Hot Licks Made Simple!- Learn 9 Bluegrass Flatpicking Licks In G, C and D

Hey there, it's Aaron Jaxon coming to you today, and what I've got for you are 9 fairly simple bluegrass flatpicking licks. We're gonna do 3 out of G, 3 out of C, and 3 out of D. Now the purpose of these is not to play these super, super fast. I know a lot of people get hung up and kind of bogged down with the speed of this style, which is fine, but the purpose of these is number 1, we want to build that bluegrass lead vocabulary, if you will, and we'll do that in G, C, and D. But also I'm going to show you how to practice these licks at as slow of a tempo as you need to to get them solid. To get them clean and to get them fluid sounding. And by doing all of that together, we're gonna be working on our vocabulary, our technique, and our timing. So it's like a, it's like a flatpicking multivitamin, if you will. You can get the tabs for this lesson down in the video description and in the top pinned comment. And also in the email with the tabs, I've got links to backing tracks for each of these kind of licks that we're gonna play that you can open up in the Strum Machine app and you can practice these at any tempo that you want to. So let's jump in here and let's learn 3 of these fairly simple licks out of G, but let's hear them played with a backing track. So as you can see, these all have a, you know, kind of a Tony Rice flavor to it, which is cool. So for this first one, here's what we're going to do.

We'll do—

all right, classic Tony Rice. And I do have the pick strokes written out on the tabs for you, and I've talked about this on this channel, but remember, there's a method to the madness as far as where the pick strokes fall. We want our pick strokes falling on essentially beat 1 and and, and the upstrokes falling on e and uh. These ideas are all played as 16th notes. So again, I'm not going to get too deep into that, um, in, in this lesson But remember, the pick strokes are really important. Okay, so I'll play that lick again and I'll try to call out the pick strokes as I'm playing it. So we'll do down, up, down, up, down, up, down, up, pull-off, up, slide, up, down, pull-off, down, up, down, up, pull-off, up, down, up, down, up, down, pull-off, down. Okay, I'm not gonna do that for all of these licks. That takes a lot of concentration. Um, but again, I've got those written out on the tabs. That's very important because that gives us kind of your optimal technique for really making these licks sound nice and clean and smooth, which is the purpose of learning these. So anyway, that's that first one there. So let's get the second lick here. All right, and this second, it's a very familiar sounding kind of Tony Rice passage.

It'll go like this. One more time. Okay.

And then let's do one more at a G here. And with this one, it'll go like this.

We'll do—

we'll do that one again. All right, so pick strokes on this one. I'll try to call them out again. Down, up, down, up, down, pull-off, down, up, slide, up, down, up, down, hammer, down, up, down, pull-off, down, up, down, up.

Down, up, down, pull-off, down.

Okay, so there's 3 licks in G. And again, the purpose of these is not to play these super fast. We want to start building our bluegrass lead vocabulary, but also we want to practice our technique and That brings me to this part, our timing. So I've got something queued up for you, two different ways to practice your timing here. Number one is with the Strum Machine, and remember, you've got links for these backing tracks in the email with the tabs for this lesson for you. So we're gonna practice this along with the Strum Machine, and I've also got a train beat drum track queued up here, and these are both great ways to practice your timing with this stuff. So let me, I'm gonna go ahead and play all three of those licks with the Strum Machine here. I'm not gonna play this fast. This is at 50 beats a minute. Okay, so that's a great way to practice this along with the Strum Machine. And again, I've got links for you down in the email with the tabs here. You can open that up in the Strum Machine, practice those licks at any tempo that you want. But now let me play that along with a train beat drum track. There we go. So again, I'm not playing those fast. Both, both of those We're at 50 beats a minute, but that's two different tools that are fantastic for practicing your timing when you're learning these licks, these phrases, and these passages. That is so, so, so important when you're learning this stuff. And I know this because I neglected it for years, but also I'll jump on lessons with students and they're learning, you know, hot licks, or they're learning Tony Rice or Billy Strings solos, but then I'll hear them play this stuff and it's like, you know, It's like they're, they're trying to play it, you know, really fast, which is great, but they've kind of neglected some of this more foundational stuff. But that's what— that's why I wanted to make this lesson, and that's why I wanted to give you these licks and also these tools to again practice your timing and your technique with. Okay, so that was 3 licks out of G. Let's do 3 out of C. And before I teach them to you, let's hear how those sound with the backing track. So 3, you know, pretty cool sounding licks out of C here. Again, they've got a little bit of a Tony Rice flavor, a little bit of a Doc Watson flavor as well, but this first one will go like this. This will do. Okay, do that one again. Okay, so let's do another one here. And what we're gonna do on this next one is the beginning of this lick is similar, but then we're gonna throw in a little bit of like minor pentatonic kind of bluesy sounding stuff and then resolve back to the major. So for this second one All right, we'll do that again. All right, and then we've got one more here in C that I want to show you, and that'll go like this.

All right, we'll try that one again.

Okay, and again, reference the tabs to, um, you know, I've got all the pick strokes written out there for you. Um, but anyway, really cool phrases, really cool licks, and see Let me go ahead and play each one of those along with this train beat backing track. Again, not fast. We're doing it nice and slow at 50 beats a minute. We're making sure that our technique is solid and that this lick sounds nice and smooth and clean and in time and fluid and all of that other good stuff. So here we go. 1, 2, 3. Okay, so 3 really cool bluegrass licks out of C. Now let's go to D. We're gonna do 3 out of D, but before I teach them to you, let's hear how those sound with the backing track. All right, so let's do this first one out of D here, and it's going to go like this.

I'll do that again.

All right, so let's go to our second lick out of D, and it's gonna go like this. All right, one more time, second lick out of D. All right, and then our third lick out of D. Let me play that again here for you. Okay, so like I did with the other ones, let me practice this along with the train beat backing track. Again, not fast at all. This is at 50 beats a minute. 1, 2, 1, 2, 3. So kind of a little bonus thing here at the end. What I want to do is kind of combine some of these here, so we're gonna take a lick one of our G licks, one of our C licks, one of our D licks, and another one of our G licks, and kind of combine all of this for a cool-sounding bluegrass solo through G, C, and D. So what we'll do is we'll start off with the first lick we did in G, and we'll do— and then we're gonna take the second lick we did in C And then let's take the third lick we did out of D, and then the third lick out of G. All right, so now let me play all of those together with our train beat here at 50 beats a minute.

1, 2, 1, 2, 3.

to D, back to G. All right, so let's hear that last little lead idea a little more up to tempo with our back track. Okay, so again, I want to thank you so much for hanging out today. Remember, you can get the tabs in the video description and in the top pinned comment. In that email that I'll send you, I've also got links to the Strum Machine backing track for each one of these licks. And, um, so again, I wanted to give you a whole bunch of really great, very bluegrassy, kind of Tony Rice-flavored bluegrass licks and bluegrass phrases. But I want to show you how to practice your technique, and I've talked a little bit about the alternate picking on this, but I've got that written out on the tabs for you. And give you some tools and some ideas to practice your timing with, because that is so, so, so important when you're working on this stuff. I see a lot of students neglect that in favor of speed. You don't want that. You want to learn, you want to lay this foundation first, and once you've got that, it's a whole lot easier to build on that from there. So again, thank you so much for hanging out, and I will see you next time.