Guitar Practice - A Confession

Ok so I have a little confession to make. I play guitar quite regularly which is cool. I learn new tunes occasionally and jam with friends or backing tracks as well. I also write original material a fair bit and create guitar licks and lessons too. What I don't do is abide by a regular structured guitar practice regime including scales, chords, rhythm etc. I'm going to try and change that. While there are excellent musicians on both sides of the practice question in the past a diligent practice routine has improved my playing and fostered greater creativity. So in that spirit I'm going to share with you a new warm up exercise that works on left and right hand synchronization and string crossing. It is written in eighth notes. Try strict alternate picking and work slowly until you can play it correctly to a metronome. It is a variation on some of the left hand permutations but randomized ( to some extent) and spread over multiple strings.
Happy Practicing.

Drop Tuning Guitar Lick

Today's guitar lick is in a drop tuning used by rock and metal players. I was learning a tune off the new Black Label Society album "Order of the Black" where Zakk Wylde uses this tuning. It is a drop tuning from low to high A E A D F# B for best results use strings made specifically for this low detuned type of music ( I admit I didn't here but they do sound a lot better and hold their tension well). The guitar lick is played over a backing track in the key of D Minor and uses notes from that scale.

A little Pentatonic Chromatic Chaos

This tiny guitar lick is based on the minor pentatonic scale shape but ascends the guitar neck in chromatic steps finally settling in the D Minor Pentatonic scale first position. It is played using alternate picking and in a 16th note rhythm.

Blues Guitar Solo in G - Lick #5

The final lick in our basic blues guitar solo in G. The backing track is from Pete Anderson called "Talking My Baby Down". It is one of his contributions to the blues guitar backing tracks for the King of The Blues competition. Used with permission. You can download the backing track and chord progression here: http://gc.guitarcenter.com/kingoftheblues/tracks/ To hear some of Pete's great blues guitar playing check out his website:http://www.peteanderson.com/ Thanks to Pete for letting me use this great track.Our final guitar lick is played over the G6 and Eb9 and D9  chords in the 11th and 12th  bars in this 12 bar blues. The lick begins with a double stop and uses hammer ons to spice things up a bit. The solo ends by playing the chord shapes in the last bar.

Blues Guitar Solo in G - Lick #4

The next few guitar licks will be put together to form a basic blues guitar solo in G. The backing track is from Pete Anderson called "Talking My Baby Down". It is one of his contributions to the blues guitar backing tracks for the King of The Blues Competition. Used with permission. You can download the backing track and chord progression here: http://gc.guitarcenter.com/kingoftheblues/tracks/  To hear some of Pete's great blues guitar playing check out his website:http://www.peteanderson.com/ Thanks to Pete for letting me use this great track.
Our fourth guitar lick is played over the  Amin7 and Adim/D9 chords in the 9th and 10th  bars in this 12 bar blues. The lick begins with a descending chromatic passage starting  on the seventh of the A chord the G note.

Blues Guitar Solo in G - Lick #3

The next few guitar licks will be put together to form a basic blues guitar solo in G. The backing track is from Pete Anderson  called "Talking My Baby Down". It is one of his contributions to the blues guitar backing tracks for the King of The Blues Competition. Used with permission. You can download the backing track and chord progression here: http://gc.guitarcenter.com/kingoftheblues/tracks/  To hear some of Pete's great blues guitar playing check out his website:http://www.peteanderson.com/ Thanks to Pete for letting me use this great track.

Our third guitar lick is played over the  G6 chord the 8th and 9th bars in this 12 bar blues. The lick begins by carrying over the root note for the fisrt bar and then adds a chromatic flourish based around the G Blues scale.

Blues Guitar Solo in G - Lick #2

The next few guitar licks will be put together to form a basic blues guitar solo in G. The backing track is from Pete Anderson  called "Talking My Baby Down". It is one of his contributions to the blues guitar backing tracks for the King of The Blues Competition. Used with permission. You can download the backing track and chord  progression here: http://gc.guitarcenter.com/kingoftheblues/tracks/  To hear some of Pete's great blues guitar playing check out his website:http://www.peteanderson.com/ Thanks to Pete for letting me  use this great track.
Our second guitar lick is played over the  C9 chord the fifth and sixth bars in this 12 bar blues. The lick begins by leading into the C9 chord a half step above the chord and then employs notes from the G Blues scale finally resolving to the G note which is the fifth of the C chord.