Here’s a pretty cool swing jazz lick, played over an F dominant vamp. I picked up a few pieces from Oscar Peterson and Nat King Cole, and the end result was this lick. It’s played pretty fast, but you can definitely slow it down quite a bit, and it will still sound great. There are […]
This is a great way to get more “mileage” out of your licks. You take a lick and massage it a bit so that it has an odd number of notes. In this case 5, but it would also work with 7, 9 notes, etc. Because it’s an odd number of notes, it’s going to […]
Charlie Parker (Bird) was one of the first jazz musicians I listened to. I bought several albums, and really worked on trying to learn some licks. This one is perhaps the first jazz lick I ever learned. I still love it.
This time, I’m doing a bit more advanced sweep picking licks. I start with alternate picking (3 notes), then the sweep, then 3 more notes to end the phrase. Cool?
In this 2 minute lesson, I’ll show you a couple of upward sweep picking ideas. Sweep picking? Yeah, I’m not talking about replacing your pick with a broom! No, it’s simple means we sweep, or rake, the pick across multiple strings, in one motion. In this case, upwards. It can be a handy technique in […]
I think we need to jazz things up a bit!? Here’s a little solo for you to learn.
Now you can learn how to play a blues by yourself, without accompaniment. This one will be great to play for family and friends! I’ve included a jam track as well – it’s fun to play it both ways.
This one has a kind of George Benson vibe to it. It’s also a great finger coordination exercise! It’s a challenge to play fast, but it’s a nice line at any tempo. Quite melodic, groovy and funkey. This time, I brought out my D’Angelico EX-SS guitar. It’s pretty cool!
Today, I’ve got 2 Joe Walsh licks for you to learn. I lifted these off of a performance I saw on YouTube. Live at Wembley, 2004.
Yeah, I do! This is a chord progression that is very sweet, and quite common. Listen to this one and you will know what I mean. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=etij8ktai2k So in this 2 minute lesson, we are playing some very nice arpeggios. The intervals are 1-2-3-5, except for the Bm7b5 and E7.