No matter what genre you’re into, this month’s set of licks will definitely get you grooving. And, once again, is here to deliver the goods, this time with help from the outstanding Arianna Powell. We’re looking at a performance piece inspired by jazz-fusioneer John Scofield.
If you want to hear more in this style, we recommend checking out 1998’s album. There’s nothing too difficult here in our lesson, but getting that elusive ‘feel’ just right is key. The balance of a laid back feel while still sounding tight can be hard to perfect.
Be sure to watch the companion video to hear each lick broken down and demoed. In terms of techniques, there’s plenty to sink your teeth into, and we’ll cover hammer-ons, pull-offs, palm-muting, doublestops and more. The riffs and licks all sit nicely within the B minor pentatonic scale and the backing is a fairly simple three-chord loop (Bm, Gmaj7, F#m).
So, if you want to accompany, rather than take the lead, you could either use standard barre chords or try something a little more funky, such as some sparser three- or four-note partial chords. Let’s focus on the picking hand here. We want this phrase to bounce – and palm-muting is a great way to make each note pop.
It’s also important to know when to use upstrokes and downstrokes. For the most attitude, use downstrokes whenever possible, but if there are two or more notes in quick succession, use alternate picking. This lick follows the classic ‘call and response’ .