Quick and Easy Acoustic Blues Lick in A


Published on 05 February 2016
Have you spent hours learning a long lick just to find out that you couldn't use it in your own playing? Here's a lesson with a short and very usable acoustic blues lick in A that I call the Train Whistle Lick. You may know that I have a lesson on the Train Whistle Lick in E as part of my MICRO LICKS Series. You can learn this lick in A from the video, no problem, but the real lesson here is HOW to move a lick from one key to another. So, it's a good idea to check out the lesson in E before working with this lick. By the way, if you haven't checked out my popular Train Whistle Lick in E, here's the link: http://youtu.be/raPFak74fEg A MICRO LICK is a short three or four note blues lick that's easy to nail and very versatile. These little licks are the tasty little moves that are used by tons of great blues players and they're a super fast way to learn how to play great blues licks. Remember: 'simple' or 'easy' doesn't mean 'boring' and these MICRO LICKS are great examples of that. And its also worth noting that simple is only simple AFTER tons of practice. So, if you struggle getting these short licks down, don't worry and keep at it! You'll get there! Check out the videos to watch these blues licks in action. I break everything down for you, note-by-note and move-by-move. The cool thing about the moving licks around the neck is that you get to hear how your favorite lick sounds in a different key. Each key has it's own unique voice. You can hear that by listening to the difference in the E and A versions of the Train Whistle Lick. So, by the time this video is done, you should have a great idea of how to move a lick, note-by-note from one key to another. You can do this several ways, but I like to simply count. Count up the half steps in between the base key and the key you want to move to. Then simply move each note in the lick up by that same distance. (By the way, half steps are a musical term, but it just means one fret on the guitar). So for example, moving from the Key of E to A is a difference of 5 half steps. Start with E and move up the notes chromatically until you get to A. So here are the notes from E to A: F - F# - G - G# - A. That's 5 half steps. Next we will move each note in our E Train Whistle Lick up by the same number of half steps. Check out the video for the details, but I think you'll find its actually easier than it sounds. Be sure to stop by the website and get the TAB for this acoustic blues lick in A along with a couple of variations. http://www.bluesguitarinstitute.com/YT031 If you are new to fingerstyle blues and want to get started, check out this video: http://www.bluesguitarinstitute.com/intro-fingerstyle-acoustic-blues In this video, I'll show you how to get started playing some sweet finger picked acoustic blues. Play Hard! -John P.S. - If you liked this video, share it with your friends on Facebook: http://youtu.be/nPHXPzvhCaA