Howdy, Stranger!

It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!

Sign In with Google

Become a Subscriber!

Subscribe to our Patreon, and get image uploads with no ads on the site!

Read more...

Why should I learn licks?

What's Hot
I often see in magazines and videos guitarists referring to licks that you can learn.

I take it the methodology behind this is that you can use that lick when you are playing in a similiar scale but can you apply this to arpeggio use?

Do many fretboarders systematically learn licks separate from songs? If so how do you go about it?


0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 0reaction image Wisdom
«1

Comments

  • vizviz Frets: 10647
    edited January 2017
    Yes. It's a shortcut, but ultimately you will want to play the tunes in your head, regardless of whether they are easy or difficult. 
    Roland said: Scales are primarily a tool for categorising knowledge, not a rule for what can or cannot be played.
    Supportact said: [my style is] probably more an accumulation of limitations and bad habits than a 'style'.
    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 1reaction image Wisdom
  • SporkySporky Frets: 27590
    A lot of guitarists seem to think that music is about historical re-enactment.

    If you agree, certainly learn lots of cliched musical phrases to trot out over 12-bore-blues.
    "[Sporky] brings a certain vibe and dignity to the forum."
    2reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 6reaction image Wisdom
  • tone1tone1 Frets: 5113
    I'm loving this guy lately..I've never sound so musical in my playing 


    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 1reaction image Wisdom
  • Licks are really about musical vocabulary.  Once you have certain licks in your vocabulary you will find your own way to expand upon them.
    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 5reaction image Wisdom
  • BarneyBarney Frets: 614
    I think the only way licks can be productive is iff you learn them and alter them in various combinations...i dont learning licks and reproducing them note for note is very productive..to me music should have some sort of flow or narrative a bit like conversation....using licks is a bit like just slinging random sentances together..
    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 3reaction image Wisdom
  • JezWyndJezWynd Frets: 6021
    cos it's better than sucking.
    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 6reaction image Wisdom
  • I use them initially as a short phrase in its own right then try to add it to stuff I've already learnt. Like @Sporky says it can sound very dull if you just pull out the standard blues licks, but if you use them as a way of getting into that style of music and mess about with the timing/phrasing then you'll be on the right track ;)

    Twisted Imaginings - A Horror And Gore Themed Blog http://bit.ly/2DF1NYi


    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 0reaction image Wisdom
  • merlinmerlin Frets: 6598
    Sporky said:
    A lot of guitarists seem to think that music is about historical re-enactment.

    If you agree, certainly learn lots of cliched musical phrases to trot out over 12-bore-blues.
    Too many people try too hard to sound like other people. This is fine if you can then evolve the sound and begin to create your own sound and make new stuff happen. Otherwise just join a covers band.... :s
    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 0reaction image Wisdom
  • RolandRoland Frets: 8592
    edited January 2017
    Do many fretboarders systematically learn licks separate from songs? If so how do you go about it?
    It's certainly not been systematic, but I have used licks to learn/consolidate patterns of finger movement: combinations of slides, bends, hammers, pull-offs and vibrato, rather which note sequences to play.
    Tree recycler, and guitarist with  https://www.undercoversband.com/.
    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 0reaction image Wisdom
  • HAL9000HAL9000 Frets: 9553
    edited January 2017
    Having even a small repertoire of licks is useful for those times when you're put on the spot (such as jam nights playing a song you're not familiar with). However, if I've got time to prepare then I prefer to spend some time working out phrases and ideas specifically for that song - and should it all fall apart (which with my level of skill is practically guaranteed) then I've always got stock licks and pentatonics to fall back on.
    I play guitar because I enjoy it rather than because I’m any good at it
    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 1reaction image Wisdom
  • BigLicks67BigLicks67 Frets: 766
    edited January 2017
    Sporky said:
    A lot of guitarists seem to think that music is about historical re-enactment.

    I
    Yes, here's one of those "historical re-enactors"



    .

    Learning from other guitarists is part and parcel of the learning curve, so yes learning licks is a good idea.
     

    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 1reaction image Wisdom
  • nickpnickp Frets: 183
    most of the greats (probably all of them) nicked licks and learned licks (often paistakingly) from other guitarists; then from that developed their own voice.  Paul Gilbert for instance did that, so did srv, so did hendrix, so did.....and so on - but they melded their influences into their own.  And when you listen to someone (for me say Robben or Matt Schofield) play something nice then I want to find out what their note choices where - but just as importantly, in fact more so, what they were thinking - in terms of arp/scale/chord choice and why, over the particular chord that they were playing over and understanding how they created a particular sound or vibe - so to me it's not about just repeating by rote but as a path to the sounds - and as someone said above - if you think a lick is the dogs bollocks, then play it in differerent keys, and different places, and with different timing and inflections over the neck and take it somewhere

    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 0reaction image Wisdom
  • RockerRocker Frets: 4947
    @merlin, what have you got against 'cover bands'?  Not everyone wants to jam or join in endless Blues solos.  Learning someones song and the guitar parts is fun in itself and is a gateway to getting others to play with. You can be fairly sure that most players know 'House of the rising sun' or 'The Boxer'.  It is somewhere to start and helps develop your ear for music.
    Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. [Albert Einstein]

    Nil Satis Nisi Optimum

    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 6reaction image Wisdom
  • Think of it this way - when you were a child you learned how to speak by listening and copying others, yet you don't talk exactly like those people now.  When you learn lucks it's the same, you are learning musical vocabulary and putting your own spin on it.  Absolutely nothing wrong with learning licks.  
    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 3reaction image Wisdom
  • Col_DeckerCol_Decker Frets: 2188
    edited January 2017
    Was it Muddy Waters who "learn everything you can, then forget it all and just play"? I like that approach a lot. You don't NEED to learn other people's licks to play, but it'll help you get to where you want to go, i.e. making your own licks. 

    Learn them, change them, play them backwards, add in between notes, make them purposely sharp or flat. Whatever. How can it not benefit your playing?

    Ed Conway & The Unlawful Men - Alt Prog Folk: The FaceBook and The SoundCloud

     'Rope Or A Ladder', 'Don't Sing Love Songs', and 'Poke The Frog'  albums available now - see FaceBook page for details

    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 0reaction image Wisdom
  • In the medium or longer term, the main purpose of playing licks isn't to be able to play licks.

    Let's say you learn 50 "classic" major 251 licks inside out. You won't just know 50 licks, you will have improved your ear for what works in that context, you will have identified much of the dna common to those licks, you will have improved your capacity to compose your own licks or create them in the moment, you will have improved your physical ability to play, you'll have learned some of the vocabulary and grammar of great players and you'll almost certainly have given yourself some good imaginative ideas. 

    People say "it's no use mechanically learning licks"  but  unless you're some kind of weird automaton, your intelligence and imagination will ensure that's never all that's happening.   It might take longer for the other stuff to come through, and at first it may feel like all you've learned is some licks. Some of the other stuff works at a subconscious level, and you might not know what's happening until suddenly you are playing and you realise you can do stuff you couldn't do before.  That's a fantastic feeling.

    You hear a lot about the straw man whose learned a gazillion licks but can't use them to make music, but I think it's largely hooey.  In the vast majority of cases, guys who know lots of licks can play.

    “To a man with a hammer every problem looks like a nail.”
    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 2reaction image Wisdom
  • RolandRoland Frets: 8592

    You hear a lot about the straw man whose learned a gazillion licks but can't use them to make music, but I think it's largely hooey.  
    Joe Bonamassa you mean?
    Tree recycler, and guitarist with  https://www.undercoversband.com/.
    1reaction image LOL 1reaction image Wow! 0reaction image Wisdom
  • merlinmerlin Frets: 6598
    edited January 2017
    Rocker said:
    @merlin, what have you got against 'cover bands'?  Not everyone wants to jam or join in endless Blues solos.  Learning someones song and the guitar parts is fun in itself and is a gateway to getting others to play with. You can be fairly sure that most players know 'House of the rising sun' or 'The Boxer'.  It is somewhere to start and helps develop your ear for music.
    I don't have anything against covers bands per se. I just prefer to create new stuff. 
    I agree that learning other people's material is a good way to work out how it is all done, but then I think it's good to move forwards and create and use those lessons to express one's own voice rather than just emulate.

    It's my way of seeing things and working in the world. Not necessarily for everyone. I do think that learning licks can help to give inspiration and change one's own pattern and push the envelope of what you're playing, making you play differently, which can be good. 

     
    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 0reaction image Wisdom
  • close2u said:
    Yeah suppose to my learn licks is one thing but to remember how they sound is probably a great method of training your ear.
    0reaction image LOL 0reaction image Wow! 0reaction image Wisdom
Sign In or Register to comment.