Lesson 7. More Guitar Riffs
In this lesson on guitar riffs I would like to share a few ideas to help you come up with your own licks. Although there is no magic formula, I hope these tips will be useful for you. Have an open attitude and experiment. Above all, let your ear be your guide.
Some of these ideas may seem a little crazy at first but you never know what you might come up with. This is where the open attitude and a willingness to try things can come in handy.
Tip number 1...limit yourself. What do I mean by this. Try to create little melodies and guitar riffs by only playing the notes of the pentatonic scale on the first 2 strings, or the 2nd and 3rd strings. You get the idea. By limiting yourself in this way you will be surprised at what you can discover. Try it and see.
Tip number 2...this is a variation on tip number 1. Play with wide string skips. In other words, play on only the 1st and 3rd strings or 2nd and 4th strings. These big skips and wide intervals can really produce some interesting sounds.
Tip number 3...combine portions of licks you already know.
Tip number 4...Pick 10 notes from the pentatonic scale and number them 0-9. You will have something like the following. I picked the order of these notes at random. You can do as many of these as you like.
Now get out your phone book. You read that right, get out your phone book. Open it to any page and start getting phone numbers. Here are a couple out of mine.
475-1389, 228-7860, 258-3685, 863-0652
This should give you endless ways to create guitar riffs. Try combining 2 or 3 phone number to create longer licks. Some of these will be totally ridiculous but I guarantee you will find some cool note combinations to use in your own solos.
Tip number 5...this one is similar to the last one. Pick 6 notes at random out of the pentatonic scale. Number them 1-6. Now get some dice and roll them. Use the numbers that come up to create even more guitar riffs.
Tip number 6...this one has nothing to do initially with making up your own solos, but ultimately it will. Commit to learning a lick a day by one of your favorite guitarists. Keep adding to your vocabulary. The more you have to draw from, the better you will be able to play.
I hope you like these ideas. I know they seem a little crazy but if
you give them a chance you will make some interesting discoveries.
