Developing a musical vocabulary

General Music Discussion
#1

Hi all,

I have recently joined this forum having been a member for the last couple of months after a three year break from guitar.

Now that I have been attempting to rebuild my technique and reacquire the knowledge I had before I gave up, I have been thinking about the whole notion of learning licks/phrases.

My question is, where does one start with learning phrases that can be used? I know that it is easy to learn a whole tonne of licks, but I can’t help thinking about the classical idea of theme and variation where an idea is worked and worked then mutated into different forms, all based on the one idea.

Is this an approach to learning vocabulary that anyone out there has tried? I guess I’m asking this question as I don’t want to waste valuable time busting a gut getting overwhelmed with licks that have no musical context and overly complicating my thinking, if that makes sense?

Any thoughts from you folks would be greatly appreciated!

Matt

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#2

I think the best way to do this is to find some licks in the music that you enjoy. I think a lot of guitar players, including me, tend to think “Ok now I’m building technique, now I need to build my vocabulary. Here are 100 licks, I’m going to learn them all and then I’ll be musical.” Take the time to learn a few songs/solos that you love and you’ll see those licks start to come out in your own playing. You really are what you eat when it comes to muscle memory for playing the guitar.

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#3

Yes fair point. I’ve fallen into that trap before; learning a bunch of licks and then thinking about what I’m then going to do with them in addition to practising endless and boring amounts of scales and arpeggios for hours and hours. Such pointless practise I think retrospectively.

Matt

#4

See this topic for some good related discussion!

#5

You’re right that licks without context are pointless. I don’t know what kind of music you’re into, but regardless I’d take a multi-pronged approach toward building your vocabulary.

  1. Pick a few licks that you really like, and take a deep dive into them. Figure out why they sound good, what the progression is, what notes sound good with what chords…like ok this C works in the context of A major because it’s played over the IV chord and not the I chord.

  2. Experiment with different sounds a lot. For example, just put a single low E on a looper and play a simple major key lick. Anything really. Then play the same thing but in Mixolydian rather than major and key in on how the b7 changes the flavor of the tune. Do the same thing with minor and Dorian. Before long you’re be able to give the licks you know a mixolydian or dorian flavor just by changing a few notes.

  3. Variations on a theme is a great idea. A friend and I were jamming on Wish You Were Here by Pink Floyd and it kind of devolved into random pentatonic noodling. I said hold up what we need to do is start with something that resembles the vocal melody and build off of that. Building off of that gave us good sounding and meaningful phrasing as opposed to random noodling. Being able to build variations on licks you already know, in a way that fits the tune, is a great way to build your vocab.

  4. Thinking about the fretboard in terms of patterns is necessary and important, but make sure you also understand notes and intervals. When I’m choosing a note to land on, I’m thinking of the interval relative to the underlying chord. When I want to get from one part of the fretboard to another quickly, I think about what pattern will get me there.

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#6

For me to answer you in a way that would be helpful to you, i need to know a little about you.

  1. Please list a few guitarists whose style you’d like to emulate or whom you at least consider to be influences.

  2. How many years have you been playing and at what level are you? You can answer at which level you are by describing what you’re currently able to play. An example could be: “I can play Van Halen’s “Ice Cream Man” solo note for note but can’t quite match the speed of the fastest licks.” or “I can play “Mr. Crowley” by Ozzy but in the first solo Randy Rhoads plays in order to match the speed I have to use some hammer-ons and pull offs in places where he’s picking the notes.”

  3. What’s your ultimate goal? Are you developing musical vocabulary to play in your own progressive metal band and make a living at it, are you doing it so you can jam on cover songs by Ratt, Whitesnake and Guns 'n Roses with your friends just for the fun of it, are you planning on joining a jazz fusion band of half original and half cover songs to play in nightclubs a couple times a month, etc…

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#7

Well? Any ideas yet? There are plenty of people here who enjoy helping new people out so don’t be hesitant to answer the questions :slight_smile:

#8

Hey Matt,

Without getting too in-depth, I’d like to offer a suggestion: practice sequences.

Sequencing is the foundation of many lead guitar “licks” or “phrases,” and once you have command over a couple of basic sequencing ideas (ex. sequences of 3s or 4s) you can then apply those sequences to different pieces of musical information, like scales or arpeggios.

As an example, you can apply a sequence of 4s to the notes of a pentatonic scale, or to a diatonic scale. You can also apply that same idea of a sequence of 4s to any kind of arpeggio. By experimenting with this you will come up with tons of different sounds that you might use in different contexts, but the basic idea of a sequence of 4s is the same.

By experimenting like this, you’ll uncover a lot of vocabulary, and come up with just as much of your own.

I agree with you in that I don’t think complicating things by memorizing a million different licks is the way to go. I think it would be much more beneficial to be able hear a lick in a solo, and recognize that “he’s playing a sequence of 3s through the pentatonic scale,” because that’s a sequence that you, yourself, have worked on.

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#9

I just posted this Martin Miller video where he talks about phrasing and I thought it to be up your alley. Hope this helps!

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