Need a few Blues Licks

Druw

New member
Hi guys,
Could you reccomend me some medium paced blues licks that I could play. I want to prepare something for when I go to a music shop to test out different stuff.
Thanks!!
 
Hmmmm recommend? Do you want tab or audio samples or what? When i play blues, i like to play the intro lick from a song called 'Tobacco Road' by the Nashville teens....Jimmy Page played guitar for em i think. It has a sweet full tone bend in the D blues position and some string skips and a release. Ya gotta hear it. Try look for tab for that. With blues, its all about the Blues scale or Pentatonic; though you can kinda get variations in swing or shuffle...another nice phrase is the intro to ''I know a little'' by lynrd skynrd. Try the solo break in ''Folsom Prison Blues'' by Johnny Cash; think thats Luther Perkins in guitar. Anything by Rory Gallagher. Alot of clapton stuff, like 'Strange Brew' The Yardbirds' 'Heart Full of Soul' or 'Baby Please Dont Go' by Them. Whats your ability? What blues guitar players are you into?
 
TelePaul said:
Hmmmm recommend? Do you want tab or audio samples or what? When i play blues, i like to play the intro lick from a song called 'Tobacco Road' by the Nashville teens....Jimmy Page played guitar for em i think. It has a sweet full tone bend in the D blues position and some string skips and a release. Ya gotta hear it. Try look for tab for that. With blues, its all about the Blues scale or Pentatonic; though you can kinda get variations in swing or shuffle...another nice phrase is the intro to ''I know a little'' by lynrd skynrd. Try the solo break in ''Folsom Prison Blues'' by Johnny Cash; think thats Luther Perkins in guitar. Anything by Rory Gallagher. Alot of clapton stuff, like 'Strange Brew' The Yardbirds' 'Heart Full of Soul' or 'Baby Please Dont Go' by Them. Whats your ability? What blues guitar players are you into?

there are those that say you have to live the blues to really dig it BUT I tend to disagree

Roy Buchanan, Johnny Winter, Stevie Ray Vaughan............
 
Of course anything by the Kings, BB, Albert or Freddie, also get some stuff by Johnny Winters or some of those tasteful fills that Steve Cropper would do with Booker T & the MG's or the Blues Brothers, those turnarounds can do magic to the Blues ;)
 
If you are going to say, Guitar Center, on saturday afternoon to try out guitars, you should make sure to turn up the amp loud enough to get a true representation of what the guitar sounds like. If there are alot of people in the store, turn the amp up all the way, but if it's empty, back it down to like 98%. The best licks for trying out guitars and looking cool are Smoke on the Water and Stairway to Heaven, but if 3 notes is too much, You Really Got Me only has 2.

Smoke on the water is played: Open, First dot, second dot on as many strings as you can mash down.

You Really Got Me is played by picking any two notes on the same string, one line apart. It helps if you say "You really got MEH!" when you do it so you know when to play the other note.

Stairway is hard to relate to you in ASCII, so I suggest you just hang out at the music store every saturday and you'll see it performed at least a dozen times. That one weird chord is an F, but pretty much any chord fits there if you play it fast enough.

I hope that this helps. Blues is kind of tough because it has 3 chords AND 5 NOTES!
 
Yeah, Ive been playing since August last year. Im limited with my knowledge of blues, but Im not too slow at playing something. If you could write down some licks for me iot would be great!
Thanks!
 
cephus said:
I hope that this helps. Blues is kind of tough because it has 3 chords AND 5 NOTES!

Yeah if all ya play is Status Quo...maybe you're right, I'm sure Robert Johnson got by on his five notes....
 
Ok, after some searching:

Lick #1
E------------------------------------------10----------|
B-----------------------5--------------10------13------|
G-----------------------5h6--------11--------------11--|
D-----------------4--7-------7/12----------------------|
A--7--6--5--4--7---------------------------------------|
E------------------------------------------------------|


Lick #2
E-------------3-------5p3----------------|
B----------3-----6p3-------6p3-----------|
G------5^-----------------------5--3-----|
D-------------------------------------5--|
A----------------------------------------|
E----------------------------------------|


Lick #3
E----------13\12------------------------------------|
B-----------------13--------------------------------|
G---13/14-------------14\12--10------9/10--12--12^--|
D--------------------------------12-----------------|
A---------------------------------------------------|
E---------------------------------------------------|


Lick #4
E-------10--12--12^--12^--10---------|
B---12------------------------12~~~--|
G------------------------------------|
D------------------------------------|
A------------------------------------|
E------------------------------------|


Lick #5
E--8^--5-----8^--5-----8^--5-----8^--5----|
B---------5---------5---------5---------5--|
G------------------------------------------|
D------------------------------------------|
A------------------------------------------|
E------------------------------------------|


Lick #6
E------------------------------10^--10--7-------7-------7~~~--|
B---10^--10--7-----------------------------10^-----10^--------|
G---------------10^--10--9~~~---------------------------------|
D-------------------------------------------------------------|
A-------------------------------------------------------------|
E-------------------------------------------------------------|


Lick #7
E---------5--8^--5~~~--|
B------5---------------|
G--7^------------------|
D----------------------|
A----------------------|
E----------------------|


Lick #8
E-------10^--8---------8^--|
B---10----------10~~~------|
G--------------------------|
D--------------------------|
A--------------------------|
E--------------------------|

It would be nice though for some people to post their favourite licks, kinda like a lick collection.
 
You want to play as goddamn fast as you can. Faster than you can, really. Just remember to turn the amp unabashedly, ungodly loud. If you miss a note, just keep going and make it look like you're so fucking badass that you MEANT to hit that note. Any other motherfucker would've accidentally hit that note, but not you.

If you want one good blues lick, do this at least 20 times:


go up to the 17th fret on the little e string and bend it up a whole step. Hit it a couple of times and shake it. Then hit the 15th fret on the e string followed by the 17th fret on the b string. Instant blues!

Rory
 
Tell you what.

Get fired from your job, and struggle for a while on your wife's salary as a waitress. Get kicked out of the house when she gets tired of supporting your lazy, worthless, but artistic ass.

Find a room with a friend. Start drinking. A lot. Start selling all your gear because you can't seem to find the motivation to find a job. Run out of money and friends.

When you find yourself on the street corner with nothing but a the dirty clothes on your back, a half-pint of rot-gut tequila, and the cheap acoustic guitar that is your only remaining piece of musical gear, which you will be taking to the pawn shop tomorrow, sit down and play the fucking thing while you still have it.

You will then have some blues licks and won't have to come to some message board to find them.

(Not that I know anything about this personally, you understand, that's just how I've always heard blues players are born. :D :D :D )
 
Here's a sweet Robben Ford lick

-3-------------------3------6--
---3-6---3------3-5----5/8---
-------5----3h4---------------
-------------------------------
-------------------------------
--------------------------------

Starts on the 4, play over G7. They are triplets.
 
Zaphod B said:
Tell you what.

Get fired from your job, and struggle for a while on your wife's salary as a waitress. Get kicked out of the house when she gets tired of supporting your lazy, worthless, but artistic ass.

Find a room with a friend. Start drinking. A lot. Start selling all your gear because you can't seem to find the motivation to find a job. Run out of money and friends.

When you find yourself on the street corner with nothing but a the dirty clothes on your back, a half-pint of rot-gut tequila, and the cheap acoustic guitar that is your only remaining piece of musical gear, which you will be taking to the pawn shop tomorrow, sit down and play the fucking thing while you still have it.

You will then have some blues licks and won't have to come to some message board to find them.

(Not that I know anything about this personally, you understand, that's just how I've always heard blues players are born. :D :D :D )

You must of read my journal. :D
 
Blues Lick

Here's a G blues lick that hints at G diminished. You can play a variation of it up the neck every 3 frets as long as you resolve it correctly. Try starting it on the 10th (ends on B, 3rd of G) or 13th (ends on D, 5th of G) frets.


--6---3-----------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------6---5---3---------3/4-----------------------------------------
-----------------------5-----------5------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
Here's a pretty sweet blues lick

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-----------------10 ^ ~~~~----------------
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