How to Turn a Basic Guitar Practice Exercise into a FACE MELTING SHRED LICK

Are you tired of practice licks sounding dull and non-musical?  Are you unsure of where to go after learning a practice exercise?  Today I am going to show you a way to take a basic guitar drill and turn it into an impressive sounding shred lick.  To properly equip ourselves for this feat in sonic warfare, we use an extra note from the minor pentatonic scale, bends, and the power of the wah pedal. Grab your axe now and shred along with me!  \m/

For this exercise, we use a favorite scale commonly used by rock and metal guitarists: the E minor pentatonic scale.  The basic lick we start with uses 16th notes and bounces back and forth between the 5th (B) and 7th (D) scale degrees.  All we are doing here is repeating the following pattern:

• Two 16th notes on the 12th fret of the B string
• One 16th note on the 15th fret of the B string
• One 16th note on the 12th fret of the B string

I must admit, this lick by itself is not overly exciting.  In fact, I refer to it as being very "vanilla" as it's a practice exercise that sounds like a practice exercise--not something particularly musical.  But fret not!  We are about to upgrade this vanilla ice cream to some heaping scoops of rocky road. 

To add to this lick and make it a bit more musical, we are going to start the lick on the 4th scale degree (A).  All we have to do is replace the first note by using our middle finger to play the 14th fret of the G string.  The lick will now look like this:
 

• One 16th note on the 14h fret of the G string 
• One 16th note on the 12th fret of the B string
• One 16th note on the 15th fret of the B string
• One 16th note on the 12th fret of the B string

We have only made one small change, but we have already elevated this lick to something more musical.  To turn this lick into a delicious hot fudge sundae, we are going to add a full step bend to the A note we played on the 14th fret of the G string.  The whole step bend will bring this A note up to a B note.  Even though this note ends up being the same note as what is played right after on the 12 fret of the B string, there is a slight tonal difference.  The tonal difference exists because 1) the notes are on different strings of different gauges on different frets, and 2) one B note is followed by a bend and the other is not.  It’s like a singer belting out the same note twice in a row but using different words for each note.  This is the reason why the guitar is so awesome.  It is so expressive as it stands right next to the human voice–something that we all connect with.

Here is our musical, face melting, hot fudge sundae shred lick:

• One 16th note on the 14h fret of the G string played with a full step bend
• One 16th note on the 12th fret of the B string
• One 16th note on the 15th fret of the B string
• One 16th note on the 12th fret of the B string

Of note, you could also start with a half step bend up to A# and get a really bluesy tone. While it’s important to be able to nail precise bends, we are going for something pretty chaotic sounding.  This time don’t fret too much about being super precise with your bends.  

Right now, we’ve got ourselves a really delicious dessert.  But if you want to go all out, grab your wah pedal (if you have one) so we can put the cherry on top of our masterpiece.  You can swell the wah effect by pushing down slowly with your foot as you drill this lick into oblivion.

So, we have effectively transformed a dull sounding lick into something virtually unrecognizable, even though the foundation we started with has virtually remained the same.  By using other weapons in our arsenal, such as bends and the power of the wah pedal, we have successfully equipped ourselves for sonic warfare. The result is something really musical and impressive sounding.