Welcome back. Hope you’re chomping at the bit to learn a new guitar lick!
As you’ll recall, in all the previous lessons we focused on licks that used sixteenth notes. This is a type of rhythmic subdivision where you have to play four evenly-spaced notes per beat. It’s also an essential subdivision to master for rock guitar, so that’s why we’ve spent so much time on it.
What we’re going to do in this guitar lesson is look at a new guitar lick that makes use of a rhythmic subdivision called sextuplets. Some guitarists refer to sextuplets as sixteenth-note triplets, and they involve having to play six evenly-spaced notes per beat. So let’s get cracking and take a look at the lick…
Rock Guitar Lick 14: Sextuplet Madness
Like many of the earlier licks, this one uses the E Natural Minor scale. It is made up of two different six note mechanics. To help you see them, here’s the same lick with the mechanics highlighted…
I really recommend practising the highlighted chunks of the lick first. This will allow you to master each mechanic in isolation, and will make learning the rest of the guitar lick much easier. If you’re not sure how to play the mechanics, then be sure to watch the video that comes with this lesson. (I go into a lot more detail on the video).
I’m particularly fond of the first measure of the lick. It reminds me of something that the late Gary Moore might play, and it makes use of four diatonic seventh arpeggios of the E Natural Minor scale. In case you’re interested, the arpeggios being used in the first measure are these bad boys…
- G Major 7 (G B D F#)
- A Minor 7 (A C E G)
- B Minor 7 (B D F# A)
- C Major 7 (C E G B)
Have fun!
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