In this guitar lesson we’re going to finish off this four part series on lydian mode licks. To do this, we’re going to take a look at another guitar lick that uses tapping.
So grab you guitar now, so that we can get started with the lick…
Rock Guitar Lick 22: Lydian Tapping Lick #2
To keep things consistent with the other lessons, this lick is composed from the A Lydian mode. If you look closely at the TAB, you’ll be able to see that it uses a nine note melodic pattern that repeats three times…
As well as the notes tapped with the picking-hand, this lick also uses some left-hand tapping. (This is when your fretting-hand has to hammer-on to a new string that isn’t currently being played). I’ve shown this technique in the TAB using the ) symbol.
In my opinion, the first three left-hand taps are the trickiest, because you need to hammer-on to a new string using the first finger of your fretting-hand. Doing this cleanly is fairly challenging. This is because, in order to get a clear note with the left-hand tap, the first finger has to lose contact with the strings for a split second. This means that, during the time when it’s not in contact with the strings, it can no longer act as a muting device.
Like all the previous lydian guitar licks, this one make extensive use of sixteenth note timing. This means that each repetition of the nine note melodic pattern will start in a different place rhythmically. If you check out the TAB for the lick again, you might notice that…
- The first repetition of the melodic pattern starts on the first sixteenth note of the beat.
- The second repetition of the melodic pattern starts on the second sixteenth note of the beat.
- The third repetition of the melodic patterns starts on the third sixteenth note of the beat.
I must admit that I’m a huge fan of introducing this sort of rhythmic challenge to the guitar licks that I compose. Doing this allows me to not only improve my technique, but also work on my rhythmic ability. It’s the proverbial killing two birds with one stone approach to guitar practice! 🙂
That’s all for this guitar lesson. I hope you’ve enjoyed learning the lydian guitar licks in this short series of lessons. Of course, learning the four licks should only be the beginning of your journey. Once you can play them all fluently, then it would be a great idea to compose some of your own licks.
Have fun!
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