Lick of the Day

Christmas Carols for Solo Guitar - Hark the Herald Angels Sing

2011-12-18T07:05:00.000-08:00

In the final week before Christmas I thought it would be fun to look at one more Christmas Carol arranged for solo guitar. This is an arrangement of 'Hark the Herald Angels Sing' by guitarist Jim Nailon. Jim has kindly allowed some of his work to be used on this site. You can find more of Jim's work at the Liturgical Guitarist This arrangement is copyrighted by Jim Nailon.

I've included a video of myself playing this on electric guitar with views of the right and left hand. I am not really an experienced fingerstyle guitarist but posted the video to give you some idea of what the piece looks and sounds like when played. My version is tuned down 1/2 step.The scorch audio is standard tuning. I would strongly recommend trying this piece on an acoustic and utilizing a more classical left hand neck placement. I am only a beginner at reading standard notation so I would recommend you listen to the audio in Scorch for a more strict rhythmic interpretation.

You'll note this video was recorded for my old website. I will be transferring most of the guitar tab and video over to this blog in the new year. You can send me a direct message on twitter @jimifan if you need guitar tab from the old site for one of my youtube videos. Happy Holidays.

A not so Fingerstyle - Silent Night

2011-12-06T18:00:00.001-08:00

Ok I seem to be on a Christmas Carol roll so here is a new video of Silent Night on guitar. This arrangement is by Jim Nailon at the liturgical guitarist. Used with permission. I couldn't get the open strings to ring out properly so I adapted the piece a little and tried to capture its essence while playing with a pick. You can check out Jim's page for the score in Sibelius Scorch format for a more correct rendition. I hope the video gives you a few ideas about the piece and I encourage you to try and learn it.

Fingerstyle Guitar - Time for some Carols - O Come All Ye Faithful

2011-12-05T17:05:00.001-08:00

As I stated in my last post I am moving my guitar lessons and tab into this blog. Given the time of year I thought it would be appropriate to start with some Christmas Carols arranged for guitar.This is a look at an arrangement of 'O Come All Ye Faithful' by guitarist Jim Nailon. Jim has kindly given his permission to use some of his work on this site. You can also find more of Jim's work on his website Liturgical Guitarist. This arrangement is copyrighted by Jim Nailon.

I've included a video of myself playing this on electric guitar. I am not an experienced fingerstyle player but posted the video to give you some idea of what the piece looks and sounds like when played. My version is tuned down 1/2 step like a lot of video on this blog.The scorch audio is standard tuning.I would strongly recommend trying this piece on an acoustic and utilizing a more classical left hand neck placement. I am only a beginner at reading standard notation so I would recommend you listen to the audio in Scorch for a more strict rhythmic interpretation. This is a beautiful song. Try to let the emotion of the song come alive in your playing. I hope you enjoy practicing this piece as much as I do.

Video Guitar Lessons Site

2011-12-03T08:10:00.001-08:00

My main video guitar lesson site host is moving servers so I plan to close the site and migrate content into this blog. I will be incorporating guitar lessons, licks, songs and tab from my old video guitar lessons site into this blog. I hope the transition will not be too confusing to existing users. I will reference course titles and descriptions so guitarists working on a specific course topic can locate them easier. Thanks to www.guitarvoice.com for hosting the site in its original incarnation.

True Fire Tag Jam#1 - Blues Guitar Jam

2011-11-12T13:45:00.001-08:00

The folks at True Fire have a new series going where you can jam with instructors from their site. Basically they get users to jam along with backing tracks on guitar and then are going to create a mash up of all the players together. The first track is with Larry Carlton over a blues in A similar to Stormy Monday. Here is my submission to the True Fire Tag Jam.
If you want to grab your guitar and give it a whirl you can check out the details here. Hurry though submissions wrap up in two days but you can still practice your blues guitar licks with this great backing track.
http://truefire.com/tag-jams/index.html?

And A cow Jumped over the Moon: Guitar Exercise

2011-06-15T15:52:00.000-07:00

OK here is the second part of the guitar exercise. Not really jumping that far around the fretboard but the intervals can be pretty large given the repeating open high E that is used as a pedal point in the second part. Again strive for an even tone, rhythm and volume between the open and fretting notes. To give the lick a little bit of a neo-classical tinge I've added the G# from the ever popular ( see Yngwie and 80's and Yngwie in the 80's) A harmonic minor scale. Cheers.

Here is the guitar tab with both parts.

A Total Eclipse of the Moon - Guitar Exercise

2011-06-15T14:49:00.000-07:00

Ok this guitar lick has nothing to do with the Lunar eclipse today other than the fact that I came up with the lick while watching streaming coverage online of this event. The guitar lick makes a great alternating picking exercise. It is played with 16th notes solely on the high E string. Strive for an even tempo and practice along with a metronome.

Here is the guitar tab:

Paint By Numbers Creative Guitar Part Two

2011-06-09T14:06:00.000-07:00

In our last post we looked at a piece of guitar tab with no notation and I asked interested guitarists out there to create their own guitar licks using the notes provided. Here are a couple licks using the notes and sequence of notes from the first part of this post. If you want the powertab notation you can DM me on twitter @jimifan

Here are a couple of different licks using the previous notes:

Win Win - Guitar Tab From Songsterr

2011-06-09T13:47:00.000-07:00

Guitar tab gets a bad rap sometimes. I know I am guilty of taking shortcuts and don't spend enough time ear training but sometimes it is nice to pick up a guitar, grab some tab and just play a few songs. I think as with many things in life and music moderation is sometimes the best choice. A primary deficiency with a lot of internet guitar tab is the lack of rhythmic notation. Modern rock guitar can be notoriously difficult to correctly convey the appropriate rhythm. Songsterr is a relatively newcomer to online tab that solves this problem by tabbing out the rhythm and also giving you the option of hearing the tab. This makes the guitar tab much more useful. If you use this referral link below you (and I) get two free weeks of their PLUS service that allows access to added features on the site.

http://www.songsterr.com/a/wa?ref=165148

Paint by Numbers - Creative Guitar

2011-06-05T14:15:00.000-07:00

Ok in this guitar lick I'm going to force you to add your own rhythm kind of a musical paint by numbers. So here is the guitar lick but with no rhythmic instructions or notation, or slurs or legato notes.

See what you can come up with and I will post the notation indicating my original guitar lick based on these notes later.

Guitar Exercise 8ths and 16ths

2011-05-29T11:02:00.000-07:00

This guitar lick expands on a lesson Paul Gilbert wrote in the latest Premier Guitar see a few posts back for the link. In this guitar exercise I am using just four notes notes D and C and A and G in two different locations on the neck. The first set is the D at the third string 7th fret and the C on the 5th fret the A and G are on the same frets just on the fourth string. The second position for these notes is the 7th fret G string and 10th fret 4th string for the D and C and again up to the 4th and 5th string for the A and G notes. Now in this exercise you are going to play D,C,A,G first in eight notes with a downstroke and then the same combinations for 16th notes. Then you switch to the next position and do the same just begin with an upstroke. Start slowly with a metronome and see if you can alternate two beats with eighth notes and 2 beats with 16th notes.

A great lick that starts off with the first sequence is a solo section from the live version of "Suicide Solution" by Ozzy and Randy Rhoads. A more recent song that also uses a similar sequence is "Ravenous" by Arch Enemy.

Ok here are the notes in the two positions shown in guitar tab:

Guitar Exercise: C Major Scale & Legato

2011-05-21T13:47:00.000-07:00

This is a great guitar exercise for learning the fretboard, scales and practicing legato at the same time. I used the B string and C Major scale as an example but you can apply this exercise to different scales, strings and positions on the guitar fretboard. Basically you use all legato no picking. The sequence is hammer on from nowhere, pull off hammer on hammer on and then pull off pull off then move up to the next sequence of three notes and keep going within the notes of the C Major Scale. The tab notation should make this clear but let me know if anyone needs more explanation. In the guitar tab example below I started with the C note at the 13th fret B string and moved the sequence down the neck. Once you get used to this guitar exercise try moving the sequence up a few times then down at random while staying within the notes of the scale.

Pole Vaulting with Paul Gilbert

2011-05-21T13:34:00.000-07:00

Thought I'd share this article from the latest Premier Guitar issue. Paul Gilbert gives some great exercises and licks to develop string crossing picking and legato guitar playing.

Shred Your Enthusiasm: How to Practice Pole-Vaulting

Guitar Exercise - Alternate Picking Altered Tuning

2011-05-18T13:35:00.000-07:00

Today's guitar lick is in the same detuned guitar tuning we have looked at for the past couple of days. Check the other posts if you need a further explanation but the tuning is detuned from low to high DGDGGD. This guitar lick has a kind of piano sound to my ears. It is all 16th notes and makes a great alternate picking guitar exercise. Start slowly and work through the lick with a metronome gradually increasing the speed as you can play perfectly at each successive tempo. Try to use strict alternate picking. Here is the guitar tab:

Altered Tuning and Chromaticism

2011-05-17T16:02:00.000-07:00

Ok not sure if this is much more musically relevant than the last post but I think this guitar lick is really fun to play. I just came up with it and it is a bit of a twisty lick. It sounds best if you get it around 120 bpm. I'm well under that at the moment but it does make a great practice lick for finger independence. The tuning for the lick is the same as the last post the guitar from low to high is detuned DGDGGD. The 6th, 5th and 1st strings on the guitar are dropped a whole step and the second string is lowered to a G to match the third string.

If this type of guitar lick appeals to you I would recommend practicing with a metronome and strive for consistent 16th notes. Ok here is the guitar tab.

The guitar lick starts off with a funky 16th note intro using muted strings and hammer ons.The lick then progresses to a descending patterns on the second and third strings. Next there is a sequence of ascending notes played on the first three strings. I play the first string with a down stroke and then upstroke for the next two notes. In the final bar there is a real tricky sequence. Experiment with different fingerings to see what works for you. I use one finger per fret until the notes on the 15th fret which I bar with my middle finger. The lick ends with a flashy little pull off section and repeats back into the intro.

Altered Tuning Guitar Licks

2011-05-16T13:36:00.000-07:00

Usually when I try altered tuning guitar licks I am trying to emulate the feel and or sound of middle eastern music and instruments. A great Canadian band ( now broken up) to master this was the Tea Party. Jeff Martin has continued to explore middle eastern influences with his new band and solo career. However today's guitar lick has absolutely no connection with this genre. I was playing around with an altered tuning on guitar and came up with a little lick that sounded more like a happy cowboy lick from the 50's or a really syrupy tv jingle.Anyway here it is. DM me on twitter if you need the powertab @jimifan. Here is the guitar tab:

The tuning for the lick is DGDGGD. All altered notes are lowered. So the 6th,5th and 1st strings are lowered a whole tone and the second string B is lowered to a G. You'll note that all you end up with are two notes D and G. This guitar lick was a little bit sappy but the next couple days will look at this tuning and see if we can't extract some more relevant musical ideas from this tuning.
Happy trails.

Drop D Clean Guitar Lick #2

2011-05-15T16:35:00.000-07:00

Here is another guitar lick in Drop D tuning that uses a clean sound. This a more of a pop rock style guitar lick. If you have a delay pedal or some chorus use that to color the clean sound of the guitar a bit. The guitar lick alternates with a simple pattern that is played in different octaves. The lick relies heavily on the open D strings on the 4th and 6th strings to ring out. If you like this like try extending the pattern with more notes that sound good to you. The guitar lick uses all eighth notes and repeats at the end. Let the notes ring out especially the open string ones. Here is the guitar tab:

Drop D Clean Guitar Lick

2011-05-15T16:21:00.000-07:00

This is a clean guitar lick in Drop D tuning that uses a droning open D string and two slight variations on a movable chord shape. This lick is meant to be played slowly and let the notes ring for their full duration. The rhythm is all eighth notes. The chord shapes can be a little tricky so warm up and start slowly. If the chord shapes are difficult for you try everything an octave up - don't try to force anything and remember stop if you feel any pain or discomfort - don't force your hands to do anything they are not ready for. Here is the guitar tab via tinylick:

Drop D Metal Guitar Lick #3

2011-05-12T07:52:00.000-07:00

Here is another guitar lick in Drop D tuning. This one is a little faster than the last two but shouldn't be too hard with a little bit of practice. The bulk of the guitar lick is played with a 16th note rhythm. Try to make the pull-offs smooth and practice the chromatic descending part in the last bar to make it the same speed as the open string part. Try different degrees of palm muting to alter the intensity of the open string parts. Try repeating the guitar lick a few times and work on building intensity as it progresses. Again if you have a drum machine or drum pattern that matches try to play along. Ok here is the guitar tab:

Drop D Metal Guitar Lick #2

2011-05-11T15:33:00.000-07:00

Here is another metal guitar lick in Drop D tuning. For guitarists who have not played in drop D and don't have a tuner handy a quick way to drop the 6th string E note down to a D is to detune ( lower) the 6th string until it the note sound like the the D string but an octave lower. This guitar lick starts out with a quicker opening line played with 16th notes has some muted open string riffs with some 16th note rests and ends with an eighth note sequence that switches to 3/4 time. If you want the powertab you can DM your email on twitter @jimifan.

Here is the tab:

Drop D Metal Guitar Lick

2011-05-11T14:08:00.000-07:00

I have had some requests to post some Death Metal guitar breakdowns in Drop D tuning. Now I freely admit I have a limited knowledge of death metal. Listening to some youtube videos showing various guitar breakdowns it sounds like detuned guitar riffs that use a lot of rhythms with unexpected rests and sometimes odd time signatures. In some of the examples I listened to I could hear a lot of Pantera's influence. I think because Vinnie and Dime were brothers ( and great musicians) they were really locked into each other's playing and really had some strong grooves and powerful rhythmic interactions between the drums and guitars. To me a lot of the breakdowns come alive when they are pared with drum tracks so I would recommend trying to come up with your own against a drum machine or backing track with a good drum groove in it. Anyway here is my first guitar lick trying to emulate this style. It is in Drop D tuning. Be mindful of the rests and use palm muting and staccato playing as indicated. Again no video camera was available for this guitar lick but DM me on twitter @jimifan with your email and I'd be happy to hook you up with the powertab so you have some idea of what it sounds like. Ok so here is the tab:

Drop D Clean Metal Guitar Lick

2011-05-10T09:50:00.000-07:00

Here is a clean metal guitar lick in Drop D tuning. Like a few of the other guitar licks posted recently it can be played at a variety of tempos and still sound interesting. The rhythm is all eighth notes so it should be pretty straight forward even without the video or audio but email me if you need a powertab for any of the guitar licks and I'll see if I can't help out. The only trick to playing this guitar lick smoothly is the placement of the fretting hand. I find it is easiest if you finger the D and G strings with the second and fourth fingers. To me that makes it easier to play the notes that do not remain constant.

Here is the guitar tab:

Clean Triplet Metal Guitar Lick

2011-05-09T17:45:00.000-07:00

Here is a clean guitar lick in standard tuning. If you want to play it in a lower tuning just drop everything one whole step to get a deeper bass sound. This guitar lick is based on a triplet pattern where the only thing that changes is the bass note. This guitar lick sounds good at a variety of speeds so try it slow and at a medium tempo as well. At faster tempos it also makes a great piece to practice your alternate picking.

Clean Metal Guitar in Drop D Down a Whole Step

2011-05-09T16:35:00.000-07:00

I've had some requests to do some clean metal guitar parts in drop tunings. Absent a working video camera I've just posted the guitar tab. The tuning for these licks is Drop D Down a Whole Step so from low to high CGCFAD. Here are a couple licks I used finger picking but you can also try playing with a pick and fingers too.

The first guitar lick is pretty straight forward it closes with a kinda classical sounding pattern that I like. A great extrapolation on this type of diad playing at the end is Joe Satriani's "Baroque".

The second guitar lick takes advantage of the drop tuning shape and uses a barre across the top three strings. I've used 5/4 here as a time signature. Try altering the rhythmic values and come up with your own guitar licks using similar patterns.

May Day Guitar Lick - No Pick Needed

2011-05-01T05:53:00.000-07:00

It's been a busy weekend by my standards. The new Dell has finally arrived and I'm deep into loading it with guitar software so I can get recording again. Took a break from the computer upgrade to catch the 8th Annual PEI Guitar Festival 2011 at the Guild last night. A really diverse and talented group of musicians performed. The standout for me was a country singer and guitar player named Raymond Taylor. I had never heard his playing before but his voice blew me away. He was truly a gifted singer I was literally spellbound listening to him.

Brent Johnston performed an improvisational piece to finish his set that drew heavily on the minor pentatonic scale especially on the first high E string. So as a tribute lick today's tinylick will be based around the E Minor Pentatonic scale and played solely on the high E string.

The guitar lick is based primarily on a rhythm based on 16th notes. It incorporates some basic tapping on guitar but nothing that will prove too difficult with some practice. The remaining notes are played with hammer-on and pull-offs no pick is needed. Repeat the whole phrase when done. To me the sound has a Celtic tinge to it so shoot for a light dancing uplifting feel.

I don't normally record tinylicks but thought I'd do a quick video of this one to test out the new computer. Turns out though my webcam is incompatible with Windows 7. So no video until I find a workaround or buy another camera.