Guitar Licks
- Hey everyone! In this section of my website I will be explaining, analyzing and displaying transcriptions of various motifs in some of my favorite pieces of music. Learning guitar licks and having an understanding of how, where, and why they are being played is a great way to practice and especially practice becoming more familiar with your instrument. Not only will I get some good ear training and practice out of analyzing these transcriptions but whomever else takes interest in these can use them to their personal benefit as a guitar player or musician.
Lick #1 : "Tell Me" - Chad Wackerman
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https://youtu.be/66BaISKDkpI?t=261 (Link to Lick)
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Lick #2 "City of Love" - YES
Ironically this 4 bar "lick" is the entirety of Trevor Rabin's guitar solo on this song. However Rabin makes this Solo worth while including some nasty tapped bent notes, wammy bar dives and tricky pinch harmonics. The entirety of the solo can be seen as in E Natural Minor without any altered tones over an E and D power chord including the root and the 5th. The Chords appear quite briefly each for a single eighth note of each measure so there are no "mode" comments to really be made about the piece other than it could sound D Mixolydian over the D. The high G, E, and D notes following the bent A (B) are all tapped while the Bent A (B) is still bent (explaining why 11, 8 and 6 are tapped instead of 12, 9, and 7). Following that Motif, when Rabin pulls of the first time to the Open G, he gets a pinch harmonic sound by using his wammy bar to dive and pulling off harder than usual. I attempted to experiment with different methods like pulling off as I hit the harmonic of the second fret of the G string creating somewhat of an artificial harmonic (Which I believe is an A) as well as simply not pulling off and making a pinch harmonic. The final open G is much easier to make that pinch harmonic with considering it is plucked. Also the final open G includes a wammy pulse for the first 3 quarter notes of the last measure.
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https://youtu.be/pZ6xV72oxo0?t=141 (Link to Lick)
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Lick #3 "Funnels" (Live) - Allan Holdsworth
Before Transcribing this lick from the REH studios concert, I had looked briefly to see if anyone else had previously transcribed the song. Considering this song was being performed live I highly doubted the licks would even come close to the ones in the original recording on the Album. To my luck I stumbled across the entire transcription of this song. I still transcribed the lick and bass line on my own for practice then after I checked my answers when I was done. The chords placed are the same chords written in the other transcription which saved me some useful time. The first 2 measures of this lick I like to see as in F Major because in the first two measures the only altered tone is a C#. The Em7+5b9 (E,G,C,D,F) Chord contains no altered and is a perfectly placed chord so playing in F major would work perfectly alongside the BbMaj7b5 (Bb,D,E,A), Am7b9+5 (A,C,F,G,B), and Fadd9 (F,A,C,G). I think that the C# may just be a passing tone or a ear bending beginning to get you ready for the next chord which it works perfectly in. The GbMaj7b5 (Gb,Bb,C,F) Chord at the beginning of measure 3 is the first place where we can see Holdsworth make a small change in the key. Over the GbMaj7b5 chord, I like to think that Holdsworth is playing in Gb Lydian or C#Major which includes all the chord tones. Over the Fm7+5b9 (F,Ab,C#,D#,Gb) Chord I'd like to think he is still playing in C# Major along with the Gb Major 7 (Gb,Bb,Db,F) Chord which contains those chord tones as well. If we Follow those Guidelines, the only altered tone should be the B natural in the 4th measure. Well actually we can see that Gb Major 7 Chord being played in Gb Major with no altered tones.
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https://youtu.be/qmYGWQ6ghO4?t=47 (Link to Lick)
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