Lick of the Day

Motivation and music.

2018-03-17T14:37:00.000-07:00

I love guitar just about as much as I love my cats which is a lot. However, I still struggle with getting motivated to work towards creating music in a productive meaningful way. I think there is a real two edged sword at play - pun intended. In my opinion the best way to get better at creating music is to play what you love and play a lot. This sounds easy in theory but a real issue I have is noodling - see video below. Unless I’m rehearsing for band practice I tend to pick up a guitar a lot and just mess around. There is nothing wrong with that it just can be unproductive and leave your playing in a rut. The solution of course is some disciplined practice schedule.

My biggest problem with that is I don’t like a regimented routine. I find it easy to suggest a practice plan for students but feel trapped if I try to follow one myself. I think the biggest thing holding me back is my fear that being diciplined will somehow stifle creativity. However if I honestly assess my recent progress and creative output plainly there is no downside to trying an alternative approach.

Now the best things to practice (again with an eye to music you love) are the things that you struggle with. Things you are already good at need much less practice. The danger here is practicing material that you find difficult can leave you feeling burnt out and not enjoying practice. To remedy this I think you need to find a happy medium between playing songs and developing repertoire and pursuing technique and musical improvement. Ideally you could find songs or write Etudes that fulfill both. So if you want to try some fast legato work and your pinky needs improvement maybe some Randy Rhoads era Ozzy would fit the bill. Now that sounds easy. The real challenge here is honestly picking material that is hard enough that it is a challenge but not so hard that you hate to practice it and find yourself failing miserably when learning it. I think the solution to this is never be reluctant to critically assess your weaknesses. Try to begin this process with something a little below where you would like to be. Make the first couple routines easy to build confidence and begin to increase the difficulty level once your set on a routine you can stick to.

So I’m gonna give that advice a try and update any progress here.

Drop D Guitar Riff

2015-08-09T11:06:00.003-07:00

Guitar riffs don't always have to be difficult to sound cool. This guitar riff is pretty basic. I am tuned down to drop D if you want to play along. The main part of this guitar riff only uses three notes with a chromatic walk down at the end. I will be looking at some solo ideas over this progression later on my website www.getintoguitar.com if your interested.

Questions, comments requests? Let me know on twitter @jimifan

*note in the tab I repeat the section without the walk down three times I forgot to notate that in tab and music notation.

Chromatic Country Guitar Lick

2015-08-09T10:59:00.001-07:00

Today we look at a chromatic country guitar lick in the key of G. The lick uses open strings and pull-offs and is centered around a 16th note rhythm pattern. Practice this slowly with a metronome before you try playing it up to tempo and beyond. I've including a slowed down section in the video.

Any questions let me know on twitter @jimifan

Melodic Guitar Lick in the Key of D

2015-06-24T17:09:00.001-07:00

I don't know a lot about Ed Sheeran. He seems like a nice guy though and I like that. I do love his song "Thinking Out Loud". I decided to learn it after it was tabbed out in a recent issue of Guitar World magazine - August 2015 if your looking for it. As millions of people already know it is a really great song. It is really fun to play on guitar and has some nice rhythmic phrasing if you want to practice muting on an acoustic guitar in a strumming pattern.

The chord progression for the main part breaks down to basically a simple I IV V change using D G and A major. This progression is the basis for thousands of songs. After I learned the song I wanted to try and come up with a melodic lick over a similar progression. The guitar lick itself is pretty easy but I like the way it sounds. I threw in a few improvised licks in between. Here is the tab for the main lick:

Fusion Guitar Lick

2015-06-22T14:29:00.000-07:00

A break from the vinyl inspired guitar licks today. I was messing around with a chord progression and came up with this fusion sounding guitar lick.It is based around the E Major scale.

The chord progression is based around these chords.

Here is the tab for the guitar lick.

Vinyl Guitar Lick - Pink Floyd - A Momentary Lapse of Reason

2015-06-21T11:40:00.000-07:00

Today's guitar lick was inspired by the Pink Floyd song 'On the Turning Away' I drew inspiration from the great solo Gilmour plays on this track with his iconic blues rock tone.

The chord progression goes Em|C|Em|C|D|C|Em The lead guitar lick is based around the E Minor Scale.

Vinyl Guitar Licks - Def Leppard - Hysteria

2015-05-24T10:50:00.001-07:00

Today's guitar lick is inspired by the great Def Leppard album 'Hysteria'. This was a favourite of mine when it was released and it still sounds great today. The production on this album is amazing and it has a huge sound that is still clear and clean thanks to producer extraordinaire Mutt Lange. Guitarists Steve Clark (RIP) and Phil Collen have a great interplay and both sound fantastic.

I was inspired today by the song 'Love Bites'. I tired to come up with a lead melodic guitar part played over a moving chord progression. The chord progression I used was:

G5 | Eb5 | C5 | Bb5 C5 |

Here is the guitar tab for the lead part. In the video I played the tab as written a couple of times then just jammed over the progression.

Vinyl Guitar Licks - Leo Kottke - Greenhouse

2015-04-29T15:37:00.001-07:00

Our guitar lick today is inspired by the album 'Greenhouse' by Leo Kottke. I really don't know a lot about this guitarist. I know he plays some mean finger-style acoustic guitar and incorporates a lot of different musical genres into his playing. I tried to come up with a funky yet folksy riff. I'll let you decide how well I did that. I couldn't find the album on Spotify but I was inspired by the funky riff on 'Bean Time'.

I did not spend a lot of time getting the standard notation in the tab exact so please listen to the video to get the rhythm down. Here is the guitar tab. I'm a very novice finger-style player and prefer a pick most of the time but this is my attempt.

Again please note I did not tab out the rhythm parts in standard notation generally I let the notes ring longer than the eighth note duration indicated especially in the second part.

Vinyl Guitar Licks - John McLaughlin - Music Spoken Here

2015-04-27T16:51:00.000-07:00

John McLaughlin's 'Music Spoken Here' is the album that inspired today's guitar lick. I choose to focus on the song 'Loro'. I am not remotely in the same guitar playing league but I tried to come up with an acoustic guitar lick that captured some of the upbeat spirit this song has. Here is a link to today's song.

I went for an uptempo acoustic guitar lick with a bit of a latin tinge to my ears anyway. Here is the guitar tab.

The guitar starts off with a wide interval part and then a 16th note scale sequence. The phrasing in the second part is a bit tricky but I think it sounds pretty cool. The third part is quarter note triplets shifting around some chord shapes. In terms of a key signature I'm thinking in E but haven't really analysed things.

Vinyl Guitar Licks - MSG - Built To Destroy

2015-04-26T12:56:00.001-07:00

Michael Schenker is a great guitar player that had and continues to have a huge influence over guitarists. Today's guitar lick is inspired by the open string intro riff to the song 'Captain Nemo'. I couldn't find the exact album on Spotify but here is a link to the song on a compilation.

My guitar lick is certainly a lot slower in tempo but it does incorporate a lot of open strings. I mixed in a simple guitar rhythm of the E, D and C power chords between the guitar licks. The guitar lick has two parts. The first part has two minor variations. The second part is played entirely on the G string. I didn't really think out scale choices I just played notes that sounded good to me. Hope you dig the riff here is the guitar tab. For a modern player who comes up with some wicked open string licks I would check out Slash.

Vinyl Guitar Licks - Johnny Winter

2015-04-26T12:17:00.000-07:00

Today's guitar lick is inspired by the self titled 1969 album from Johnny Winter. It has Stevie Ray Vaughan's bass player Tommy Shannon on it as well. I drew inspiration from the song 'Good Morning Little School Girl'. I went for a cleaner blues tone and stuck to the B Minor Pentatonic Scale. The beat on the song is a straight ahead rock and roll rhythm.

Here is the guitar tab.

Vinyl Guitar Licks - Queen News of the World

2015-04-26T10:46:00.001-07:00

The record that inspired today's guitar lick is Queen's 'News of the World'. This is a 1977 classic that includes the hits 'We Will Rock You' and 'We are the Champions'. I took inspiration from the first song 'We Will Rock You'. The tracks guitar solo kicks in at around 1:40. Here is a link to the song. The first things that strikes me is the thick rich tone Brian May gets out of his now famous home made guitar. The solo kicks of with some power chords and then kicks into a great melodic section.

I tried to come up with a combination of a riff and solo part that work together. I tried to create a thick chord sound. The first part of the guitar lick starts with a triplet walk up the scale that reminds me of Queen after that its more of a blues rock feel. But hey the goal of this is to kick start some creativity. The main riff I played in open position with the chords F# D and A. For the lead I doubled the chords in a higher position and played around with the A Major/ F#Minor scale. The guitar tab ends with the repeating lick on the second fret. If you want the legato part at the end tabbed out let me know.

My Record Collection and the Guitar Licks it Inspired

2015-04-25T15:10:00.001-07:00

Recently we had another record store day. That got me thinking about my Vinyl collection. I have been meaning to catalogue it for some time and was going to set up a blog to do that. I thought it may be even cooler to post a record and then a guitar lick inspired by each record. That way I get more regular guitar licks on the site and get to share my vinyl collection too. I have a pretty eclectic collection so be prepared for some odd records and probably odder guitar licks. If you see a record you dig let me know and I can post another guitar tab inspired by it. I'd love to hear from you if you come up with guitar licks inspired by the records posted too. Please let me know if you do.

Just a few points the records will be in no particular order. I recently had a flood and now all my records are sitting next to me in my jam room so I'll literally pick up each one in the pile as they come. If the piece is on Spotify I'll try to include a link so you can reference the music I am talking about. My inspiration may be from a particular song, technique, guitarist, title or even cover art. Remember the great album covers pre CD?

If you think this idea is interesting please comment, share or tweet this. I appreciate the feedback and knowing people have some interest makes creating content more enjoyable.

So first album in the pile is? Eric Clapton "Just one Night". This album was recorded live at the famous Budokan Theatre in Toyko in December of 1979 and released in 1980. I choose to listen to the song "Worried Life Blues". Clapton's version had a very BB King style sound to me. I tabbed out a guitar lick that would work over the turnaround. Please note I'm tuned down a half step if you want to play along with my video. Here is the song:

Worried Life Blues

And here is the guitar tab for my lick:

Fusion Guitar Lick

2015-04-20T14:02:00.001-07:00

I'm not a fusion player but this guitar lick kinda fit over a progression I would call fusion. If you want the backing track and a breakdown of the chord progression please see my new website Get Into Guitar

This guitar lick was inspired by a warm-up lick by Geoff Unger in a column at Guitar World. You can find this article here. http://www.guitarworld.com/fretboard-mechanics-beyond-warming-important

The guitar lick is based around the C Major scale and uses legato for a smooth flowing feel. Hope you dig it. Thanks for listening.

Here is the tab for this guitar lick.

Another last minute guitar contest

2015-03-30T17:39:00.001-07:00

Another guitar contest entry down to the wire. This time it is from Jam track central. Here is the link https://jamtrackcentral.com/jtcguitarsolocontest2015/info/

They gave you a variety of backing tracks in various genres. I was most a home in the blues so I choose that one for my entry but I also posted an outtake from the funk track too because it was fun to play over.

Here's my entry. There is just about 15 hours left so you still have time to enter. Have fun.

And here is the funky track I didn't enter:

Jim Oblon Video Challenge

2015-03-29T16:50:00.001-07:00

I've always found guitar contests especially online ones are a great motivator. This one closes to entries very soon but even if you don't entry you can jam over the backing tracks and vote for your favourite entries. Here is my entry. Detail on the contest, sample tracks and the backing tracks can be found here. http://www.epiphone.com/Contests/2015/Jim-Oblon-Video-Challenge.aspx

Ok just read the rules and realized I've gotta play my Epi so here is another take over a different backing track. Cheers.

Guitar Solo and Improv with a dose of noodling

2014-08-13T16:39:00.001-07:00

Here is a bit of a guitar solo and some improv over the chord progression from the last guitar lick. I've written out the basics of the first part of the solo in guitar tab. The solo as played is improvised around the tab but you will notice variations from the tab. Use the tab as a guide to create your own licks. I've used the B Minor Pentatonic shape as a springboard but tried to incorporate notes from the Dorian mode and chord tones as well. Warning this video contains copious amount of guitar noodling.

Melodic Guitar Lick

2014-08-11T15:37:00.002-07:00

It has been awhile but here is another guitar lick to get your fingers moving. The chords in the progression are: B5 / D5 / E5 / B5|A5 /

The guitar lick changes bass notes to match the chord for the first section while the underlying notes remain the same. In the guitar video I improvised a bit and then returned to the guitar lick a few times. The guitar lick kicks off using notes from the B5 chord. The main lick is all eighth notes. The fingering can be a bit tricky so experiment with what works best for you.

Celtic Guitar Lick with tab 2 "Dance among the heather"

2014-06-24T16:57:00.001-07:00

I'm working on some Celtic style guitar licks in the hopes of busking this summer. This one I came up with uses a capo on the 5th fret. I'd like to work this one into an original song called "dance among the heather". The guitar tab is only a rough rhythm interpretation try to aim for a light dancing feeling.

Celtic Guitar Lick with Tab

2014-06-23T15:31:00.001-07:00

I came up with this Celtic flavored guitar lick. The rhythm in the guitar tab is approximate so listen to the music for a better grasp of the phrasing. Note the dotted eight notes and the 16th note triplets which give this a Celtic rhythm.

Guitar Contests Vote Now

2014-06-19T14:51:00.001-07:00

So June and July seem to be months for some great guitar contests. I've entered two so far. The Epiphone one is closed but you can still enter the jammit.com one yourself. I find if you need some motivation and a challenge these contests are a great way to move forward in your guitar playing. Here are the links to my entries again and a QR code as well. I'd encourage players of all abilities to enter. If your not in the contest I'd appreciate your vote and sharing these links with your friends on social media - especially guitarists and musicians who would hopefully enjoy them.

The Epiphone link is:

http://www.epiphone.com/Contests/2014/Video/Ultimate-Epiphone-Video-Contest-Vote.aspx

you can vote once a day NO registration needed on this one. My entry Dave Ward Charlottetown PE.

QR code:

The jammit.com link is you need to register and can vote once. https://www.jammit.com/contest/entry/5747

QR code:

Epiphone Video Contest Voting Open

2014-06-16T17:04:00.001-07:00

You can vote here for the 2014 Epiphone Video Contest!

Mine is Dave Ward Charlottetown, PE, Canada.

http://www.epiphone.com/Contests/2014/Video/Ultimate-Epiphone-Video-Contest-Vote.aspx

Guitar contests are a great motivator to share your music with other guitarists and musicians and are a lot of fun. My favorite source of information for various guitar contests in one place is the great site: www.truthinshredding.com

Fusion Guitar Lick and Improv

2014-06-15T12:32:00.000-07:00

Happy Father's Day. Hope your enjoying a nice Sunday with your respective Dads. Here is a little fusion guitar lick that I came up with. I tabbed out the main idea and the improvised over the backing track a little. There are only four chords in the rhythm guitar:

Here is the lead guitar lick:

Crunch Time - Your Vote could win me a Schecter Guitar

2014-06-11T04:53:00.000-07:00

I need your vote!!

The Jammit.com contest is heating up and I am trailing slightly. I'm determined to win this Schecter Guitar. You can help by voting now and sharing this link and asking everyone who is a guitar fan to vote.
Here is the link please vote and share.

http://www.jammit.com/contest/entry/5747

T minus 15 seconds

2014-06-09T18:32:00.001-07:00

Well the Jammit 15 seconds guitar contest is heating up. Your vote counts so please take a minute and check out the entries and vote for your favorite. Here is the link to my entry http://www.jammit.com/contest/entry/5747