Welcome back. Hope you’re ready to get cracking with a new guitar lick. 🙂
In this guitar lesson we’re going to take a look at a guitar lick that is in the style of Steve Vai. It involves playing a G Major Seventh arpeggio using nothing but hammer-ons, pull-offs, and tapping.
I need to say hear that I don’t intend to go in-depth into the theory behind arpeggios in this lesson. But I will mention here that a major seventh arpeggio is constructed by taking the first, third , fifth and seventh notes from a major scale. So that would mean that the notes of a G Major Seventh arpeggio are…
OK, now that we’ve touched on what arpeggio the lick is based around, let’s take a look at the lick itself…
Rock Guitar Lick 12: Major Seventh Arpeggio Tapping Lick
This is yet another lick that I composed from the E Natural Minor scale. (Yes, I do know other scales, but I feel that it’s very helpful to initially learn licks that are the same key!). And as I mentioned earlier, it is played using hammer-ons, pull-offs and tapped notes. The interesting thing about the lick is that it uses two different types of tapping…
Right-Hand (RH) Tapping: T2
This is when you use your picking-hand to fret notes. In the lick above, there are three places where this technique is being used. All of the notes being played with right-hand tapping are indicated by the symbol T2. This symbols means that you should use the second finger of your picking-hand to tap the note. Of course, that’s my preference, and you’re free to use a different finger if you prefer!
Left-Hand (LH) Tapping: )
This type of tapping is done with your fretting-hand, and is also called “Hammer-Ons from Nowhere”. It involves articulating a string that isn’t currently sounding by hammering onto it. There are three places this technique is being used in the lick, and they are all indicated by the symbol ).
Have fun!
Return To: Rock Guitar Licks