Ian D. Major

How To Play Guitar Licks

While you're learning how to play the guitar, let's be honest about something.  Deep inside, you're hoping you can play those fantastic sounding guitar licks and riffs.

Guitar Licks and RiffsBlues Guitar Licks and RiffsRock Guitar Licks and RiffsSlide Guitar Licks and Riffs

While you're learning how to play the guitar, let's be honest about something.  Deep inside, you're hoping you can play those fantastic sounding guitar licks and riffs.

Blues,rock even country style guitar playing is always better when you include guitar licks.  But how do you go about learning to play those really fast rock guitar licks and riffs?

Here are a few tips.

1.  You Need To Know Your Musical Scales

Sure, it sounds tedious, however all good musicians have to put in that hard work behind the scenes when they practice those difficult moves.  It matters not whether you're playing the piano in a band or playing wailing rock guitar licks, learning an instrument involves some repetition.  Becoming good with scales, keys, and even some note reading will make your guitar playing sizzle.  So learn everything you can about music.

2.  How Do You Eat An Elephant? One Bite At A Time

This principle goes by other names, such as "baby steps" or "little by little".  If you will commit to practicing the scales and tabs of your favorite piece of music even just for a quarter of an hour a day, those fast licks and riffs will improve before you know it.  Perseverance is the key.  No one ever accomplished anything they gave up on.

3.  Get Some Help

A mentor can be a real help for learning to play fast rock or slide guitar licks.  The downside to a live teacher is that private lessons can get costly.  In addition, the teacher may not want to answer your questions when you are hammering out your technique at 3:00 a.m.!  There's a great solution to these dilemmas, though.  Get your guitar instruction via your computer, either through downloadable guitar instruction software or websites that relate to playing the guitar. 

4.  Download Guitar Software To Your Computer

When learning fast rock guitar licks, guitar learning software provides several advantages.  First off, you can see the lick, both as written music and as the more down to earth tabulature form.  But the best part is that you can hear the lick, too.  Look for software that has infinite looping so that you can listen to it several times before you jump in and play along with it.  If the recording doesn't loop, you're sure to get frustrated because you'll just be getting ready to play when you'll have to click your mouse again.  Perhaps most important of all is being able to vary the speed of the recording so you can learn the guitar licks slowly and then increase your speed until your playing like a guitar god!

Article Tags: Guitar Licks, Fast Rock, Rock Guitar

Source: Free Articles from ArticlesFactory.com

ABOUT THE AUTHOR