The Snake
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Backing Track:
This is a lick I named “The Snake” because it has an aggressive yet sneaky sound to it that gets the listener’s attention. It’s a great lick to know when you’re jamming with your friends to really turn some heads. Plus, it can be applied to different styles and situations.
But I’m not just going to limit learning the lick to a “put your finger here then put your finger there” type of lesson. I’m going to show you the music theory behind the lick too so that you’ll know why it sounds great. This will broaden your knowledge in a way that just learning a lick “finger-by-finger” couldn’t. You’ll find it will improve your musicianship in general.
Then I’ll show you how to play it along with a jam track too so you’ll be prepared to use it in real jam situations outside of just practicing it.
Tabs:
First, get the basic note sequence down. Play all notes the same length.
Next, practice staying on certain notes longer than others to give it more of a dramatic feel. In these examples hold the notes that are quarter notes in the traditional music notation. For those of you who can read traditional notation I have put more space between the held notes in the tabs.
Now lets try repeating certain parts of the lick to make it sound less like a sequence of just a few notes. The repeated sequences are shown in separate bar lines here so you can recognize them more easily.
Lastly, we combine the concepts of repeating and holding notes to make it sound really interesting.
Remember these are just a few of the dozens of possibilities that you could come up with using this sequence of notes I call “The Snake”!
April 25, 2015 @ 4:31 pm
It would have been nice to know what key we were in
April 25, 2015 @ 4:43 pm
Hey Gary,
Thanks for the comment and good point! Sorry for not stating that in the video. This lick is in the key of E minor so use the minor pentatonic scale at the 12th fret as your home base.
Hope that helps!
Mike D
April 19, 2015 @ 5:05 pm
love technology.always wanted to play lead but it seemed to complicated.
now I can learn,its not that hard. thank you for helping for the love of music.
A.J…………..
April 19, 2015 @ 5:10 pm
You got it AJ! Thanks for your comment
Mike D
January 22, 2015 @ 2:16 am
I can see how learning the basic lick
so basically every great guitar player out there knows/ learns all the same licks.. then they take those licks, build off of them and learn to play them with expression…. making them their own . But the basic licks are the same for everybody .. it’s the same basic school of learning for every guitar player… ..Is that pretty much it?
January 22, 2015 @ 2:28 am
Hi Anna,
Thanks for your question and comment. You are pretty much correct… There are many licks which are foundations for more complex licks and phrases. You want to master the basic licks as well as the techniques used to play those licks so that you can move into playing more complex leads. As you go through the process, you begin to develop your own way of playing and expressing these ideas which is where you add your own originality to them.
Hope that helps. Keep playing and please keep in touch!
Mike D
June 5, 2014 @ 12:59 am
This is a nice easy lick which is explained very well. It can be changed to almost anything as it is taken from the blues scale. Faster, slower, longer… blues, rock, latin, jazz.. it can be arranged to fit anywhere. Very versatile. I like to experiment with licks and see where they will fit in different type songs, speeds, etc. It’s very good!
June 5, 2014 @ 2:07 pm
Thanks for the comment Mark! and glad you like the lick. There’s plenty more! Be sure to dig into the Blog where you will find lot’s go Quick Lick’s too.
Mike D
May 9, 2014 @ 1:46 pm
What a great lesson! Very well explained and full of details. It´s not very frequent to have a video lesson with standard notation and TAB´s at the time. I´m enjoying it.
May 9, 2014 @ 2:10 pm
Thanks Raul! Glad your enjoying it. There’s plenty more coming at ya so keep practicing and playing
Mike D
April 6, 2014 @ 6:59 pm
Everything is great can’t wait to learn how to play. I am a novice at heart. Thanks
February 6, 2014 @ 11:02 am
Very good lesson,Thanx
February 6, 2014 @ 4:15 pm
Thanks Greg! Glad you enjoyed it. Plenty more on this site so dig in!
Mike D
December 12, 2013 @ 2:36 pm
Hello, my name is Leslie and from the old school and new to your site. Don’t laugh but I don’t understand TABS???? please break it down. How do you play them? Thanx.
December 12, 2013 @ 2:48 pm
Hey Leslie,
Thanks for the question and welcome to Super Guitar Licks! I’m happy to help you understand Tabs, it’s actually much easier than reading real sheet music so I’m sure once you get the hang of it, it will all make sense. I created a video a while ago for another guitar site I created called RockGuitarPower.com that describes them in-depth. This video should explain all (click on the link to check out the video): http://youtu.be/J-SeLg_mKnU
Check it out and please let me know if there are still things that you would like explained to understand them better
Mike Deiure
November 9, 2013 @ 2:23 am
very interesting for me who really want to learn the good stuff 1000 thks
November 9, 2013 @ 2:25 am
You got it Michel! Plenty of “good stuff” to be learned here. Let us know if you have any questions… We’re here to help.
September 23, 2013 @ 1:54 pm
can’t wait to try this lick, you make it look really simple.
September 23, 2013 @ 2:03 pm
Great Paul! Let us know if you have any questions once you get cranking on it
September 12, 2013 @ 9:56 am
everything is working great. Lovin the way this guy breaks it all down!!!!
Thanks,
FC
September 12, 2013 @ 12:19 pm
Great to hear! Dig in and have fun
September 3, 2013 @ 5:34 pm
ok…having something as same problem as Bill, except on mine, the video will start for 10 seconds, then stops with out anything else happening…
I’m using a DELL PC, with Windows XP PROFESSIONAL, and Google Chrome…
was using Mozilla Firefox, but didn’t have anything but trouble out of Firefox, so changed to Chrome a few days ago…