25 Jazz Fusion Licks

Hi and welcome to this special Jazz Fusion lesson!

It's all about phrasing and licks analysis from 25 world renowned Jazz Fusion guitar players.

- Backing track -

- 2 bars intro before the first lick starts
- The backing ends over a Cm7 vamp (you cut the last eight bars)



A few words about the licks and how to get the best out of them.

Although each lick is shown from a modal point of view they are not "static" and they could be used in a lot
of different contexts. A lick in C Dorian could be used over a F7 chord over an EbM7#11 chord or a ii/V/I in Bb because all the chords belong to the same tonality. By increasing the 7th to a major 7th, the same C Dorian lick could be used to surround the Lydian Dominant sound (4th mode from the C melodic minor scale / F7#11) and so on... just by changing one note a lick could fit to a different harmonic context. Just take care of the resolution, try to resolve your lines on a chord tones by example.

If this doesn't make sense to you - fear not! Jazz fusion soloing is more complex than rock. Because chord progressions do not stick to a single key, you are required to constantly follow the tonality by playing different scales/arpeggios as the chords fly by. Although this might sound daunting - it is what gives jazz fusion it's distinct sound, and once you start understanding the underlying theory it will open up a world of possibilities.

As a first step towards understanding this, you could learn the scale associated with each lick - to get an understanding for how the lick is constructed. By doing this you will see which notes, and so called "passing notes", are used when building these phrases.

However if you do not wish to start studying theory at this point, you can also learn this solo note-for-note without caring about theory, just to get away from your standard cliché licks.

- Gear used -

Haar & Suhr Strat
Gibson ES339
Godin multiacs
Fender hot rod Amp with a bunch of OD pedals!
Reverb & Delay added in the DAW.

Tempo : 108 BPM

Tuning : standard guitar tuning : EADGBE