Licks (Page 2 of 2)

Learning licks are great, but just like learning a scale or a new chord, you need to know how to apply it musically.  Better to learn 10 licks and a hundred ways to use them, than 100 licks but only be able to play them in one key, in one style, with one exact rhythm.  That gets very mechanical and doesn't teach you a whole lot about music.  It might be a good starting point, but how you apply licks you've learned, and turned them into your own thing is how you get your own voice.

Practice it.  Put on a backing track - something simple and repetitive - then ONLY play something after you've heard it.  Doesn't matter if you nail it, just try to replicate it.  Do this frequently and spend some time with it.  It's a great exercise, but like anything, it takes some time to actually assimilate what you're learning.

I practice staying on one lick all the time. I'll jam until I get in a certain position that "says something" to me, then I'll work it back and forth, side to side, different bent notes, etc. The master blues players say you should be able to come up with a bunch of licks while staying in one position.
When I jam/improvise I gravitate to what I like and want to hear. I love when JB, Trower, and Gary Moore will do a slow phrase with bends or vibrato, then come ripping out of that phrase with some fast licks. Then pause and bend/vibrato again. I also love double stops that "groan", or bent double stops that "cry". So I add them into my improvising too. To me the TONE of what I'm playing is really what turns me on.
  Some old blues guitarist (BB King?) said he trys to make his solo's mimic two people having a conversation. If you think about it, thats really what the best guitarists do. When two people talk, there's lots of pauses, speed up and slow downs, accented words, louder and softer words. We're used to it and don't really notice it though.

One thing I've noticed is that I generally benefit more by approaching certain particular aspects by themselves for periods of time.
For instance, if I decide I could use some work on JB/EJ style fast articulate runs, then I do better by pretty much devoting all or most of my practicing to that concept for at least a few weeks focusing on:  1) what are the notes   2) how are said notes syncopated...and 3) what does my picking technique need to look like to play those fast runs cleanly with the appropriate syncopations 

Where I tend to mess myself up is when I get going for a short period of time on something, like say the above JB/EJ fast run technique example, and then all the sudden Ill get ADD and out of nowhere Im working on Robben Ford type phrasing.  Very different syncopation and feel to the hands.  Quite different, jazzier type approach to note choice as well.  The problem is, I wont realize at first that ive done any harm.  I'll seamlessly and mindlessly switch my focus over to the RF stuff and maybe I might even be doing a good job with it.  I might be thinking, "hey, im sounding pretty good at this", but then I'll get to my next gig and I notice myself getting tangled up when I try some JB/EJ stuff.  My syncopation will be too open/free, my tendency to use that particular hammer/pull thing RF does will be messing with my attempts at fast cleanly picked runs, and my note choice will be tending to a more jazzy free approach as opposed to more straight pentatonic ideas that work better for big fast runs.

What works better for me is to practice the example JB/EJ technique hard and consistently until I start to see majorly diminishing returns  in my ability to make the things I practice second nature.  All the while, Ill purposely focus on that style playing at my gigs and listen primarily to that style playing.
After I reach that point where Im not making big gains any longer, Ill switch to a different concept.  Ill also switch the music I listen to to highlight whatever concept I have switched to.  Ill practice hard and focus mostly on whatever the next concept/technique is at my gigs.  Then so on.  Its just a few main concepts I really focus hard on.  When I exhaust one i move on the next one and keep going back around.  Ideally by the time I get back to a technique I previously completely exhausted, my mind and fingers will be ready again to pick up and continue

For me its more a matter of how notes are syncopated from one style to the next than the different scales/note choices.  Im always trying to improve my ability to comfortably phrase lines with equal comfort regardless of the rhythm and timing and regardless of the picking pattern that will result from a given phrase.  (As opposed to generally defaulting to very physically comfortably syncopated phrases that lend themselves to very comfortable picking patterns)
So If I can pick a style or concept and stay with it for the long haul with out getting side tracked, I will get the most out of that period of practicing.   
The idea is to continually get more and more limber at all the types of playing I work on so that I can ultimately move in and out of any style without of missing a beat....no pun intended

Just an observation I made about my practice time