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Today we’re going to look at a flashy blues lick.
The blues is definitely all about emotion and feeling as demonstrated by players like BB King, but throwing in a bit of flash here and there has never hurt anyone, right?
The cool thing about this lick is that you’re able to get a ton of speed without having to pick fast at all.
The good news is that by using legato, which is a combination of hammer ons and pull offs, you can get loads of speed with basic picking speeds.
That’s a win if ever there was one!
At its core, this lick is simply a Minor Pentatonic scale with a descending pattern using hammer ons and pull offs.
The start of the lick is reminiscent of Clapton which means you can repeat that phrase over and over for some added excitement and energy in your playing.
Once you have the basic lick down, make sure you try it on the other minor pentatonic patterns like I demonstrated in the video.
So all in all you’ve got a lick that sounds pretty cool, plus it’s an opportunity for you to really dial in your legato technique and will get your picking hand sync’d up with the fretting hand.
That way you’ll have solid legato chops which are needed for authentic blues phrasing, plus you’ll have a bit of speed to throw in whenever you want to turn some heads!
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Hi, my name is Charl Coetzee and playing guitar was never second nature for me. I’ve had to work hard to get to where I’m at today and I’ve learned some incredible things along the way that I’d love to share with you. I’ve never had a proper job and I’ve been playing guitar for a living since I’ve left school. I have a Bmus Hons Degree in music, and I’ve interviewed and learned from the world’s greatest guitar players like Joe Satriani, Buddy Whittington, Joe Bonamassa and loads more.
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