*repertoire

When listening to people jam in guitar shops or watching youtube demos, do you ever find yourself thinking, "man that guy has some sweet sounding licks/riffs. I know I could nail them if I only knew how"?

Or what about when you have friends or random people in front of you that say, "oh you play guitar?"

It's times like these when I go brain dead and often don't have sweet licks to demo. So I'm asking GMC for your advice. What's your favorite ways to develop some cool sounding lines?

-Brandon

You've come to right site!
Pick some kewl licks from this site and practice them til you nail them. Then, submit them as a REC so you know you nailed them based on Instructor feedback. Brain-deadedness is common, especially when you're not in the comfort of your practice zone, so go to your local guitar shop a few times a month, crank an amp, and do a few licks. Being under others' scrutiny is the only path to getting past "stage-fright induced brain-deadedness". It's when you're most uncomfortable that such a phenonemon occurs, so practice getting outside of your comfort-zone til it's less and less uncomfortable.

Now, if I would just follow my own advice...

http://www.guitarmasterclass.net/solo-guit...s-with-tapping/
for some reason people that don't know guitar - like this style
if you look closely you will notice that he is playing scales and that you can really dial up the speed with this style

and this one
http://www.guitarmasterclass.net/rhythm-gu...vaughan-lesson/

I've never tried to copy licks exactly - as soon that I've learned them, I start to do something own of it, combining it with what I already knows, and then You got a new lick that is actually Your own..... However, I try to avoid lick playing, since thats not improvisation to me, but in playing very fast lines, its hard to be creative, so most of the times You will play patterns that the fingers already knows.....


//Staffay

i find myself always playing something like rock n roll by led zep... i mean not the same but close , and some blues licks on the a pentatonic

Having a cool repertoire of licks is very important if you like to be good at improvising. You can start by copying licks by players you like and then you can change a thing or two, so they fit your style. My favorite way of "stealing" cool licks is copying the rhythmic structure behind the lick and changing the notes completely - it's very useful method as it can make so many variations of one lick, which is what you would ultimately want.

The next step would be experimentation and playing over some backing tracks so you can find ways to combine the licks and build phrases that make sense.

I've got the exact same problem, but as a "backup" for these situations I learned some cool and melodic GMC lessons. Especially Adrians' lessons are really groovy (check the Led Zep or Billy Gibbons meets Angus Young lesson) and blew my friends away, as they work well without a BT. The same is true for some of Gabriels "in the style of" lessons, and of course some cool metal riffs by Lian, Marcus and all the others. Just memorize different lessons, riffs and solos alike, and start altering them. The results will sound really cool.

Thanks for yalls input. I really was feeling the Angus Young/Billy Gibbons lesson, that's my favorite style of guitar - it just has attitude and fun all in one. And yeah most people can agree on that sound.

Sounds like you are well on your way Get some practice playing in front of anyone you can just so that your brain gets used to it. Until you get used to "performing" on the spot, a bit of BRAIN FREEZE can kick in at any time. You may notice that some things you could play perfectly alone in practice, seem jumbled and strained when you are put on the spot when someone gives you the "You play guitar? Do it now!". All just a matter of practice. The more often you can play in public, with eyeballs and ears on you the better. All part of getting your "Stage Legs" so to speak.

Todd

Yeah that sounds about right. Of course, a makeshift solution is always a little cold beer. Works great some times but there's a very fine line of "loosening you up" and "can't feel the strings"

You should not feel discomfort. We all build this repertoire through our playing - whole life. You should try to learn as many licks (which you find cool) - then they will show up in your playing on their own and often with a personal touch. We all kinda "recycle" same/similar licks that are out there -over and over again. Its not a problem. The more licks you know the better chances are for you to improvise cool lines. Also by practicing improvisation, you will develop your own favorite licks too.

For demo purposes (shop,friends etc) I would suggest learning few cool GMC lessons based on your favorite style. Ideally it would be those which feature both rhythm and solo parts.

Why don't you spend some time practicing various licks, if you feel you don't have them enough? Just take some gmc lessons, or any kind of learning source, and learn what you like, develop, practice, practice, play with chords to polish it up.. and tomorrow do the same

Oh my, I have the same problem, Brandon. (my name is Brandon, too ) I'll play things perfectly by myself, but when I play in front of friends my performance isn't as good. And when I'm in guitar shops I feel so self-conscience. I feel okay when there are others in there jamming, but when they leave and I'm jamming alone I'm like, "oh crap, i'm soloing...." I just play stuff I know pretty well, and I don't go for the stuff that's hard.

I once heard a guy say to the guitar shop clerk that he didn't like to play in front of people; he felt like people were judging him. The clerk said don't worry about, he used to feel the same way; just jam. So, my advice is just get used to playing the easy stuff in front of people, and don't go for the stuff that you know you will mess up on for sure. This way you will have less pressure on you because you know the piece so well. And when the inevitable time comes that you mess up, don't let people know you did. (it always comes for me) Just keep jamming. I'm fond of letting people know what I messed up on after they complimented me. They didn't even know I messed up most of the time, so I try to stop that.

(I even have webcam stage fright when I'm broadcasting on ustream.tv)

It comes with time definitely, the fear goes away. After a while you get used to play for people that you need someone to listen to you

Very good points!

Yeah key is playing for other people and getting used to. We all start with family and close friends and then move to larger crowd. Everyone has this problem at start but as sooner you get over the initial fear everything will be much clearer. Later on you get addicted to being in spot light so that you look for audience anywhere

bogdan youre apsolutely wright

Just be yourself!

Best way is to somehow divide them into "major licks", "minor licks" and "dominanat licks".
So for each chord you'll have few good licks. I am strongly recommending to learn patterns that you can play in endless loop, patterns 10-20 noted long that you just loop. Petrucci does that. Also you can develop pattern which goes through scale, let's call them non-repetitive licks.
Like "1 2 3 2 3 4 3 4 5 4 5 6 5 6 7 6 7 8 7 8 9 8 9 10...." This is how I think.