it :( . probably take me a whole day to tab out one little solo. so anyways i have recorded some of the licks i really like to use in my playing. If you like them and you want to learn hot to play them( and you can't tab it by ear) then tell me and i can make a standard tab notation for you ;) . have fun guys.

[Bande]

Whoa, Satch! COOOOL licks indeed! I liked your diminished and shred2 licks the most!

But Satch, could you please still somehow tab them out? Maybe in a text file or anything?

[Bande]

So then, here are a few from me.
Maybe (likely) these are the kind of licks that you all know, but these are my favourite ones.

[Bande]

Oh, and here are the ptbs for them (i don't really use ptab so I didn't really know how to use e.g a "tuplet")

[Mateo150]

hehe, lots of 16th note madness.

heres a different kind of phrase, easy and natural for some of you, maybe hard for others.

As far as coming up with "licks", when you hear something in your mind, just play it, then write it down. If you can't write it down, then theres a gap somewhere between your imagination and your ear or between your ear and your reading ability. Usually people who have trouble reading/writing have rhythmic difficulties, so make sure you get that part right. Its more important to write the rhythm correctly than it is the notes IMHO.

[Thorsten]

Hey great licks everyone so far!

This is the most fun on an electric guitar, right? Licks, Licks Licks!

So here´s one that´s not too fast but you can easily use in your everyday playing. I fall back on this lick very often when doing solo improvisation.

It´s a pentatonic lick in Amin but of course you can transpose this to any other key too.

Cheers
TK

[keith_uk]

Here are some crazy Steve Vai sliding licks. Hope you like em.

[Schooligo]

Hi,

well recently I have been asked to contribute a recording so here is my submission:

per dave111's request:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Post a powertab/tab of a lick/riff you want to share for people to try apply/improve their technique, and if possible a recording.


here's a riff you may like,

see this thread for the recording http://www.ibreathemusic.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3403

as for a recording it is on track4.mp3 to download and listen to.

but feel free to listen to the other songs as well :D



Also here is a powertab file of the band riff that is accented in a unique way.


P.S. track4 has a stripped down version of this riff

Hope this helpful for you

[Los Boleros]

It´s a pentatonic lick in Amin but of course you can transpose this to any other key too.
Excellent.

[satch_master]

great bande! nice licks there aswell my friend. And yes, if i get time ill make a note pad for you with the licks so you can learn them( and anyone else). Your recording is a bit buzzy, maybe you could try going direct in PC rather than mic, you will get perfect tone and quality and no buzzing. I go through a "V-amp".

Thorsten- great lick, thanks, ill definately learn that and add it to my arsenol of chops! You got some wicked speed and great bending technique.

[satch_master]

have fun bande!
i tabbed it out.
keep em coming guys.

[mattblack850]

I'd put a couple of my favourites up, but I just can't seem to get ptb working properly, I can get other files to work but when it comes to scoring my own there's something not quite right!!??!!:confused:


I'll keep at it though, so bear with me and I'll try and get them done by Christmas!!!!:D :D

[mattblack850]

Hopefully these will work, I think I've figured it out now!!!
The first one should be about double speed at least, I didn't get the tempo set right, but the trick is to hold the B and D# while bending that A to a B.

[satch_master]

Yeh not bad mattb... some nice shredding on the second piece.

[oRg]

Well, I got a crazy idea last night as I was working through some sweeping excersizes. I haven't really practiced it much so it got real rusty, and only recently have I been practicing them again. So anyways, I was listening to some Buckethead and it hit me. Why not sweep triadic shapes, but it seemed a bit to simple to post as a lick. So I decided to mix things up a bit and instead of just sweeping any old triadic arpeggio, I decided to sweep Quadritonal Arpeggios. If you search for the term here at ibreathe, I know you'll find something because I started a thread on this awhile back.

Anyways, it's 4 mutually exclusive triads, meaning there are no notes being shared by any of the triads. So 4 triads = 12 notes. This will give an atonal edge to your music. In the powertab there are the regular 3-string sweeps and then there's the 5 string sweeps.

The triads used are Cm, Dm, E, F# in various inversions and positions. Mess around with them.

Sorry if this is considered off topic but I thought some people would find this pretty cool sounding.

[satch_master]

quadratonal arpeggios???
hmm , im not familiar with the term but im guessing it is playing a particular triad or chord in different patterns and modes across the neck. Think YJM , how he plays the A min arp up the neck but over different modes.

[phantom]

@ORG,

that is supercool!! Thanks for that tab ;).

@Satchmaster,
im guessing it is playing a particular triad or chord in different patterns and modes across the neck.
nope :D . It's a bit different.
take a look at this thread (http://www.ibreathemusic.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3849&highlight=quad) for more info.
concerning the "ol' malm" - he is quiet tonal and diatonic. Orgs approach here is more atonal and "mathematical" if i may say so.

[rmuscat]

mega-nice work oRg!

[oRg]

quadratonal arpeggios???
hmm , im not familiar with the term but im guessing it is playing a particular triad or chord in different patterns and modes across the neck. Think YJM , how he plays the A min arp up the neck but over different modes.
Yeah, with Quad Arps you play all twelve notes but in a certain order. With the tab I posted you could play it in the key of A minor, over an E altered dominant chord if I remember correctly. There's lots of things you can do with these in a metal context. Especially if your playing just powerchords.

[mattblack850]

There's lots of things you can do with these in a metal context. Especially if your playing just powerchords.

Isn't this because the Quadratonal voicings are neither Major or Minor?

If I remember correctly, there was another thread about this subject in the keyboard forum, started by Bob!!

[oRg]

It's becuz the powerchords are neither major or minor while the quad arps are major, and minor. There are other patterns where the quad arps use diminished and augmented triads as well which I imagine wouldn't fit very well over powerchords. So playing over the powerchords leaves some room for this kind of stuff.

There was a few threads on this. One was titled Quadritonal Arpeggios (http://www.ibreathemusic.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3849&highlight=Quadritonal+Arpeggios) and the other started off as a microtonal music one but quickly developed into 12-tone ideas, and serial composition, and it was called Pentadecaphonic Music (http://www.ibreathemusic.com/forums/showthread.php?t=6281&highlight=Pentadecaphonic). Near the end of the pentadecaphonic music thread VidKid and I start talking about physics and string theory...lol, so it covers a little bit of three very different areas.

[satch_master]

typical E minor scale run starting on the 12th fret, goes up octaves, 3 nps.

[Thorsten]

Hey oRg, very cool ideas indeed. I hope this is what you had in mind...

Cheers
TK

[oRg]

Wow, that was really great Thorsten. I couldn't have played it better myself. Sounds alot better when you play it...lol. Still working out the kinks in my sweeps...lol.

[Thorsten]

Hey oRg, glad you like it!

I wasn´t too sure about some of the notes though, so I played it like I thought it would have to sound.

Like on the first "3 string" sweeping pattern, the second sweep in Dm indicated the 18th fret as the top note and on the last "5 string" sweeping pattern (the one with the slides) the turnaround from Cm to Dm indicated the 17th and 16th fret as the bottom notes. Where those intended to be or was it just a typo cause they´d sound a bit odd to me?

Hey Satch, yeah cool Emin run there too! Reminds me of some Gilbert´ish licks. Those are great to expand your pentatonic view on the fretboard.

Anyway, great exercise there! Keeps my fingers practicing... ;)

TK

[oRg]

Yeah, I just noticed those typos...lol. I don't know why I didn't catch those before. Alright well here's the corrected version.

Another cool thing about those arpeggios is that they can be played in any order. Such as Cm, E, Dm, F#. You can rearrange them to fit over a certain chord, or progression.

Here's a list of some of the different combination of arpeggios and triads that you can use.

2 major and 2 minor:
Cm,Dm,E,F#
Cm,D,E,Bbm
C,D,G#m,Bbm
C,F#m,G#m,Bb
C,Dm,F#,G#m
Cm,E,F#m,Bb

2 Aug, 1 major, 1 minor:
C+,Dm,Eb+,F#
Cm,Db+,D+,E
C+,Db+,Eb,Bm
C,Db+,D+,G#m

1 Aug, 1major, 1 minor, 1 Dim:
C+,Eb,F#m,Bdim
C,Db+,Ebm,G#dim
Cm,D+,Fdim,A
Cdim,Db+,E,Gm

2 Dim, 1 major, 1 minor:
Cdim,Fdim,Gm,A
Cdim,Dm,E,Gdim
Cm,E,Fdim,Bbdim
C,D#dim,G#dim,Bbm

4 Aug:
C+,Db+,D+,Eb+
C+,D+,Eb+,F+
C+,Eb+,F+,A+

VidKid composed this list, so give all the credit for this to him.

[satch_master]

Yeah , great playing Thorsten.

I was reading those old Quad Arp. threads. I kinda understand it now. That VidKid is a theory guru, goddamn he knows so much, i can't even understand all this dominant and stuff hes talking about, its just crazy. He must spend a lot of time reading about thoery and gaining knowledge. I bet he is good at mathematics, cause music theory is almost like maths, well i reckon. But ill never think ill need a professor level of understanding of music thory to be a good guitarist.

[Sir Strumalot]

Here's a little descending run i like to play. It's in A Aeolian (I think:confused: ).

[Sir Strumalot]

Hey oRg, very cool ideas indeed. I hope this is what you had in mind...

Cheers
TK
wow! your sweep picking is great! any tips you could give me?

anyhow great playing mate!

[Ragman]

this one i wrote the day i listened to Beneath the Massacre, now theirs are way better than this, but i thought id give it a try, and i made something that sounds pretty random, i need to work on it, but i thought id show you guys anyway.

[Thorsten]

wow! your sweep picking is great! any tips you could give me?

anyhow great playing mate!

Thank you Sir Strumalot!

Well, I think there was some other thread on sweep picking recently and Phantom gave some very good tips that I would 100% agree with, which are:

1: start slow - then speed up.
2: always watch left and right hand synchronisation
3: mute the strings that shouldn't ring
4: make small and efficient moves

I would add that this applys not only for sweep picking but basically for any technique you´re using!

Cheers
TK

[Sir Strumalot]

Thank you Sir Strumalot!
Hey thorsten, if you don't mind me asking, how long have you been paying guitar for? And how do you manage to alt. pick at great speed's so flently (just listened to you 'Striktly neoclasiical' entry.

[live]

I post a run I like to play -> it's from Dream Theater's Song "Home" and the speedy run is to find in before the refrain... It was not very easy, but I added my version of it with almost clean sound, too, so you can better follow the run!(Maybe it's not exact at top speed as it should be (32nds at 88bpm) but I tried...) :D Hope you have fun with it!

live

[asdf]

Tapping idea using major triads.

[mattblack850]

Tapping idea using major triads.

Nice job!! Any chance of a tab??

[asdf]

Here it is.....

[Thorsten]

Hey thorsten, if you don't mind me asking, how long have you been paying guitar for? And how do you manage to alt. pick at great speed's so flently (just listened to you 'Striktly neoclasiical' entry.

Hey thanks mate, glad you like my playing!

Well, let me think...I´m in my 26th year of non-stop playing right now (yes, I´m older than I look...). Guess I should know how to do it by now... :rolleyes:

About AP: Michael Angelo put it very good. He said that every guitarist has what he calls PPS (potential picking speed). If you do just an alternate tremolo picking on one note and see how fast you can get it that´s your PPS. Any other AP lick that you´re playing (using 2 note, 3 note or 4 note per string licks, doing string skipping, adding notes with tapping or whatever...) you won´t be able to play faster than that. The secret would be just to synchronize your left and right hand so your fretting hand can keep up with your picking hand and vice versa. So even that it´s at high speed you should hear each note seperately and articulate otherwise it´s just a blur of notes.

Constantly working on your PPS and synchronisation should enable you to gradually increase your AP speed. There´s only one way to achive that, like Michael said: Practice, practice, practice...

Cheers
TK

N.P.: Eric Vandenberg - Hidden Creek
The White Stripes - Blue Orchid

[Sir Strumalot]

Hey thanks mate, glad you like my playing!

Well, let me think...I´m in my 26th year of non-stop playing right now (yes, I´m older than I look...). Guess I should know how to do it by now... :rolleyes:

About AP: Michael Angelo put it very good. He said that every guitarist has what he calls PPS (potential picking speed). If you do just an alternate tremolo picking on one note and see how fast you can get it that´s your PPS. Any other AP lick that you´re playing (using 2 note, 3 note or 4 note per string licks, doing string skipping, adding notes with tapping or whatever...) you won´t be able to play faster than that. The secret would be just to synchronize your left and right hand so your fretting hand can keep up with your picking hand and vice versa. So even that it´s at high speed you should hear each note seperately and articulate otherwise it´s just a blur of notes.

Constantly working on your PPS and synchronisation should enable you to gradually increase your AP speed. There´s only one way to achive that, like Michael said: Practice, practice, practice...

Cheers
TK

Hey Thorsten,

Would you mind tabbing some of the lick's you used for your Strictly neoclassical recording? Also, if you could tab out the little pedal tone part i'd really be greatful.

Thanks

[satch_master]

Yeah, Thorsten's "strictly Neo..." is some of the most intensive and best sounding shred iv'e ever heard. It's definatley no walk in the park to learn/play for that matter kiddo. Most of it is just standard runs based off A minor and harm minor scale runs and some nice licks. It's not just the notes that he plays that sounds so good but how he plays them. If he decicides to tab a lick or two out i would be apreciative aswell. My friends were actually blown away by his playing aswell. Iv'e heard numerous shredders but Thorsten's style is what i really like and he doesn't soundlike a pinball machine, it's really fast and intense but it still sounds like an electric guitar and great speedy solo. You check out his website kiddo, he's got some good songs on their that you can listen to and his new album is coming out.

[Thorsten]

Well, thank you very much guys! Really appreciate it!

All I can say is that when playing and recording I try to stay real. I always have in mind if I´m able to reproduce it live. Most of my solos are first takes and improvised anyway...

I try to tab out and record some of the licks for you, no problem! I just need a little time but I´ll post´em here...

Cheers
TK

[Sir Strumalot]

Yeah, Thorsten's "strictly Neo..." is some of the most intensive and best sounding shred iv'e ever heard. It's definatley no walk in the park to learn/play for that matter kiddo. Most of it is just standard runs based off A minor and harm minor scale runs and some nice licks. It's not just the notes that he plays that sounds so good but how he plays them. If he decicides to tab a lick or two out i would be apreciative aswell. My friends were actually blown away by his playing aswell. Iv'e heard numerous shredders but Thorsten's style is what i really like and he doesn't soundlike a pinball machine, it's really fast and intense but it still sounds like an electric guitar and great speedy solo. You check out his website kiddo, he's got some good songs on their that you can listen to and his new album is coming out.
Please don't call me kiddo :mad:. but i agree with everything you sai mate, Thorsten is really a great player.

[Thorsten]

Allright, so here we go...

Three Yngwie style licks I played in "Strickly Neoclassic" (as far as I remember...)!

The great thing is they´re basically all played on the high e string and mostly use alternate picking, so they´re not too hard to learn and you can easily incorporate them in your playing.

Enjoy
TK

P.S.:Cheap excuse I know, but I haven´t played for a couple of days, so if anything sounds a bit sloppy...

[Thorsten]

...and here´s the powertabs for the licks!

[UKRuss]

Insane licks TK!

Much appreciated!:D

[UKRuss]

LOL, just realised what I sadi there in relation to the other thread, that must mean you're an artist!

;)

[Thorsten]

No, I´m just insane... ;)

Thanks, glad you like the licks, man! I really have to play more again...

[satch_master]

Thanks very much Thorsten, for spending time to tab these licks out and for sharing your knowledge! I will learn them!

[Sir Strumalot]

Thanks a lot thorsten. Really appreciate it.

[Thorsten]

Hey, no problem guys, my pleasure!

Let me know how you´re progressing. If you can post the licks here and I will listen and maybe give you more tipps...

Keep rockin´and playing!
TK

[live]

Oh my god, I have to study this thread later! I wanted to post two links to the mi page where you are shown some cool licks by marty friedman and carl verheyen:

Click here http://www.mi.edu/git01.html for Carl Verheyen's lesson
and
Click here http://www.mi.edu/git02.html for a lesson with Marty Friedman

That's a lot of fun!(The EP by Marty Friedman is difficult - his picking in general!)

[satch_master]

Thanks Live. I love Friedman and i have always been curious about his new dvd , the 100 licks. I think the last lick was the best one. The first one was crappy and the second wasen't bad. His work in his 1980's band with Jason Becker, Cacophony, was alot more bad *** and technical than his newer stuff.

[waterborne]

here are a couple of licks ive come up with. the lalaland lick i got from the freak foot site.

[Thorsten]

Hi guys,

again great licks everyone, I´m learning more and more cool stuff here!

Here´s a short improvised solo with some of the licks I posted so far...

Enjoy
TK

[satch_master]

Thorsten, you BLOW ME AWAY with your playing every time. Great speed, great bends and vibrato, crazy sweeps. You truly have a unique tone and voice on the guitar, that is if i am blindfolded and 10 shredders play a solo i will hear yours and go "hey thats Thorsten!". You really got a fast bluesy PG thing going on there! With that sweeping lick, i highly enjoyed it, what lick is that from, i canno't recall, or did u make it up?

[satch_master]

...well, i only just memorised and learned the lick, the first one took my the longest to learn but is the most original and rewarding for my lick vocab. My playing technique is not as fast or accurate as Thorsten, and my vibrato and overall tone is very different. I practiced these licks for about half an hour. On "lick 2" i really had trouble moving my left hand up the finger board so quiclkly, my fingers felt like jelly :( .

[Thorsten]

Hi Satch,

well thanx mate! That´s about the nicest thing you could say about my playing, that I sound like me. That´s what I strive for! So again, thanks man!

That´s a great thing that you actually recorded some of the licks, this is really the best way to learn! I think more people who post here should record their licks. I mean everybody can post a bunch of tabs but let´s hear if you can really play that stuff. I always thought it´s better to have 2 or 3 really great licks/phrases that you can nail and that are part of your playing then a thousand licks that you just attempted but that never really sunk in.

I have to say that these are of course not really MY licks in the sense that I invented them or something, it´s just variations on stuff that has been around for ages... ;)

Well, your playing doesn´t sound like crap at all! First of all you have a very good tone, meaning you have a clarity in your sound and you can really hear the picked notes.
For some constructive criticism: Synchronization between left and right hand is something you would have to work on. Don´t overplay trying to play faster then your hands can keep up with. Don´t try to rush things when warming up. You could play a lick for an hour at a slow tempo and really watch and analyze what your left and right hand are doing before shifting into higher gear.
Your picking as I can hear is very good. Hard and aggressive with a good punch to it. I think your problem could be the fretting hand, maybe having trouble with the wider stretches specially on the first lick. Also maybe try the neck pick up for a different play feel, that can make a huge difference.

Another thing would be the bending. Try hitting the bend notes quicker. If it takes to long to bend up to a note it can be very unpleasant for the ear. I would practice a simple and quick bend and release of two notes and see if you can hit the desired target note in tune. You don´t have to ad vibrato or anything, just a quick bend and release.

Well, other than that I think you´re definitely on the right path. How long have you been playing btw?

Cheers
TK