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#1
03-18-2011, 02:41 AM
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what's the deal with "licks"
Ever since I was little I never cared much for "licks". I never did get a complete idea of what they are I just knew they were short, and usually melodic, phrases. I'd always see advertisement on guitar magazines saying stuff like "lick of the day" and stuff like that and I never understood the allure of learning something so short and incomplete.
Only lately have I caught on with the idea that licks are so short and incomplete that by themselves they are not tied to any piece of work and therefore can be placed within one's own guitar solos and whatnot. AM I GETTING THE PICTURE RIGHT? IS THAT HOW LICKS WORK? If this is true than can I move the patterns (licks) up and down the neck depending on what key I am soloing over? What about open strings then? Are some licks only for specific keys... how do you guys use "licks"... do you memorize them like a bag of tricks and move them around different keys or just remember what key certain licks are in? Am I getting the right picture here? 
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#2
03-18-2011, 06:46 AM
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A "lick" is a short, finger position pattern-based figure. There are all kinds of things you can do with them. You can simply string a bunch together to create a solo. The most famous example of that is probably the extended solo from Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Freebird." That is probably 98% composed of stringing together a list of licks. It was terribly exciting and effective in its time.
There is also the possibility to use them within a melody as connective material. "Licks" ad connective tissue, embellishment, articulation, and feeling when added to melody. After you accumulate a large enough library of them they can become the entrance through which you create a new solo. It seems to me that much of guitar-based popular music through the last forty years has been created by finding a lick a then following it to see where it takes you. Answering one of your questions, licks usually start in a particular key, or at least are based on a major or minor feel. One interesting factoid about licks is that they can often be moved into another place and used in another key, mode, or feeling (major/minor). Oner of the ways you can best use them is to pull them out of their original context and, for example, find a way to use a major key lick in a minor key, either by placement or modification. Of course, it is also important to work out entrance and exit strategies for employing any lick you learn in order to make it fit some context(s). I just listened to one of my little recordings ("Waiting") and tried to discern in the melody some line between melody and "lick." At this stage, I've not sure I can. The song is HERE. Tell me what you think. Bob
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"It is said, 'Go not to the elves for counsel for they will say both no and yes.' " Frodo Baggins to Gildor Inglorion, The Fellowship of the Ring THE MUSICIAN'S ROOM (my website)
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#3
03-18-2011, 06:51 AM
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I think of licks as being almost like a linguistic device. if music is like language, then the licks are recognizable phrases that make our listening selves go "oh yeah." it can be a cool thing, a very cool thing, ... but it can also easily be like an overused, tiresome cliche. it's all in how you do it. all music is full of "licks." without exception.
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Martin Lane / Grand Rapids, Michigan
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#4
03-18-2011, 08:39 AM
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Similar terms are "riff" or "hook" (applied to the instrumental part rather than the lyrics).
Sometimes, the song can be built off this figure, that more or less repeats throughout. Some are indeed cliches, and often expected. Like the famous "Flatt run" in bluegrass. If you can't throw one of those in now and then, you aren't doing it right....
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#5
03-18-2011, 09:55 AM
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In rock and blues--blues most of all--I think of learning licks and turnarounds (which are a sort of specialized lick) as like learning a foreign language in phrases. At any point in learning traveler's French, say, you can learn a new phrase, "ou se trouve le (la?) gare" or whatever, and the more phrases you know, the more you'll be able to get around in France, the more things you'll be able to do/obtain.
So in learning blues, learning many little licks, turnarounds and embellishments makes you a more capable traveler in the land of the blues. You can get by with a 12-bar blues shuffle pattern and sing over that and be said to be playing the blues, but it's much funner for artist and audience when you can toss in licks when you aren't singing. You end up with favorite phrases and the combination of those you prefer and how/when you apply them becomes your own style. The licks become almost like a second vocalist responding to your laments with its own.
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#6
03-18-2011, 10:09 AM
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Don't overthink "licks"--they're just little preplanned melodic statements, often pattern based. Seems to me most people use the word "lick" for lead playing and "riff" for rhythm...
Some licks will fit over different chords, some over only one. Some licks are moveable, some use open strings and may not or may be difficult to move depending on the span between the notes...there's no science here. You can string a bunch of "licks" together to make a solo, or combine licks and improv, or go full on improv (though I'd argue few people can really play fully improvised music, there's always a little precedent) You might cop a few licks from players you like, or you might develop your own. Nothing to get hung up on, just more "music slang"--at least this one other instruments understand as well...
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#7
03-18-2011, 02:51 PM
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"Licks" allow a beginner to sound like a pro for the 2.4 seconds it takes for them to pull one off.
I was never really a fan personally, I always found "licks" to be ways of guitar players saying "I can't make an improvised melody so I'm just going to play really fast!" Nothing wrong with them though, just don't build a repetoire of them, if you're learning to play solos, learn to play in the pocket and build melodic improvisations instead of just playing fast pentatonic licks and such, if you concentrate on melody instead of speed, your playing with grow as an instrumentalist
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#8
03-18-2011, 04:00 PM
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Licks are a short sequence of notes used in passing from one part of a tune to another, one chord to another perhaps. They are not essential to the tune but can spice things up.
For example one of mine: 5-7-5------------ -------6-7-------- ------------5------ --------------7-5- ------------------- ------------------- Riffs (sometimes similar to hooks) are often more of the essence of the song and may be repeated a number of times. They can short (typical of hooks) or be a longer sequence of notes. For example what could be called individually riffs when doubled up become more a basic part of the song: ----------------------------7----7-----0 --------0-----5-----7-8-9—9------9- ------------6--------------------------- 4-5-6---6----------------------------- ---------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------- Anyway that is how I see it although people mean different things even though using the same words and in different musical contexts there can be a lot of grey areas and overlap in practice.
__________________
Derek Coombs Youtube -> Website -> Music -> Tabs Guitars by Mark Blanchard, Albert&Mueller, Paul Woolson, Collings, Composite Acoustics, and Derek Coombs "Reality is that which when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away." Woods hands pick by eye and ear
Made to one with pride and love To be that we hold so dear A voice from heavens above
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#11
03-19-2011, 08:18 PM
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they make for nice transitions from one chord to the next and some are not as easy as some may make them out to be. tony rice uses them all the time and he doesn't need to try to impress anyone.
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#12
03-20-2011, 09:00 PM
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Quote:
Just my thoughts. Mah' Crub
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